RE: Wales Rally GB moves north
Thursday 25th April 2013
Wales Rally GB will this year ‘swap ends’ as it moves from its long-time base in Cardiff to a new home further north.
Cardiff will no longer be the rally's baseThe 2013 event will now feature a ceremonial start in Conwy, and finish in Llandudno, with the rally’s headquarters and main service park to be based at a new site alongside Toyota’s engine plant in Flintshire. It won't be the first time the rally's visited Llandudno, but the move will end 13 years spent with Cardiff as the event's base, and comes as organisers look to increase spectator and entrant numbers after falling numbers in recent years. 2012’s event, in fact, featured one of the lowest-ever entries, both of the season and in the event’s history.
The rally has visited Llandudno beforeThe new route has also yet to be announced, though IMS promises that it’ll be more compact, hopefully allowing spectators to move more freely between stages. It also adds that the majority of the timed Special Stages will be set in the forests, harking back to Welsh rallies of old, and hopefully recreating the same sorts of scenes we tried to a month or two back. Fingers crossed they’ve also ordered extra quantities of fog, mist, rain, snow and mud, to keep the true, filthy glory of the WRC’s British round alive and well. And with Forces motorsport charities Mission Motorsport and Race2Recovery both getting involved with the British rallying scene recently, who knows – there might even more reason to go along and cheer.
Wales Rally GB moves north
North Wales relocation ends 13-year run for Cardiff base
Cardiff will no longer be the rally's base
International Motor Sports, the organiser of the rally, hopes that moving its base closer to more of the UK’s larger cities – Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham among them – will increase the number of visitors, and in turn, the number of participants. Other moves aimed at improving the rally’s appeal will include the reintroduction of night stages and the addition of family-friendly spectator stages. A wider range of tickets at lower prices will also be introduced, with a radically altered pricing structure, details of which have yet to be released.
The rally has visited Llandudno before
Discussion
mybrainhurts said:
A step in the right direction, but still a mere shadow of the old days of the RAC Rally.
Very true, rallying has lost a lot of interest since they changed it from an endurance to a sprint format.At least this makes sense for the rally as it is today. The last couple of years the cars have been having to drive 2-3 hours just to get back to base! Time better spent actually rallying.
Sounds good. The entry list was pretty f
king wk last year to be fair so glad the organisers have noticed. The start in Llandudno was good last year though, if a bit out of the way, I'm just annoyed they didn't run the Great Orme as in 2011 (I had to miss that)
Can't wait. Its a good event and we still always have a great time, last year included.
king wk last year to be fair so glad the organisers have noticed. The start in Llandudno was good last year though, if a bit out of the way, I'm just annoyed they didn't run the Great Orme as in 2011 (I had to miss that)Can't wait. Its a good event and we still always have a great time, last year included.
while its good new for thousands of people, there are equally as many that are disappointed by this news. myself included.
As I live in South Wales, having the rally based here and Mid Wales has been a blessing for me and other club members in the area.
Since the even moved north over the last 2-3 years it has been increasingly disappointing and baffling.
having the start 3hrs away from where the stages start has been stupid, and if i am to believe much of what I've been told about speccy numbers has added nothing to the event, but has in fact cost some.
now I'm not one of these, 'its not close to me so I wont marshal' type of marshals. I have travelled to Dyfi & Dyfnant for the last 2 WRGB's.
Dyfnant last year was a 27hr day after travelling up the evening before and then manning the stage for both running and driving home again. and I wont lie I was ruined after it!
couple in that with the cost of food & fuel and my total for the weekend came in the region of £250+ . that's money I don't have this year.
This year may be the first I miss for the last decade.
And I don't envy the Stage commanders who are going to be losing more manpower than they did last year.
(the move north didn't encourage motorclubs closer to the event to volunteer last year as they imagined it would, and one stage only just ran with the bare minimum number of marshals and radio cars)
and I was really looking forwards to getting up close to the new Polo WRC too as it looks epic!
As I live in South Wales, having the rally based here and Mid Wales has been a blessing for me and other club members in the area.
Since the even moved north over the last 2-3 years it has been increasingly disappointing and baffling.
having the start 3hrs away from where the stages start has been stupid, and if i am to believe much of what I've been told about speccy numbers has added nothing to the event, but has in fact cost some.
now I'm not one of these, 'its not close to me so I wont marshal' type of marshals. I have travelled to Dyfi & Dyfnant for the last 2 WRGB's.
Dyfnant last year was a 27hr day after travelling up the evening before and then manning the stage for both running and driving home again. and I wont lie I was ruined after it!
couple in that with the cost of food & fuel and my total for the weekend came in the region of £250+ . that's money I don't have this year.
This year may be the first I miss for the last decade.
And I don't envy the Stage commanders who are going to be losing more manpower than they did last year.
(the move north didn't encourage motorclubs closer to the event to volunteer last year as they imagined it would, and one stage only just ran with the bare minimum number of marshals and radio cars)
and I was really looking forwards to getting up close to the new Polo WRC too as it looks epic!
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