Scottish Rally joins BTRDA 2020 calendar
The 2020 BTRDA calendar has been announced with the Scottish Rally joining the bill in place of the Plains Rally.
Traditionally a round of both the British Rally Championship and the Scottish Rally Championship, the Scottish Rally is now solely an SRC round but remains one of the UK’S most iconic events with past winners including Roger
Clark, Hannu Mikkola, Stig Blomqvist, Richard Burns, Colin Mcrae and Ari Vatanen.
Scottish Rally clerk of the course Jonathan Lord is delighted to be welcoming the BTRDA on the event’s
75th anniversary.
“We’re pleased to be a part of it and part of the Scottish Championship as well, we’re delighted to bring the two championships together for the first time for quite a long time,” Lord told MN.
“We’d like to create some friendly rivalry. The two championships obviously have a common champion this year in Euan Thorburn so it’s quite appropriate that we’re able to be a part of both in 2020.
“We are hoping the extra entries we might get through being part of the BTRDA will mean we won’t have to have any double usage stages so that should be welcomed by everybody.”
Several BTRDA competitors are thrilled with the switch, including BTRDA 1400 champion Callum Black, who finished second on the Scottish Rally in 2014.
“The Scottish Rally will bring some fantastic stages. I remember getting to the end
of one of the Ae forest stages in 2014 and thinking what a fantastic stage it was,” he told MN.
“They flow really nicely and have some fast sections into some technical sections.”
Silver Star champion George Lepley added: “Personally
I think it’s great that the BTRDA is going to Scotland [as it] gives a more geographical spread which is what it’s all about.
“Hopefully the BTRDA will gain some more customers from
Scotland with Malcolm Wilson in Carlisle and the Trackrod in North Yorkshire, the Scottish guys would only need two trips further south for a BTRDA championship campaign with the best five scores from seven [counting].”
The remainder of the BTRDA calendar remains the same as 2019 starting with the Cambrian Rally in February and concluding with September’s Trackrod Rally.