One of France’s hottest prospects Adrien Fourmaux is coming to North Yorkshire intent on wrapping up the 2023 British Rally Championship when the Trackrod Rally Yorkshire heads into the forests this weekend.
The annual North York Moors spectacular, will once again based in Filey and forms the penultimate round of this year’s title race, which has ventured across the UK from Scotland to Ulster to Wales and now the north of England.
French flier Fourmaux scorched to victory on the opening four rounds of the series but missed the last event in Wales - the Rali Ceredigion - due to commitments elsewhere, so giving a couple of the chasers a glimmer of hope in the race for the title.
Formaux is still hot favourite to land the crown but Scotsman Garry Pearson (from Duns in a 1600cc VW Polo) claimed a sizeable haul of the points on offer in Aberystwyth, so could still remain in the hunt for top honours if he can gain top spot among the title contenders when the cars return to Filey sea-front midway through Saturday afternoon.
Red Bull-backed Fourmaux has the might of World Championship team M-Sport in his corner and the 28-year old former French Junior Champion is fresh from 11th place overall on the recent Acropolis Rally in Greece - round ten of the World Championships - and fourth in WRC2 (a feeder series within the main championship).
The Trackrod Historic Cup, which runs alongside the British Championship runners and helps kick-off proceedings with a Friday night stage, in Dalby Forest and total darkness bar the glare of rally spotlights, provides a fascinating battle for classic vehicles of the sixties, seventies and eighties.
Although contributing towards a closely fought British Historic Championship, the event is likely to be highlighted by the performance of two former rally winners - local star Matthew Robinson (Harrogate) and Welshman Jason Pritchard (Builth Wells).
Nick Elliot (Cheltenham) in a striking Fiat 131 Abarth, currently leads the race for the British crown but only marginally from Roger Chilman (Hereford) in a Mk2 Escort, with others still in contention.
Saturday dawns with the addition of the Trackrod Forest Stages Rally - a slightly shorter event over the remaining five stages, where David Henderson (Oakenshaw, Co Durham) will look to repeat last year’s victory in a high-spec 1600ccc Ford Fiesta Rally2.
Henderson comes fresh from victory August’s Voyonic Grampian Forest Rally and warms up with next Saturday’s Galloway Hills Rally.
He too is likely to have a very quick Harrogate driver in his rear view mirror as defending BTRDA (national clubman’s) champion Elliot Payne, in another Fiesta, bids to go one better than his runner-up placing in his home county 12 months ago, to fuel his bid this year’s title, which sees three drivers separated by just seven points after six of the eight rounds.
Friday’s action commences with a ceremonial start along Filey sea-front, before the opening test over 12 miles in Dalby Forest.
Saturday resumption is from the grounds of NY500 - a dedicated motrosports cafe on the A169 Malton to Pickering Road, with further stages over 45 miles through Gale Rigg, Cropton, Staindale, Dalby and Langdale forests.
The finish and traditional champagne spraying for all events is from mid-afternoon (approximately 3.30pm) back along the Beach Road in Filey.
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