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The World Rally Championship ended a disappointing year this weekend in the forests of Wales.

Sebastien Loeb tied up the championship long before the end of the season and missed the final with a broken arm. Rival Marcus Gronholm won at a canter from a depleted field.

The popularity of the WRC may have plunged from the high of the Colin McRae and Tommi Makkinen era to the dire situation of today. But Keith Collantine believes all is not yet lost.

Rallying gave the world some of the most outrageous and memorable cars of the 1980s.

Iconic Group B turbo monsters like the Ford RS200, Metro 6R4, Lancia Delta S4, Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 and Porsche 959 are still remembered with fondness by rally aficionados and hardcore petrol heads alike.

In the 1990s, years after the banning of Group B, it was the drivers that gave the sport its appeal.

Colin McRae brought the sport to the Playstation generation while Tommi Makinen wielded the legendary Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. The likes of Carlos Sainz and Didier Auriol attracted the passionate support of their countries’ fans.

But as the 2006 season closes, rallying is in a poor state.

Sebastian Loeb is doing for rallying what Michael Schumacher did for F1 at the turn of the millennium – mercilessly chalking up win after win against weakened rivals.

The impotence of Loeb’s opponents was never more clear than this year. Subaru continued to waste the talents of 2003 champion Petter Solberg on lousy equipment.

When Loeb was forced to miss the final four rounds of the championship through injury, it left rival Marcus Gronholm with an open goal to score a second world championship. But he squandered it with a crash in the Rally of Australia.

The rallies themselves have become increasingly less spectacular. Events have shrunk in size and more sections of road are being repeatedly used in the same event, lessening the challenge for the drivers.

In 2002 the Safari Rally of Kenya was dropped, which was as vital a part of rallying’s appeal as the Monaco Grand Prix is for F1. The loss of one of the great sporting spectacles and toughest challenges further compromised the WRC.

The sport has also been hit by tragedy. British champion Richard Burns was forced out of the running for the 2003 championship by illness. It transpired that he had a brain tumour and he died two years later.

A crash at last year’s British Rally killed another Briton, Michael Park. He was the navigator for the highly-rated Estonian driver Marko Martin who himself retired from the sport, angrily criticising the changes that had been made to the WRC.

At the beginning of the year Martin said: “It is just not the same championship that it used to be. I don't see much future for myself in it."

"You need the manufacturers in it to make it exciting because they will do everything, and if that doesn't happen then I don't know what the future is. The FIA [rule-makers] should get their act together and do something quickly."

The withdrawals of Peugeot, Citroen and Mitsubishi last year left the sport with just two manufacturers. However this is expected to grow in the near future with the return of Citroen next year and the arrival of Suzuki in 2008.

Next year will also see the reinvigoration of the calendar with new events in Portugal, Ireland and Norway – the latter being a second snow rally.

Perhaps best of all the controversial ‘superally’ regulations have finally been dropped. The superally system had allowed competitors to re-join an event after crashing out which many felt was against the competitive spirit of rallying.

The WRC may have taken a battering in recent years, but it is not out for the count just yet. Progressive, forward-thinking regulations like the imposition of bio-fuel from 2008 bode well for the future.

All it needs now is someone to take on Loeb – a Fernando Alonso to his Schumacher. Maybe in 2007…

Have you enjoyed this year’s World Rally Championship? Where is Britain’s next rallying star going to come from? Let us know.