New closed-road rally in Herefordshire

Cheltenham Motor Club, organiser of the Get It Sideways Stages at Down Ampney, has revealed plans to hold a closed-road stage rally in 2019.

The Three Shires Stages will run “mainly on closed public roads” in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

It will be based at the Eastnor Deer Park near to the town of Ledbury, with more details being revealed in the coming months.

Entries open at the end of April, with the event due to run on September 7. It is awaiting its permits from Motorsport UK and the Highways Agency.

A number of closed-road rallies are set to run this year in England. The first to run since a 2017 rule-change making it easier to obtain permits, the Rally Tendring and Clacton, runs in April, while the North West Stages in Lancashire is set to use at least a majority of closedroad tests. The Riponian Rally in February has taken advantage of the new laws to run longer forest stages in North Yorkshire.