Route announced for Rally GB 2020!

[AnttiL]

To get a rough idea of what forest tracks look like now where they haven't been used for rallying in years, or where I can't find onboards, I use a site called Geograph. People upload random photographs to fill the grid squares on the OS Map, so there's a lot of pictures of tracks and paths in random places in forests and on moors across the country, though some of the images are a few years years old.

That is awesome, thanks! In many cases it was a guessing whether a road on the map is a tarmac lane, a gravel road, a deteriorated track or just a path. OpenStreetMap tells the levels sometimes better, sometimes not. And Google Maps are sometimes badly outdated and missing on the smallest roads.

My earlier plans had Wythop use this bridleway upwards to remove the long straight, but it's probably too narrow. I bet they would have done it in the RAC days!

Here's the situation in Grizedale East https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2129490. I believe this is the junction where Vatanen rolled in 1989, looking better https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2568340

[HKSjbg]

Base the event at the Royal Highland Centre, Ingliston near Edinburgh (and right next to its Airport). Centrally there you're just an hour away from stages in the North, Borders and Trossachs (Middle).

I had considered that - being a showground with plenty of tarmac sections it looks ideal. I just didn’t know whether closer to Edinburgh would be worse for liaisons and whether airport traffic would cause problems for rally traffic coming in and out (or vice versa).

The thought of keeping it free for a Super Special also entered my mind, then I got distracted by finally finding out where Devilla forest is

Edit: just had another look and Ingliston is a shorter drive to Cardrona than mostly anywhere in Glasgow to Greskine

[AnttiL]

Not mapped by me, but here's some Welsh stage history, 10 editions of this event between 1977 and 1989

https://www.rally-maps.com/Audi-Sport-Rally-1989

[the sniper]

Not mapped by me, but here's some Welsh stage history, 10 editions of this event between 1977 and 1989

https://www.rally-maps.com/Audi-Sport-Rally-1989

Fantastic. This rally was often used as an unofficial pre-event test for the RAC and was the final round of the second-tier National Championship. It was also in the BRC some years. The organising club's (Wolverhampton and South Staffs Car Club) website is great and quite unique, as they have uploaded a large amount of achieve material, including competitors documents and Autosport reports from their past events. 1979 for example: http://www.wssccrally.org.uk/RallyPa...-18th-october/ The full list is here: http://www.wssccrally.org.uk/#rallies

It's a shame other clubs haven't shown similar initiative, as many have great histories but are becoming increasingly irrelevant and those memories are being lost over time. To be fair though, the WSSCC obviously must have benefited from having someone with the website building knowledge and passion for doing the work they did there.

[AnttiL]

Rally-maps.com seems to have received a big resource of old British maps...now for Scottish Rally 1984 https://www.rally-maps.com/Scottish-Rally-1984 50 stages!

[HKSjbg]

Not sure if this may be of any interest to anyone but I drew up a rough representation of useable forests and rallies in Great Britain and how they could be linked up to make potential rally itineraries:



The colour coding is a bit inconsistent but I’m limited in what I can see and differentiate with colour-blindness

The red loops are any forests that as far as I am aware are unable to be the sole venue for all a rally’s forest stages. Blue loops are small national level rallies. Yellow loops are either bigger rallies or a potential combined rally (Carlisle based event, a South-West Wales, or a Dumfries based event for example). There are two green loops; the current WRGB and a combo of stages to the east of Dumfries and Perth & Kinross (a fantasy Scottish-based RGB).

Some are a bit of a guess, like the one on the east coast of Scotland where the Grampian Stages Rally is held.

In Yorkshire I’ve grouped the Riponian and the Malton rallies separately and then together as one potential rally.

Interestingly Wales has so much more combos of forests that could be linked up for rallies of all levels from WRC and down. I’ve grouped Clocaenog and Penmachno together as one i.e. the Cambrian, but they could be in their own red loops too



There’s a couple I’ve assumed are still available: Margam is not used as far as I’m aware but surely could still be used if a bigger rally down that way was planned (considering the Red Kite Stages pretty much only makes use of Resolven/Rheola/Rhondda). The other is Brechfa: not used in WRGB for a while and I’m 99% certain there are no national rallies that go there, however there is a wind farm up there so we can assume the roads are still maintain to a good level.

I might label this later on but it’s enough of an assault on the eyes as it is

Edit: I checked last year’s Red Kite itinerary and Margam was indeed used.

[AndyRAC]

What it does show, to me, is which forests are now used, and maybe which are underused nowadays. I haven't been to Tywi since the 2004 Mutiny/Severn Valley stages; I'm not even sure its still available.
Around 2000 onwards, I'd attend between 25-30 events a year - and quite often you'd visit the same area/forest for many different events throughout the year. The number of events which have gone is quite sad, but almost inevitable.

I may do a list when I get time, in regards to the events and forests used; for example, the Clocaenog/Alwen/Brenig area would host; RAC (WRC), Cambrian (BTRDA), Vauxhall Rally of Wales(BRC) and the Astra Stages (ANCRO). The latter two events no longer exist.

[AnttiL]

Finally some actual news...nothing really new, but still

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/the-u...alendar-hopes/

[AndyRAC]

Finally some actual news...nothing really new, but still

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/the-u...alendar-hopes/

At the moment, it can't go ahead. Looking forward, it may go ahead, but I wonder if they'll allow spectators. Would they run without spectators? And will there still be a 14 day quarantine period? Everything is up in the air. The only saving grace is we still have nearly 5 months to the event.
Silverstone are hoping to hold two F1 races, yet had to cancel their MotoGP round......some sports are more equal/bigger than others.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

5 months should be long enough. If the number of Covid cases/deaths continue to reduce in the next couple of months, all elite sports should be running again.

With fans is another matter though. The Welsh wont even let people from England visit and just that relaxation could be weeks away.