BARC - Changes for 2003

Rob / 08.12.2002

Liverpool Airport was the venue for the recent meeting of UK Race Directors where decisions were taken on the shape of next year\'s British Championship series - or not.

Before looking ahead though there was time to reflect on the first year of BARC and everyone agreed it was a success. The individual races have all kept their own unique character, the final was one of the races of the year, bringing a new dimension to UK racing, and the Dream Team TV series now showing on Channel 4 and Sky Sports has raised the profile of AR. With all the showings the documentaries will take an amazing 76 half hour TV slots, plus there\'s been news coverage, a first showing for AR on Grandstand and worldwide exposure on Trans World Sport. It\'s the sort of coverage most minority sports can only dream of.

No Hebridean Challenge

Dream Team think they can do as well, or better, in 2003 but the One.Tel Hebridean Challenge wanted to press ahead with their own plans for TV coverage and sadly this forced a split from BARC. It\'s unfortunate, as the race is unique and popular, but it seemed there was no room for compromise between the personalities involved.

There will definitely be a race in Scotland as there was a commitment to stage races in all of the home countries, but there was no final decision on which one it will be. The Salomon 24 hour event (Aug 30/31st), the Quest 2-day race (May 3rd/4th) and one ACE Race will all be included as they were last year. A new addition will be the final of the first Irish Adventure Racing Championships (Aug 2/4th), a 36 hour race to be held in N. Ireland and organised by Adventure Sports One, and they will once again stage the BARC final at the end of the series (Sept. 27/28th).

One sticking point was deciding on the final race in the series, and the location of this will in turn affect which ACE Race is included. It’s hoped this will be settled before the end of the year and the final line-up can be announced.

New Points System

The other main change, again with the details yet to be decided, will be the introduction of a points scoring system for the series. Rather than having a series of qualifying events leading to a final where all is decided, teams will be able to score points at each event, with the final carrying an additional weighting.

Martin Stone from Sportident is now working on ideas for the scoring system but one definite consequence will be that teams will have to register for the series and compete under the same name throughout. There are unlikely to be restrictions on team composition though.

We’ll bring you news of the final format as soon as the key decisions are made, but in the meantime start thinking of your team names and pencilling in some calendar dates.