How the BRC continues to build momentum after spell in the doldrums

The British Rally Championship has endured a whole range of fortunes in recent times. 

After struggling to gain traction in the immediate post-COVID period, in two short years Britain’s premier rally championship has since been rebuilt to a position of strength and the 2025 line-up is packed with quality.

Its standing changed in 2024 when mainstream TV returned and a gaggle of serious players signed up. Former European champion Chris Ingram took the title after a four-way fight.

Now, 2025 promises to be just as good with established names and rising stars lining up in Rally2 cars, the machinery also used in the second tier of world rallying. Importantly, four manufacturers are represented in the Rally2 ranks.

Heading the BRC field away from Beverley on Sunday morning for the season-opening East Riding Stages Rally will be Irishman Keith Cronin, who is chasing a record-equalling fifth BRC title.

Cronin would love to add another title to level the tally of Jimmy McRae in the 1980s. Significantly, Cronin has swapped cars and has traded his Ford Fiesta Rally2 for a Citroen C3 Rally2 and, while the Citroen is a well proven package on asphalt, its pace on gravel will be watched with great interest. The six-round BRC features three asphalt and three gravel events, starting with the closed roads of East Yorkshire.

Cronin had planned to run the Citroen on the Galway Rally in early February, but that event was cancelled due to Storm Eowyn.

“I’m not setting any target,” said Cronin. “But it will be important to get a good result this weekend if we’re to have a chance of landing the British title. I had a dreadful start to the BRC last year and we never recovered from it.”

Right behind Cronin will be William Creighton, who has also swapped cars after running Ingram very close last year with an M-Sport Fiesta. Creighton has joined the MEM Castrol team to take over the Toyota Yaris Rally2 vacated by Ingram and joins Meirion Evans in the family-run squad.

Creighton said: “The first event of the season is always crucial and, with this rally being such a short and intense event, there’s no margin for error. It’s a new rally to me, but it’s very likely to be a tricky one and typically very slippery.”

Just one Hyundai takes on the Fords, Toyotas and Citroens, but it is a good one in the hands of James Williams, who has the pace on both asphalt and gravel to be a serious title contender. Meanwhile, adding to the strength of the growing Citroen challenge will be James Ford and national champion Callum Black steps up with his Fiesta.

The presence of reigning Junior world champion Romet Jurgenson adds another dynamic and he runs with the M-Sport Fiesta squad in search of seat time alongside a partial WRC2 programme. The Estonian is new to everything about UK rallying but clearly has plenty of ability. Meanwhile, Max McRae adds to the Citroen pack as the fourth member of the McRae dynasty to bid for the BRC crown.

Overall, it is a fine line-up for the 2025 BRC as the championship returns to good health.