CAMBRIAN TO GO AHEAD AFTER ROUTE CHANGE
The Cambrian Rally will go ahead on February 11, after uncertainty between Natural Resource Wales and the organisers over road preparation threatened to derail the event.
The rally has lost around four miles of action as Clocaenog cannot be used. Instead of having single usage of stages the event is now scheduled to run through the Alwen, Aberhirnant and Llangower stages twice each to make up for the loss of Clocaenog.
The issue over the event’s running comes with the proposed use of a section of Clocaenog, which MN understands hasn’t been used for rallying for 10 years.
The Cambrian organisers wanted NRW to prepare the route, but heavy felling is expected in that area until the Friday before the event.
However, the issues do set a precedent. If Rally4wales – now tasked with repairing NRW roads after rallies in its forests – goes in and repairs a road and then NRW run heavy machinery in the area, extra preparation may be needed for the roads for the next rally. The consequences of who does this –NRW or R4W – is expected to be discussed at a meeting this week.
Richard Ceen of R4W said that R4W and NRW had “bent over backwards” to offer an alternative forest to avoid the use of Clocaenog in the lead up to the event.
Rally4wales was expected to meet with NRW and the organisers of the Red Kite earlier this week to ensure that the route for the February event is acceptable to all parties, avoiding any last-minute issues.
Another meeting on Wednesday in Welshpool will feature the Motor Sports Association, Natural Resource Wales, Rally4wales and the clubs running events in Wales with the aim of smoothing out relations between all parties and solving any grey areas in the way roads are prepared and repaired in Nrw-run forests in Wales.