News: Rallying
Ticket sale revenue vital to ensure UK showpiece rallying event is a success
By Graham Lister
Wales Rally GB can’t take place without spectators, the event’s clerk of the course Iain Campbell has told Motorsport News.
Ticket sales provide more than half a million pounds of the rally’s income, money that is not available from other sources.
As the resumption of a British sporting calendar behind closed doors gets closer, Campbell was quizzed on the viability of running the country’s
World Rally Championship counter minus fans.
“We can’t run Wales Rally GB without spectators, it’s unfortunately just as simple as that,” Campbell told Motorsport News.
Fans are being advised that tickets “aren’t yet available” for sale, according to the event website, and Motorsport News understands that will remain the case until restrictions preventing mass gatherings begin to ease.
Wales Rally GB is due to take place from October 29-November 1 as the penultimate round of the
WRC. Given the uncertainty surrounding the formation of the remainder of this season’s calendar, Campbell was asked whether there is scope for the event to switch to a new date to ease possible fixture congestion later in the year.
He said: “We haven’t been asked [to consider changing dates]. If the question comes in you would have to look at it, but there are so many constituent parts that already are fixed.
Even the most important part, the marshals’ time off work to go out and support the event, let alone looking at securing the venues. You never say never but it would be a big ask to move.”
Route planning for Wales
Rally GB has been completed with the itinerary due to be published next week.