by Rob Wilkins


TO HEAR THE INTERVIEW IN FULL WITH MARK TAYLOR: CLICK HERE


The 2008 Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship won't get underway until April, when competitors take in the two-day Pirelli International Rally. Despite that though there were a lot of announcements related to the BRC at the recent Autosport International Show and Crash.net Radio caught up with BRC manager Mark Taylor to talk to him about the coming year and how things are looking...


Crash.net:
Mark, how is the Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship shaping up for 2008?

Mark Taylor:
It is shaping up really well. We are only nine days or so into 2008 and it seems only like yesterday that we finished on Wales Rally GB.

Obviously it has been busy with the Pirelli Star Driver shoot-out competition but the interest has been really strong and teams have been announcing their plans today [Thursday, January 10]. We have had the Mitsubishi UK 'works' team confirming its line-up, the TQ/FX Motor Sports team has announced its line-up and young Darren [Gass] has unveiled his Pirelli competition car.

I can't say what other interest there has been because some of the competitors and teams that have spoken to me want to announce that themselves in their own time. But it is a significant amount of interest and the competition this year will be stronger, I believe, than it was last season. I can't wait for it to get started.

Crash.net:
What are you going to be doing ahead of the season opener, the Pirelli, in April?

MT:
It would be nice to just dust off from what happened last year but what we are planning to do, it is our 50th year this year in the British Rally Championship, and I have been around for the last five of them. The period before that was a bit of a blur but we hope to be doing a fairly significant announcement and launch in Birmingham, which will hopefully have some good news about the future and our involvement with the Birmingham City Council.

We are going to Chatsworth – that is going to be our 50th Birthday party. We are going to have a mega party on the Saturday night. We are going to bring some old champions and old cars from the past.

But in terms of the Pirelli it is just a matter of getting the registrations in and getting the media all lined-up and the TV packages and everything – and then onwards and upwards.

Crash.net:
Darren Gass won the inaugural Pirelli Star Driver competition and the works drive that goes with it. Will that scheme continue in '08?

MT: