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The Ecurie Royal Oak (ERO) Motor Club has motorsport and in particular, road rallying running through its veins. During the club’s very early days of the 1960s, it managed to ruffle a few feathers but eventually gained acceptance and official motor club status from the RAC in 1970; having also been given the nod by the well-respected legend of the game that is Don Barrow.
This weekend under the cover of darkness, 35 crews armed with OS Maps 118 and 119 will depart from the Knots Inn, Rushton to take on a 110-mile adventure in the lanes of Cheshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire. With tar, gravel, grass, concrete, and everything in between lying in wait, one thing that is for certain is a great night of motorsport is on the cards for all.
The battle for the Protyres Motorsport UK Asphalt Rally Championship title would rage on at JDS Machinery Rally Ceredigion. The pretty Welsh seaside town of Aberystwyth would play host to Round 7, the penultimate round of the 2024 Championship, where a 3-day closed road event would deliver a dominant performance for one of the championship contenders.
The Protyre Motorsport UK would relocate from Argyll, Scotland to Llandovery, Wales for the sixth round of its 2024 Championship. A staple in the series, the Nigel Ferguson Tour Of Epynt Rally, Organised by the Port Talbot Motor Club would once again see the Asphalt protagonists go wheel to wheel on the infamous smooth roads of the military ranges over a two-day affair.
In Powys, Wales, situated between Brecon and Llandovery and to the North of the A40 which links the two, lies an area called Mynydd Epynt. This area forms the core of the MOD Sennybridge Training Area (SENTA) but is known to many in our world simply as “Epynt”.
Epynt has a rich history in British and indeed Welsh motorsport and we the rallying world look fondly upon it. It has played host to countless stage rallies over the years, the RAC Rally and has hosted Britain’s round of the World Rally Championship (WRC) throughout the nineties and noughties.
Organised by the Quinten Motor Cub and Sponsored by the world-famous co-driver and his motorsports equipment business since 2011 the Nicky Grist stages is based in the Market town of Builth Wells with its picturesque service area on the rugby pitch and overlooking the river Wye. The battleground would be the range of familiar stages in the Halfway, monument Crychan and Lyn Login areas of the Epynt military ranges to the south of Builth Wells.
The 2024 Protyre MUK Asphalt Rally Championship continued its Scottish tour, moving northeast to the scenic Cowal Peninsula for the fifth round of the championship.
The Argyll Rally, run by the experienced members of the Mull Automobile Club, boasted significant expertise in organizing closed-road events and had prepared an outstanding event for 2024. Based once again at Dunoon Stadium, this year’s weekend offered 75 stage miles of top-class closed-road rallying, spread over two days. After two runs through the fan-favorite Dunoon Town Centre on Friday, five stages in the surrounding countryside lay ahead, several under the cover of darkness. This was followed by a further eleven stages on Saturday.
As the Protyres BTRDA Rally Series has now passed the mid-point in the 2024 season, we can begin to build a picture of the runners and riders who are potentially in line for championship awards. With fierce battles across the field to date, the series would return to Builth Wells, Powys in Wales for the second time this year for the Nicky Grist Stages.
Based out of the auction mart in Hexham, the former Pirelli (international) Rally, previously a classic staple of the Probite British Rally Championship calendar during the glory years of British rallying. The event can count a plethora of famous winners as diverse as Ari Vattinen or Russell Brookes to Richard Burns, Dai Llewellyn and Mark Higgins… As well as the full complement of McRaes (Alistair, Jimmy and Colin).
All set for a great days rallying across the 3 main Protyre BTRDA Gravel Championships the KFR would utilise 42 miles of prime gravel stages in the 155,000-acre Kielder forest complex, one of Europe’s largest man-made forests.