NEWS: Road To Wales Rally GB Opens Up

Wales Rally GB chiefs have expanded their successful 'Road to Wales' initiative this year – offering FREE entries offered to all national rally champions, giving a great opportunity for Britain’s best to shine on the WRC stage, 13-16 November.
Introduced 12 months ago, the "innovative and far-reaching" Road to Wales scheme included a number of different programmes all of which combined to revitalise Britain’s concluding round of the FIA World Rally Championship in 2013.
Building on that success, which resulted in crowds returning to the legendary Welsh forest stages in record numbers, the top three finishers in the country’s premier 2014 MSA British Rally Championship (BRC) will again be rewarded with invitation entries into Wales Rally GB, as will the two crews that win the British Junior and RallyTwo categories within the BRC.
Adding to the incentive, both the 2014 BRC Challenge Trophy champion and winner of the BRC ‘Stars of the Future’ also will be offered free entries – this time into the three-day National Rally that runs alongside the star-studded international event and shares many of the same challenging special stages.
No cost entries into the National event will also be provided to the winner of each of the MSA English Rally Championship, the Pirelli MSA Welsh Forest Rally Championship, the ARR Craib MSA Scottish Rally Championship and McGrady Insurance MSA Northern Ireland Rally Championship as well as the BTRDA Rally Series. This swells the number of prize entries to an impressive dozen.
“Wales Rally GB is the pinnacle of rallying in the UK and we are determined to maximise its preeminence to the full benefit of all those involved in the sport,” said Andrew Coe, Chief Executive of rally organiser International Motor Sports. “Whether it’s encouraging and rewarding those competing in our top national championships or providing those aspiring to be future world champions with vital WRC experience, the provision of these prize entries was extremely well received last year. That’s why we are delighted to be expanding the scheme to 12 by including both Scottish and Northern Irish Championships for the first time in 2014.”
Underlining the success of the scheme, the top three finishers in last year’s BRC all accepted their prize drives in 2013 and took full advantage of the opportunity to shine on the world stage. The newly crowned 2013 BRC Champion, Jukka Korhonen, underlined his talent by winning the competitive WRC3 class on Wales Rally GB while BRC runners-up Osian Pryce and Tom Cave further enhanced their reputations with outstanding achievements in the challenging Welsh forests. Another beneficiary, Euan Thorburn, won the three-day National event.
Four-day World Rally Passes for the 2014 Wales Rally GB – with prices held at £99 as in 2013 – are already on sale via the official www.walesrallygb.com website. Other passes will be available later in the Spring following final confirmation of this year’s Wales Rally GB route and a full review of spectator facilities to accommodate the event’s spiraling popularity.

Read our Wales Rally GB special here.
 

NEWS: Toyota AE86 Class Victory on RAC Rally

Toyota GB supported classic rally team Midgley Motorsport is celebrating a remarkable debut class victory on the Roger Albert Clark Rally, the UK’s toughest historic motorsport event – with 160 miles and 24 special stages (including Dalby, Duncombe Park, Croft, Craik, Gen Dhu and Kershore), plus 378 road miles.
The team’s 25-year-old Corolla AE86, crewed by Will Midgley and Jonathan Driver (great name!), beat its closest rival to the Kielder Forest finish line last night (Sunday) by 14 minutes.

Midgley and Driver battled throughout the three-day event against another Corolla, crewed by Andy Madge and Pat Cooper. The duel for class honours came down to the final sting-in-the-tail stage in the 160-mile rally, the 17-mile Kershope test – a rallying classic.
"Going into Kershope we were three minutes behind Andy," said Will, 37 and from Grassington in North Yorkshire. "He looked like he had it in the bag because he had been going really well. But he came off three miles into the stage and couldn’t get going again. It was really unfortunate for Andy, but good luck for us."
The Midgley Corolla, which is liveried identically to those which Will’s father, John Midgley, and Per Eklund drove to a string of UK rallying successes for Team Toyota GB in the mid-’80s, was one of four finishers in its class.
It wasn’t all plain sailing for Will and Jonathan: "We hit a huge pot-hole on the first evening and that put the steering well off track – one wheel was pointing one way and one the other – but we were able to get that remedied in service. We were still working on the car, in mud and slurry, until one-thirty the next morning. We had four hours of sleep and then we were back off again."
On Saturday, at the Croft circuit spectator stage, the Midgley Toyota lapsed on to three cylinders and that cost the crew a couple of minutes on their second run around the track. "After that, everything was fairly trouble-free; we kept it on the road and the Toyota ran really well. Jonathan and I learned a lot: it was the first time for both of us navigating with maps, our first time rallying in the dark, and the first time in fog. That was a lot of firsts for one event. The team worked really hard to keep us going, especially on the Friday night, and we thoroughly enjoyed the event.
"I am sure we will be back to do the rally again next year and hopefully also we will contest the new RAC Club championship that is being launched for cars of the era of our Corolla."

Congratulations to Will & Jonathan. Great to see an AE86 on the stages in this fabulous rally. Find out more at: http://midgleymotorsport.com/ and see a full list of results here: http://www.rogeralbertclarkrally.org

VIDEO: MLR Pace Ward 2012 Sprint Series: Round IV

Cool highlights video from the fourth round of the 2012 Pace Ward MLR Sprint Series, held on the 21st July at the under-used Kames Motorsport Complex, East Ayrshire, Scotland. Find out more and get involved with your Evo via www.lancerregister.com

VIDEO: Walter Röhrl 911 2.5 ST Rally Köln-Ahrweiler

The old Porsche master at work, in one of the best sounding 911's ever: Walter Röhrl in a 300bhp, 970KG 911 2.5 ST, dancing his way around the Rally Köln-Ahrweiler, including some footage off the Nordschleife. AWESOME!!