Abortion, a decision for the woman or a matter of politics.

What is the WRC?

The world rally championship (WRC) is the world’s most demanding and challenging motor sport competitions ever.

But over the past twelve months, the world rally championship has undergone a major revolution. Thanks to technological improvements in TV and network coverage, the sport is really raising it’s profile and is now attracting the attention of a greater dedicated world wide audience.

There are already billions of fans hooked to World Rally - spellbound by the world's greatest drivers doing battle in some of the harshest environments on the planet. But because the events themselves take place in 14 countries globally, the millions of fans that turn out to support their favourite teams are increasing all the time.

To me, the World Rally Championship is about real heroes, real roads and real driving. The World Rally Championship is the world's biggest live spectator sport and is causing such a global buzz because of this…

If your understanding of rallying is of high-performance cars racing against the clock over rocky, icy or dusty roads, and of competitors spending large amounts of money to ensure victory, then you're probably right. But rallying is not always, nor has always been, like that.

In the early days of the motor car, the very first events were basically road races from one town to another, but because the element of car reliability played such a great part in establishing a winner, it was not so much a matter of being the winner, but more the sense of achievement in having actually reached the destination. Man's love affair with the motor car and with making it go faster and faster has never stopped, not since the first recorded city to city race in 1894.

The first recorded car rally was the Paris to Rouen race in France in 1894. Cars in that event carried passengers just like rally cars do today, and were flagged off from the start at intervals, again just like rallies today. The Paris to Rouen event required a certain amount of navigation, but the real challenge was to actually get to the finish, never mind how long it took. The winner was the crew to be first across the line and who had covered the correct route into the bargain.

Since that first event, conducted nearly 110 years ago, the basic concept of rallying has remained the same - the challenge is still to cover the correct route in the shortest possible time.

Today's major events are all about flat-out driving. Long gone are the early ingredients of rallying - navigation, impassable roads, travelling all night and repairing your own car. Some would argue that a lot of that adventurous spirit that made rallying so popular has now been removed from the sport and that it's more like circuit racing - short stages and good roads covered against the clock. Be that as it may, rallying in all forms is still highly addictive whether you compete in a Ł5000 Ford Escort or a Ł5 million Subaru Impreza World Rally Car. The rules may have changed, but the challenge and the excitement still remain.

Britain and many other countries all of the world, especially Sweden, are beginning to bring out youngsters into the world of rallying. This is making the competition even fiercer and more exciting.

How is rallying run in other countries, and how is motor sport treated and run in other countries, that is what I’d like to know.

So what is the WRC?

One hell of a sport!