Stage guide
Our insight into this year’s route, and what challenges the class of 2018 can expect
THURSDAY OCTOBER 4 SHAKEDOWN
Britain’s round of the World Rally Championship starts right here. These two miles represent the last chance for the teams to iron out any final niggles with the car or work more on the set-up for the competition ahead. As it has in recent years, shakedown for Rally GB runs through Clocaenog, with the last right-hander and the run to the finish identical to the first stage proper on Friday morning. A shakedown doesn’t get much more representative than that. Like last year, the cars will be returning to the service park in Deeside rather than to Ruthin for the remote service.
SS1 TIR PRINCE
Absolutely not representative of the three days to come, this superspecial is nevertheless a fantastic opportunity for easy access to the cars and the stars. The stage itself is a short affair, but you’ll see a modern-day World Rally Car in all its fury tearing through a slalom section and around a ‘Dayinsure Donut’. Probably not one for the purist, but many fans won’t be put off – how often do you get the chance to see Sebastien Ogier doing his thing in his Ford Fiesta WRC on a Thursday evening? Of all the stages, this is definitely the easiest to get in and out of, based not far off the A55 dual-carriageway from north-west England into north Wales.
FRIDAY OCTOBER 5 SS2/7 CLOCAENOG
If it’s wet, this will be a really tricky start to the morning and afternoon loops on Friday. The surface is generally softer and muddier than you’ll find elsewhere on the route and much of it is under the trees – so even if the sun is shining it can take a little longer to dry out. The big difference here, however, is the number of junctions. Clocaenog doesn’t flow in the way many of the other stages do, but that doesn’t mean the speeds aren’t as high – between those junctions the road is generally straight and quick.
SS3/8 BRENIG
History will be made in this stage. After running alongside Llyn Brenig, the cars come up a slight incline and turn square left. Technically, it’s known as junction six on the stage – but it’s also the location for the first time an Fia-sanctioned world championship event will run on closed public roads in Britain. Granted, we’re not talking the A5 here, but it’s still a public road and the WRC will be on it. A short uphill section leads the cars back into the woods. They’re back on asphalt twice later in the stage – including the section that was used at the end of the powerstage last year – with almost two of the stage’s 18 miles run on asphalt.
Not long after that, it’s history time again as they nip over the B4501 (first time a world championship has run on a classified British public road) and into the Alwen stage. The second half of this Brenig-alwen combo is the same as last year.
The major changes to this one come in Brenig, with a mile and a bit of overgrown, narrow road returning to Britain’s WRC round for the first time since the 1990s. “This is a solid piece of road,” says route coordinator Andrew Kellitt. “It’s quite narrow, but by the end of the first run the drivers will have redefined the road slightly, making use of the ditches – they have a habit of doing that. It’s interesting; it breaks up the rhythm, which I quite like.”
Another feature of this one is regular surface and grip changes. Moments after leaving the undulating, grass-up-the-middle stretch, the cars are onto an almost Kielder-esque stretch, with the road built up above the ditches.
SS4/9 PENMACHNO
Back on the Rally GB route for the first time since 2013, and back for the first time in the daylight since 1995. Even more important than both of those is the decision to run north and south stages linked together for the first time – another reason to be grateful to the Welsh government for devolving the power to suspend the Road Traffic Act. Starting just above the Woollen Mill hairpin, this stage climbs up to a quarry, with the chance for some superb spectating. After that comes Kellitt’s
conundrum. “There’s a narrow and quite steep downhill section which runs for half a mile or so,” he says. “It’s in there because it helps us link a couple of spectator areas from one car park. Again, it’ll break the rhythm and add to the challenge.”
Not long after there’s a superb section of asphalt – a really quick, narrow lane that will totally focus the crews, especially on knobblies, with the cars sitting high up on gravel-specification suspension. That’s pretty much the north done. Penmachno South is the section that was last used in 2013, so bits of it may be more familiar to some of the crews.
Kellitt continues: “There’s been a lot of talk about the use of closed roads to link stages and this is one of the obvious ones. It’s great to have the chance to combine this into one great test.”
SS5/6 SLATE MOUNTAIN
With two runs at a mile-long stage cut into an old slate quarry, this place has genuine potential for spectators on Friday. The viewing will be excellent, it’s easy to get to (follow the signs to Zip World in Blaenau Ffestiniog), and there’s loads of epic cake on offer in the lovely Slate Caverns restaurant.
RALLY VILLAGE DEESIDE
On Thursday night, Friday lunchtime and evening, and Saturday evening, head along to Rally Village (the service park in old money and service area in even older money). This is where you’ll see vital repair work being done to keep the cars on the road, and it’s also where you’ll find lots of family entertainment. Here’s a tip: if you want the best view of the year, get yourself out of bed and get to Deeside for the first service of the day. Yes, it’s really early (Friday 0645, Saturday 0530 and Sunday 0525), but this red-eye opportunity is gilt-edged and you’ll see more of the crews than ever.
SATURDAY OCTOBER 6 SS10/15 MYHERIN
A genuine case of something not being broken and not being fixed, Myherin is the only stage that remains entirely untouched from last year. Elfyn’s Corner is an interesting square-ish right-hander, but a slightly longer yomp leads you to some of the most aweinspiring action on the whole route as the cars tear down the hill through the windfarm, bouncing off the rev limiter. Classic.
Well known as Jari-matti Latvala’s favourite of the event, this one offers some of the widest roads on the whole route. A real challenge; a real driver’s stage.
SS11/16 SWEET LAMB HAFREN
Joined together for the first time in four years, here the cars will start in what’s arguably one of this rally’s most recognisable locations: the Sweet Lamb bowl. After playing to the crowd, flying over jumps and diving through watersplashes, they head up past the mines and into Hafren at the top of the hill.
There are a few more junctions in
Hafren than the nearby Myherin stage, so the speed’s generally not quite as quick. Hafren will, however, keep the crews guessing when it comes to grip. Unless it’s bone dry (increasingly less likely), the drivers will be on their toes from corner to corner as they feel for more or less traction, eyeing every change of colour on the road surface as an indication as to what could happen when they turn in.
SS12/17 DYFI
Back to the same configuration as two years ago, except with a slightly different start. The surface for this stage has evolved through the year, but it’s primed and ready for this weekend. “It’s easy to forget,” says Kellitt, “that we come
here with our sport, but for the remainder of the year this place is, essentially, a timber factory. There’s been a fair bit of harvesting going on and when I came through here for the first time in March the road wasn’t perfect, but it is now.
“It’s been repaired and it’s settled very nicely. OK, where the new stone has gone down the edges of the road might get chewed up a little bit and there’s the chance there could be the odd bigger rock pulled out.”
But for the most part, it’s that fabulous mid-wales-motorway stuff that we know and love. There will be some standing water here and there if September’s end hasn’t been completely dry, but that just serves to make great pictures. It’s fast, flowing and fabulous.
SS13/18 GARTHEINIOG
Elfyn Evans’s favourite stage. Why this one and not Dyfi, which is a stone’s throw up the road? He doesn’t know. This one just works for him. The start is back at the right-left junction, where it was a couple of years ago. The first downhill hairpin right is really tricky, completely overgrown and more deceptive than ever.
“This stage just encourages you to go harder and harder all the time,” says Evans. “I love the long corners that you can really attack. It’s just a great place.”
Gartheiniog, like Dyfi, has run in slightly longer form in recent seasons, but Kellitt admits he was faced with the nicest of problems for the event’s second day.
“Having all the mid-wales mileage on one day, we simply didn’t need it all,” he says, “so we had to cut some of it to keep it under the regulated 80 kilometres per loop.”
Saturday morning’s loop is 730 metres short of 80km.
SS14 DYFNANT
Replaces Gartheiniog as Saturday’s Red Bull live telly stage for this year. And, because of that, it needed to be trimmed to fit. But no need to worry: Kellitt’s kept the best bits. Irish Corner’s in there as a fast left – the opposite way to last year – leading the cars into the hairpin left at what would have been one of the busiest spectating venues.
“When a stage is only run once, for obvious reasons you tend to get fewer spectators in there,” says Kellitt. “Dyfnant is, however, one of the classics. The grip level varies quite a lot if it’s been wet/dry on the run up to the rally, but a few years ago we had enough rain to wash the top layer of mud away, exposing a hard base with curiously good traction.”
SUNDAY OCTOBER 7 SS19 ELSI
While this is a completely new stage to the World Rally Championship, Kellitt points out that it doesn’t differ radically from Friday’s Penmachno challenge. “Look at it on a map,” he says. “You can see that Penmachno, Elsi and Gwydir are all part of the same forest, so the geography isn’t hugely different from one to the other.
“It’s obvious we’re in Snowdonia here – this is obviously a mountain stage and quite different to the flatter stuff in Clocaenog or Brenig. It’s also quite technical with a few crests, and corners over crests; it’s quite deceptive and generally a bit slower than some of the other stages.”
The woodland we’re in here is also different to mid-wales. This isn’t really a commercially driven forest producing timber on a massive scale; it has a much more parkland-type feel to it – certainly near the start. But once you climb and get into the middle, there are some superb views.
SS20/22 GWYDIR
The first three miles or so of this stage were used last year, but after that it’s all new – including an interesting half-mile of asphalt in the middle of the stage. While the Cambrian Rally has used parts of Gwydir and Elsi, it’s more than likely that Britain’s biggest motorsport event hasn’t been on these roads since it was called the RAC in the 1960s.
“It’s hard to know which roads were used back then,” says Kellitt. “The route records we have aren’t very specific, but what we do know is that some of these roads are very, very old in here and were probably laid originally to allow the timber to be extracted by men and tractors, not the modern harvesting machines. The network of roads in here is quite intense and that’s given us some good choice.”
Once the stage is up and running, it opens up into a nice quick stretch. The asphalt will demand a real focus as it narrows down to take the crews between dry stone walls and hedges.
The first run of this stage on Sunday is the powerstage, with five bonus points on offer for the fastest time.
SS21/23 GREAT ORME LLANDUDNO
The first mile of this stage is new, leading the crews onto the Great Orme, but once they’re on the toll road it’s the same as they drove in 2013. But instead of coming across the flying finish near the archway at the town end of Marine Drive, they’ll crack on through and into the town itself. They go up and down Gloddaeth Street (rounding the Dayinsure Donut) and onto the seafront for a jump and flying finish.
“We’re really bringing the rally to the people in Llandudno,” says Kellitt. “What we’ve done is take a fairly straightforward route as a toe in the water, if you like. Obviously, there’s plenty of potential for a stage through the town, but we have to be completely mindful of local businesses and the local population.”
FINISH LLANDUDNO
This bit isn’t just about the finish – it’s about Llandudno and a weekend of thrills. From Saturday morning, Rally GB will be in town, but overnight into Sunday the area around Gloddaeth Street and down the seafront will be transformed into stages 21 and 23 of the
11th round of the FIA World Rally Championship. While that’s going on, Red Bull trial-biker Kenny Belaey will be mostly in the air above you and Paul Swift will be using just two of the four wheels on his car in front of you. Take a seat in the grandstand for £25 on the day if you fancy the best views, or just pick up a sarnie at M&S and make your way to the Orme end of town, where you can stand and watch the world’s best for free.
Once SS23 is done, the podium celebrations will take place on the seafront. Llandudno will never have looked so cool on an October Sunday.