Ford Escort Rally Championship, run by Ford Motor Co. (UK), started in 1978 to find new upcoming rally drivers. It was a tightly run series using similar specification Ford Escort MK2 sport models with the prize being a works Ford drive. The event attracted huge support and was run over a series of events alongside the BTRDA rally championship, and John Simpson from Devon eventually won. The series was managed by Graham Robson.
References
Ford Escort rally championship Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA