Motorsport: Rally boss aims to topple F1 crowd

Watch out Michael Schumacher. The world’s top rally drivers might not match you for outright speed but they are hot on your trail in the race for TV coverage and the market in hi-tech boys toys in the ultra-competitive world of motor sport.

The World Rally Championship is currently runner-up to Formula One when it comes to attracting viewers to motor sport but, with just 17% of the number who watch Schumacher, David Coulthard and co, the gap between first and second is huge.

David Richards, chairman of ISC, the company which bought the World Rally Championship from Formula One overlord Bernie Ecclestone, is confident his new sport will start catching up fast.

When the European Union pressurised Ecclestone into selling his rallying operation, citing a conflict of interest with Formula One, former Benetton team boss Richards stepped in.

‘‘I have had rally teams for years and ran a Formula One team. Rather than buy another Formula One team I thought I would go back to my roots,’’ he explained.

‘‘There is no logical reason why the World Rally Championship can’t be up with Formula One, but it can’t be there overnight.

‘‘It’s a long way to catch up but we have only just started. Formula One took 15 years to get where it is today and we can maybe do it in half that time.’’

Richards performed like a winner to beat one of Britain’s top rally drivers Alister McRae, brother of current World Championship leader Colin, on the new Sony PlayStation 2 WRC World Rally Championship driving game, which will be in the shops by the end of the month, at its launch in London.

‘‘He’s had more practice than me,’’ claimed McRae light-heartedly, but both know innovations like this are a vital part of raising the profile of rallying, which Richards admits has held itself back.

Works teams long ago ensured that the days when an enthusiast sponsored by his local garage could win a major championship are long gone.

Richards recalled: ‘‘I was the last private competitor to win a world championship event 20 years ago and that will never happen again.’’

But he knows the sport now needs to make the big leap towards global acceptance.

Richards, who only took over the sport this year, has been rewarded with a thrilling climax to the current World Championship, with Scotland’s Colin McRae, second-placed Finn Tommi Makinen and third-placed Richard Burns, of England, separated by just two points going into the final event, the Network Q Rally of Great Britain which begins in Cardiff next Thursday.

If any of the three wins, he will be world champion, but if they all crash out fourth-placed Spaniard Carlos Sainz could still sneak in.

Richards aims to move into top gear for his first full season in 2001 when Germany will stage its first World Championship round and there are plans for Japan and the USA to follow within five years.

He has just signed an American TV deal with Fox Sports to show a regular highlights programme in the States next year.

‘‘My principal target is to get the television rights and most other things will automatically follow,’’ he said.

‘‘The reason snooker took off 20 years ago was colour television. Rallying is ideally suited to new technology.

‘‘Most sports have circuits, pitches and courts which all look the same, but we have a very different product which is so extraordinary in the terrain we go to.

‘‘The next step will be to put the man or woman at home into the actual event via their computer.

‘‘You will be able to wake up on Christmas morning and your present from your wife will be a signed-up entry into the Monte Carlo Rally.

‘‘The actual race and performance of the drivers taking part will be incorporated into the game and all the merchandising will be created around that car and you at home will have that car and compete in the event,’’ said Richards.

He is convinced he is driving a winner.