Rally organiser Iain Campbell is known throughout the service parks by the nickname of ‘scunner’. It is a colloquial Scottish word meaning someone who is irritated or grumpy.
While that moniker might have been applied to a school-aged Campbell by his peers, his demeanour in the modern day is a far cry from that. For him, the excitement and enthusiasm for working at the heart of a sport he loves is evident.
From an early career enjoying spectating on the stages and even taking to the wheel himself, Campbell knew that his future lay working within rallying.
Dovetailing his early career as a car salesman, he worked his way up from a volunteer through all the roles and responsibilities that the sport has to offer that lead him to become the clerk of the course on Rally GB – a position he held up until the event disappeared from these shores in 2019 – and he was also an FIA steward.
He has fitted in plenty between, including taking the reins of the British Rally Championship in 2016 and introducing a number of prize drive incentives to underpin its (then) success.
He is now at the helm of the increasingly popular European Rally Championship, a post he assumed at the start of 2022. He is gradually creating the type of championship he has a vision for, and its potential visit to the UK – mooted for 2024 in Wales – will only turn more British eyes onto the burgeoning contest.
He kindly took time out of his preparations for last weekend’s final round of the 2023 ERC in Hungary to tackle the Motorsport News questions, and we are grateful.
Question: Where did the passion for rallying come from for you?
James Hilton
Via email
Iain Campbell: “My dad worked in a bank on the Isle of Mull, so I think when I was about six months old I was spectating on the Mull Rally in 1971.
“My old man and his mate would go to watch the Scottish Rally every year and eventually I would go along with them – which I thought was fantastic because I would get three days off school. That is how it all began for me. It has grown quite a way from there.”
MN: When you went to your early rallies, were you already aware that rallying was something you wanted to be involved with full-time or was it just a hobby?
“Part of the appeal or rallying to me is not only the speed, but it is the way it attacks all the senses. You have got the smell, you get the sound, you get the sights and also it takes you to parts of the world and parts of the country that you would never otherwise go to. Being
