Rallying-Evans' title is a boost for Britain but the sport still has a long road ahead

LONDON, Oct 5 - Elfyn Evans' dramatic title win, ahead of Britain's return to the World Rally Championship next year, is perfectly timed to boost the local popularity of a sport whose profile has faded since the glory years of late greats Colin McRae and Richard Burns.

David Richards, the Prodrive boss whose Subaru team took McRae and Burns to world titles in 1995 and 2001 and who won the world title as a co-driver with Finland's Ari Vatanen in 1981, told Reuters on Monday that the revival was on.

"We're back in the pound seats now. Rallying is back on the front foot again in the UK, I'd say," said Richards, who also chairs the national governing body Motorsport UK.

Evans' nail-biting title success on the gravel roads of Sardinia on Sunday was the first for a British driver in a quarter of a century and only the third since the title was first awarded in 1977. It was also his reward for years of heartache having been five-times overall runner-up in the previous six years.

'WE'RE IN A DIFFERENT WORLD NOW'

Britain will host a round of the championship in Scotland next season for the first time since the last running of Wales Rally GB in 2019.

"I'm quite convinced that Elfyn as a world champion, the world championship returning to Scotland, both those two factors will have a significant impact on the interest level in the UK and particularly down at a grassroots level," said Richards.

McRae, who died in a helicopter accident near his Scottish home in 2007, became a household name through the hugely successful Codemasters Colin McRae Rally video game in the late 1990s that sold millions of copies worldwide.

Since those days, rallying -- a sport with televisual challenges but a passionate following happy to stand in fog-shrouded forests or precariously perched on wet and windswept hillsides for hours on end to see cars flash past -- has gone through an era of French domination.

Sebastien Loeb and Sebastien Ogier won nine titles each between 2004-25 but the same period has seen Formula One's popularity soar to uncharted heights under the ownership of Liberty Media and with increased media exposure.

"Colin was of his era. We're in a different world now," said Richards.

"We're in a world that's dominated by social media. And in the motorsport environment, dominated by Formula One. We have to do an awful lot of work to get the World Rally Championship back onto the front pages again.

"But we, Motorsport UK, will be working closely with Elfyn, promoting the Scottish Rally as well. We'll do what we can to make sure that happens."

Richards said he would be meeting Eric Boullier, the French former F1 team boss, who heads rallying's new commercial rights holder, for talks in the coming weeks to see what assistance he can give and how Prodrive might get involved.

"I personally believe that the days of a lot of manufacturer participation are going to change," he said. "The manufacturers now are very focused on a different type of product. The size of car that we use in rallying is very much an electric product these days, and rallying doesn't yet cater for that although hopefully it will do in the future.

"So what we've got to do is democratise the whole sport to make sure that the cars that are competitive at the front of the field are affordable for the private competitor to compete at the top level.

"Back in my day...you could actually buy the very same car that Roger Clark was winning the RAC Rally with and you could run it yourself. Now, if we can get to that again, then I think we open up the sport to a far broader field of participation." REUTERS