NIGHT STAGES FOR SPEYSIDE ANNIVERSARY

To mark the

25th running of the Speyside Stages, the Scottish Rally Championship event will feature forests stages on the Friday evening when it runs next April.

The Speyside is a popular round of the SRC and next spring the event will start with two short forest stages in the dark on Friday, April 21, before a full day of action on Saturday. The first leg of the rally will run with reverse seeding.

Saturday’s route includes the popular stages in Elgin’s Cooper Park, before crews head out into the forests of Moray and West Aberdeenshire to cover more than 50 stage miles for the first time in the event’s history.

Clerk of the course Neil Shanks said: “As a competitor, some of my favourite events have featured night stages and when the club was thinking about ways to mark the silver anniversary, I explored the possibility of expanding the event.”