’Race For Glory’ WRC Group B Film Gets Epic New Trailer And Release Date

The existence of the film Race for Glory has been known for a while, but only now has the first trailer been released for the film which will portray the famous 1983 World Rally Championship season.

If ever you wanted confirmation that rallying has gone stale at the top level of the discipline, yet another bit of media focused on Group B should do just about that.

Starring Daniel Brühl (who also starred as Nikki Lauda in Rush a few years ago) Race for Glory will follow the story of the 1983 World Rally Championship, one of the most famous in the series’ history. It might not have been the best year in WRC history (we’re looking at you, 2003), but 1983 was an important one for several reasons, not least that it was the first season of the Group B era.

Group B promised to transform rallying from a discipline based on production cars to one using some of the most extreme prototypes ever seen.

Although it was typified by the Audi Sport Quattro, the four-wheel-drive legend was essentially still a Group 4 car by the time 1983 rolled around. Instead, it was in Italy that the first true Group B car was created.

The Lancia 037 is almost as iconic as the Quattro, and 1983 saw the two cars, their respective teams, and respective drivers go head-to-head for the world title.

In the end, it went the direction of Lancia, which became the last manufacturer to win the World Rally Championship for Manufacturers title with a two-wheel-drive car.

Audi went on to dominate in 1984, by the end of which Peugeot had arrived with its 205 T16, and the 037 - even in its more powerful Evo 2 variant - was resigned to essentially providing Martini with sideways-on marketing until the Italians made ready their Delta S4, which arrived at the end of 1985 and had killed one crew and Group B by the middle of 1986.

But the 1983 season will be forever remembered as one of the most iconic in WRC history, as it essentially pitted the sport’s past against what was then its future and what became the basis of going rallying for what has now been almost four decades.

It is not a surprise, then, that Race for Glory - which as revealed by the trailer will be theatrically released on 5 January 2024 - should focus on this of all seasons, as 1983 combined round-by-round competition with things that make great stories, as increased speed led to increased danger, which in turn led to the transformation of rally drivers into mystical heroes.

Alex Whitworth