The eagerly anticipated regulations for this year’s RSAC Scottish Rally are now available and organisers are delighted to confirm a brand new format for the 19th of May event which sees two separate rallies packed into one day in the Dumfries and Galloway forests.
In a change to the regular schedule, competitors in two-wheel-drive (2WD) vehicles will be heading into the classic forest tests in Eskdalemuir and Beattock on Saturday morning, with the four-wheel-drive (4WD) crews set to compete across the same stages later in the day. Both events will offer 43 stage miles.
The rally is a round of the ARR Craib MSA Scottish Rally Championship, Motoscope HRCR Northern Rally Championship, the RSAC Motorsport Ecosse Challenge and the Border Challenge. They will also welcome the Swift Shining Stars to Scotland as well as the Armed Forces Rally Team, whose Land Rovers have been part of the event since 1963.
The event will once again return to Lockerbie Lorry Park as Rally HQ which will also host the service area and start venue for both categories. Competitors in the 2WD rally will carry out pre-event technical checks and documentation on Friday 18th May before starting their event at around 8.00am on Saturday morning.
They will head out to tackle two loops through Twiglees and Castle O’er before heading back to the Lockerbie service. Stages at Rivox and Gill Knowe will round off the event before the remaining crews head for the ceremonial finish and champagne spray in the town of Moffat around 1:00pm
Meanwhile, contenders in the 4WD event will carry out their technical and documentation checks on Saturday morning, taking to the start at around 11:00am. They will follow an identical route to that of the earlier 2WD event and will head to the Moffat town centre finish for around 4:00pm.
For the 23rd consecutive year, the RSAC Scottish Rally will receive backing from the Dumfries and Galloway Council and has been awarded the designation as a Signature Event thanks to its status as one of the most important events in the region. The change in format in 2018 will further enhance its important role in the British Rallying Calendar and the organisers hope that its innovative changes attract competitors from across the UK to the region.
“When we heard of the innovative Rally2WD format, we watched with interest how popular it was with the two-wheel-drive fraternity and set-about seeing if we could make it work for the Scottish Rally too” said Clerk of the Course Jonathan Lord.
“However we wanted to ensure that competitors in the four wheel drive section were going to be well catered for and still do our best to make it feel like one big event, even though we will have two starts and finishes. It’s a really exciting change in the history of the Scottish Rally and we do hope to see an encouraging number of competitors in both categories heading to Dumfries and Galloway in May.”
Assistant Clerk of the Course, Craig Webster added, “We are pleased that entries are now open and that we can offer separate events for the two and four wheel drive vehicles. As an added incentive to enter, the first entries for each event will get £75 back off their entry fee. We’ve also ‘borrowed’ an idea from our friends at the Speyside Stages and for every 20 entries received for each event we will have a prize draw with the winners getting £50 back off their entry fee.”
More information, event regulations and online entry forms can be found at www.scottishrally.co.uk
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