“How is this legal?”…. Further supporting Legislation and Regulations enabling Regularity Rally as a road legal, competitive motorsport (in BC).
- Jonathan Binnington
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
In most circumstances, the concepts of “road legal” and “competitive Motorsport” are mutually exclusive.
There is one motorsport genre, for both cars and bikes, which in BC specifically and probably in other jurisdictions fulfils both requirements of being a competitive motorsport and being quite road legal - provided certain conditions are met.
Regularity Rally, aka Time/Speed/Distance Rally, Navigation Trials.
The “certain conditions” are:
All participants must be “legal users” of public highways - licenced, registered and insured.
The events must be run over public highways.
The course requirements must fall within the terms of road traffic legislation - speed limits not exceeded, competitors negotiate the course singly, no racing, vying for position, stunting or speed testing.
Previous blog entries here have cited the official documents provided by the Government of British Columbia and the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) which specifically permit competitive motorsport events that conform to these conditions. If you scroll back through the blog you will find them and the hyperlinks to the relevant documents.
In conversation this week, my attention was drawn to a set of regulations that I was ignorant of. Regulations that govern public gatherings on Crown land. Attendance limits of less than 200 people for non-motorised events and less than 100 people for motorised events. Further reading was required on my part…
Regulations governing gatherings on Crown Land.
These are the regulations
“ The Forest and Range Practices Act (FRPA) and the Forest Recreation Regulation (FRR) identify when authorization is required to use a recreation site, recreation trail, interpretive forest site or trail-based recreation area, as well as to construct, maintain, or rehabilitate a trail or other recreation facility.
Recreation Sites and Trails B.C. (RSTBC) is the agency responsible for providing these authorizations.”
A thorough reading of the regulations clearly shows that these regulations apply to Crown forests, recreation sites, recreation trails, interpretive forests and trail-based recreation areas.
Vancouver Island Motosports Events do not encroach upon Recreation Sites, Recreation Trails, Interpretive Forest sites or trail-based recreation areas.
Vancouver Island Motosports Events are confined entirely to public right of way, highway-designated Forest Service Roads on Crown Land. Camping and gatherings occur on private campgrounds and highway-designated parking lots (start/finish areas).
All event participants are licenced, icbc insured and registered (highway plated) private motorists, operating under the published terms of icbc insurance and BC motoring law.
I’ve opened a few of the hyperlinks in the primary document, they lead to further documents with this language
“ Authorization for Construction, Maintenance or Rehabilitation of Trails or Recreation Facilities on Crown Land”
Elsewhere there are references to an upper limit of 100 participants in motorised events. I presume this relates to events held on motorised recreation sites such as Whiskey Creek (Vancouver Island) and similar…?
These are not venues used by VI Motosports Events.
So, on closer inspection it seems reasonable to conclude that these regulations do not apply to the motorcycle Regularity Rally events staged over highway-designated Forest Service Roads on Crown Land.
I have a feeling that I may already have come across these regulations at the outset of my development of this motorsport genre and when I understood that they were not relevant to road traffic, I dismissed them from my mind.
I hope this clears away another potential obstacle that may be raised against VIME events in the future.
JD Binnington 9/4/26
Comments