FUCHS LUBRICANTS British Historic Rally Championship - STATEMENT

The Fuchs Lubricants British Historic Rally Championship [BHRC] will provisionally start in June, after the sports governing body, Motorsport UK, announced a countrywide ban on the issue of organising permits due to the spread of the Covid-19 virus on Tuesday (17^th March).

Yesterday’s announcement has forced either the postponement or cancellation of the opening three rounds of this year’s series meaning the first round is set to take place on Saturday 14^th June in South Wales for the Red Kite Stages.

The BHRC was set to expand to eight rounds in 2020 with the new-look calendar offering competitors five forest and three asphalt rounds during the season.

The opening round, The North Wales Rally Services - Rally North Wales was due to take place on 28^th March in Dolgellau, the traditional season curtain-raiser offering a popular mix of classic stages and format. Organisers have elected to postpone the event until 21^st November.

Round two saw a new event on the calendar, the Kielder Forest Rally on 25^thApril utilising an ultra-compact route in the Borders forests and the organising team will postpone the running of the new-look rally until 2021.

The iconic Jim Clark Rally on 30^th May was a new addition to the calendar which heralded the first foray onto Tarmac this season but event organisers were forced to cancel their event.

At the time of writing (18^th March) the Championship and its partner series’ the Fuchs Lubricants RACRMC Mixed Surface/Rally 2 Championship and Crew25 Championship will now kick off in South Wales in June but Championship Manager Colin Heppenstall is monitoring the situation closely.

“On Tuesday 17^th March Motorsport UK announced a temporary suspension of organising permits until 30^th April which of course affects the first three rounds of the British Historic Rally Championship,” he says.

“Our heartfelt sympathies must go out to the organising teams of the events affected as we fully appreciate a lot of hard work would have been undertaken before the announcement had been made. However, we simply cannot underestimate the impact of the Covid-19 virus and fully support Motorsport UK’s decision at this time.

We will be closely monitoring the situation and our regulations have the facility to still ensure a competitive championship, no matter how many events run this season. We wish everyone the very best of health at this time and look forward to returning to the stages when the time is right”.

The Championship will provisionally be reduced to six rounds, with five rounds to count.

The full statement from Motorsport UK can be found here:
https://www.motorsportuk.org/motorsport-uk-covid-19-update

For more information on any of the Championships promoted by the RACMRC, please visit:
www.racrmc.org

Provisonal 2020 Fuchs Lubricants Motorsport UK British Historic Rally Championship Calendar