Bath Chronicle

Drive-in to watch this year’s Lombard Rally

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One of the UK’S first COVID-19 secure drive-in sporting events will take place next month with the Lombard Rally Bath.

The rally, which traditiona­lly attracts more than 10,000 spectators, has been granted permission for a reduced capacity for up to 400 rally lovers to attend via a drive-in. And for the first time, the entire rally will reach a global online audience via Ticketco TV’S HD quality pay-per-view live streaming service.

The broadcast will include all the action and expert commentary and interviews hosted by motoring journalist­s Mark Stone and Sarah Hall.

Up to 80 roadside vehicles, with a maximum of five spectators in each, will be able to park up to watch a section of the event near Cirenceste­r. Each vehicle which will be positioned within a 5x5m bubble which spectators will not be allowed to leave. Spectators will be able to pre-order food and drink via the Ticketco app and have it delivered to their vehicles during the event.

Tim Nash, organiser of Lombard

Rally Bath, said: “In order for this year’s Lombard Bath Rally to take place, we needed to change the way the rally serves its customers to make the event financiall­y viable.

“Ticketco TV’S unified pay-perview live streaming and event payment solution met our requiremen­ts and means this year’s rally takes place with sustainabi­lity in mind.

“We’re only a small event organiser, and I believe hybrid events, where physical and virtual tickets are sold, is something the public will have to get used to for a long time.

“Hosting a small number of spectators on a drive-in basis aligned with broadcasti­ng the event live is a fantastic alternativ­e for us and something we will adopt in the future too.

“We are delighted to partner with Ticketco and have been impressed with the versatilit­y of the company’s technology after switching ticketing providers in January.”

The Lombard RAC Rally boomed across Britain in the 1970s and 1980s and was predominat­ely held in Yorkshire, attracting some of the

UK’S largest attendance figures of any sporting events at the time. In 1976 the rally made its debut in Bath, and the great Roman city hosted the event three more times before it moved elsewhere in its final years.

Rally enthusiast Tim Nash made it his goal to return the Lombard Rally to its former glory.

And in 2018, thousands lined Bath’s Great Pulteney Street to watch a host of iconic rally cars depart through the city sector of the nation’s great race.

This year’s rally, which features un-timed special stages which allow drives to showcase their motors to the camera without the pressure of being timed, will feature the usual historic rally cars from yesteryear including Minis, Imps, Volvos, Citroens, Escorts, and many more.

Tickets to stream the full event online on October 17 live on Ticketco TV are available now via lombardral­lybath.ticketco.events/uk/ en/e/lombard_rally_bath_tv__live_ coverage_with_cooper_tire_and_ rubber.

Admission to the live event varies between £8.50 and £15, depending on the number of spectators in each car. Tickets for the live stream are £5.

Ticketco is a cloud-based event payment company, with offices in

Norway, the UK, and Sweden. Ticketco’s technology is designed to make event payments quick and easy. Its payment platform is integrated with its pay-per-view live streaming service Ticketco TV.

 ??  ?? Dave Kedward drives around Cheddar Gorge during the 2018 Lombard Bath Rally which also had a section down the city’s Great Pulteney Street
Dave Kedward drives around Cheddar Gorge during the 2018 Lombard Bath Rally which also had a section down the city’s Great Pulteney Street

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