Think again

I read with interest the various articles on the Nicky Grist Stages especially the sidebar on page 20 by Jack Benyon ( Motorsport News, July 13).

I do agree that the organisers try really hard, are professional and relaxed and therefore not overly officious which is excellent. Also the marshals and scrutineering team were great.

Aside from that, the event was dire. The stages were torn up badly and those running down the field were treated to badly cut-up stages. In many places competitors drove a deep rutted corner on the sump guard. In the corners, drivers could go round the outside on the deep mud or torn-out gravel and have no traction or slide out into the undergrowth.

Is this a product of top-flight fourwheel-drive machinery or a product of poor stage prep? If it is the latter, then Natural Resources Wales are not spending the money they say they are.

Perhaps I’m looking through rosetinted glasses as I can’t remember it being this rough when rallying in my youth. I used to be one of the leading front-wheel-drive contenders seeded near the front of the field in the early 1990s when there were few four-wheeldrive cars and stages were typically used only once, so they were fantastic.

Can we get the relevant stage preparation folks to give us some quality roads used once that won’t get easily rutted? Garry Wilson Ledbury