Less than a week before most of the UK’s leading rally drivers visit Yorkshire, final preparations are being made in Filey and on the North York Moors for their arrival.
The Trackrod Rally Yorkshire on September 23/24 is again expecting a capacity 180-car entry, featuring purpose built cars spanning several decades, as the annual event hosts potentially decisive penultimate rounds of three of Britain’s major championships.
The Motorpsort UK British Rally Championship, the Fuchs Lubricants British Historic Championship and the ever-popular MRF Tyres BTRDA Series are all reaching crucial stages with just one round to go after the dust settles in the forests skirting the A170 Helmsley to Scarborough road.
Volkswagon Polo GTR5 drivers Osian Pryce, from mid-Wales and searching his maiden British title, and four times champion Keith Cronin, who travels across from Ireland, are engulfed in a battle for the BRC crown.
Matt Edwards, also from Wales, won the event 12 months ago en-route to his third successive title and this year comes again, but in a finely preserved yet dating from the late 1970s Fiat 131 Abarth (once a World Championship winning rally car), contesting the Trackrod Historic Cup which graces the same six stages as the British Championship runners will test themselves against, over two days of high speed rallying.
Action commences in Dalby Forest’s daunting darkness on Friday night (September 23 from around 8pm onwards) and finishes along Filey’s Beach Road (around 3.20pm) the following afternoon.
On Saturday morning the entourage will be joined by a plethora of top club drivers and local enthusiasts in the Trackrod Forest Stages Rally - a slightly shorter event using the final five stages - and also culminating in the traditional champagne spraying along the seaside town’s promenade.
This year, for the first time, Saturday’s starters will head for the gravel stages from NY500 - a recently unveiled cafe and ‘meet up point’ dedicated to motorsports enthusiasts and cyclists, along the A169 Malton to Pickering Road.
A glittering array of cars and bikes plus drinks and food await customers at the almost unique venue and the cafe is opening early to cater for the crews, mechanics and rally fans alike.
Spectators are welcome, free of charge, at both starting points (Beach Road, Filey on Friday (7pm sees the Deputy Mayor Councillor Linda Randall flag away competitors) and NY500 (cars gather from 8am) plus the ceremonial finish, with advance tickets also available for the specially laid out stages in Dalby and Cropton Forests (see www.rallyyorkshire.co.uk).
For more details of the Trackrod Rally Yorkshire, please visit: www.rallyyorkshire.co.uk
Twitter: @rallyyorkshire