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Nicky Grist Stages on course to host forest rallying’s return to Wales on Saturday 10 July

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Quinton Motor Club is pressing ahead with its plans to run the Nicky Grist Stages on Saturday 10 July – and having completed a full route recce and met with Powys County Council, it has now published Rally Guide 1, containing detailed information about the event, class structure and the all important competitor entry information.

The event is on course to host the first major forest rally in Wales since February 2020, subject to Welsh government guidelines.

Eight major championships – the British Rally Championship, MRF Tyres BTRDA Rally Series, Motorsport UK Pirelli Welsh Rally Championship, Motorsport UK National Rally Championship, Motorsport UK English Rally Championship in association with Seacon UK Ltd, HRCR Rally Masters Stage Championship, the Welsh Historic Rally Championship and the ANWCC Forest Rally Championship – will do battle over the super smooth gravel roads of Llyn Login, Monument, Halfway and Crychan forests, located in and around the Epynt military range.

Competitors will be seeded in two groups, the first starting at car number 201 will include the 1400, Rally First, H1/2 and Class 1 classes in reverse seeded order, so that these smaller capacity cars will have the best road conditions. There will then be a gap of no more than 10 minutes before the rest of the field begins, starting at car number 1 and running in conventional running order, seeded together in their order of expected performance.

The event will start in Builth Wells with the first competitor heading out at 08:31 for a morning loop of four stages. A midday service halt, held on the Builth Wells Rugby Football Club pitch, will follow, before competitors go back out for a repeat of the four stages in the afternoon. The first car is expected to arrive back at the finish in Builth Wells at around 15:30, having completed all 44 stage miles and 80 road miles.

Neil Cross, Nicky Grist Stages Clerk of the Course, said: “Although Wales is currently still in the high risk Alert Level 3, it is successfully reopening and cautiously getting back to normal life. With a very low and decreasing number of new infections being recorded, and the majority of the population having been vaccinated, we are confident that, come July, we will be allowed to run the Nicky Grist Stages as planned. We are certainly confident enough to press on with our plans. We have completed the route recce, we have had a very positive on-site meeting with Powys County Council and we are now able to publish Rally Guide 1.

This will be the thirty-fourth year that Quinton Motor Club has organised a round of the BTRDA Series, so we have an extremely experienced team ready to prove that rallying, with its strictly enforced Covid-19 guidelines, is ready to return to the Welsh forests.

Nicky Grist said: “I am absolutely delighted that the brilliant team of organisers of the Nicky Grist Stages, led by Neil Cross the Clerk of the Course, have pulled together what will be the first forest rally in Wales for over fifteen months! I would like to thank them for all their efforts in making this event happen.

I am sure that all competitors, like myself and the Nicky Grist Stages team, are so looking forward to getting some motorsport adrenaline pumping through our veins again. It has been a long time coming and it will be such a rush come the Saturday start.

The Clerk of the Course has put together some great stages with some subtle changes in the route – some of which have not been used for a long while, and some sections have never been used on our rally before. The roads are in great condition and a brilliant day’s competition will be in store for everyone.

 

Nicky Grist Stages – Programme

Monday 24 May….Entries open at 18:00 for registered championship contenders on nickygriststages.co.uk

Monday 31 May….Entries open at 18:00 for all other competitors

Friday 2 July….Seeded entries close at 20:00

Monday 5 July….Final Instructions and route details available

Wednesday 7 July….All entries close at 18:00 and provisional start times published at 19:30 on nickygriststages.co.uk

Friday 9 July….Noise, scrutineering and documentation (15:00-20:30), subject to Covid-19 restrictions

Friday 9 July….National Rally recce (15:00-19:00)

Saturday 10 July….Noise, scrutineering and documentation (07:00-08:00), by appointment only and subject to Covid-19 restrictions

Saturday 10 July….Start time list published at 08:15

Saturday 10 July….First car starts at 08.31 from Groe Park in Builth Wells

Saturday 10 July….First car finishes at 15.30

 

Marshal registrations are now open at rallystageteam.co.uk

 

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Nicky Grist Stages set to return on 10th July 2021

The Nicky Grist Stages is set to return to the classic mid-Wales forestry stages on Saturday 10 July 2021, following the cancellation of this year’s event. Quinton Motor Club had originally planned to run the event – which is a five time winner of the BTRDA ‘Rally of the Year’ award – on Saturday 11 July, but owing to Covid-19 lockdown restrictions, the event was postponed until Saturday 28 November.

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