M-SPORT STAGES EVENT TO RETURN FOR A SECOND YEAR
Greystoke Stages clerk of the course Roger Fisher has outlined the initial plans for the additional Greystoke event that Motorsport News understands will follow a similar format to last year’s M-Sport Return to Rally Stages.
The M-Sport Stages, which ran on August 22 last year, was jointly organised by the Greystoke team as well as Malcolm Wilson and M-Sport who use the forest for testing.
The one-off rally was held as a bid to restart rallying in the UK which ultimately stalled due to fresh lockdowns and a bout of increased Covid-19 restrictions.
Last month, Greystoke organisers released a statement explaining that the traditional annual event was being postponed to September 19, 2021 because they had been offered an opportunity to run a second event in the usual summer slot.
Fisher has told MN that the new, as-yet unnamed, event will be held across two days instead of just one and will comprise of around 56 competitive stage miles with the entry capped at 55 because of space restrictions for servicing. But MN also understands that this entry will be reserved for M-Sportmanufactured and Ford cars.
“The basic proposal is we’re going to run a two-day event on
July 3-4 [and] all the competition will be in Greystoke,” Fisher said.
“We’re looking at probably in the region of 55, 56 miles. If you’re familiar with Greystoke forest you’ll appreciate that there’s not a lot of options with regard to stage routes, but we are coming up with one or two things that are a little bit different which we’ll reveal closer to the time.”
On the traditional Greystoke Stages, Fisher added: “The event in July will be at Greystoke but a little bit different we hope whereas the event in September should be a fairly typical Greystoke Stages.”