The McDonald and Munro Speyside Stages

3 weeks ago

𝗙𝗥𝗜𝗗𝗔𝗬 𝗡𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧 𝗙𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 🌃

Next year's Speyside Stages Rally will continue with the night and day format to mark 10 years of McDonald & Munro Ltd sponsorship ⤵️

Following on from a hugely well received 2023 event, rally organisers - The 63 Car Club (Elgin) Ltd - have confirmed that the McDonald & Munro Speyside Stages will continue in the same format for 2024, which will mark the 10th year of title sponsorship from the Elgin-based Electrical, Plumbing, Heating and Mechanical contractors company.

The rally, which will run for the 26th time next year, continues to be one of the biggest annual events held in Moray - drawing thousands of spectators into the area over the rally weekend.

Continuing with the event's mission to take rallying to the people, the rally will start on the evening of Friday April 19th, giving both competitors & spectators an opportunity to experience the raw thrill of forest rallying in the dark, where all the sensations are amplified.

After completing pre-event scrutineering which - with the support of Elgin BID - continues in the pedestrianised town centre of Elgin the rally returns to the centre of Fochabers for a Parc Expose, giving locals and families the chance to mingle with the competitors and view the competing cars up close before they head out and tackle the evening stages.

Starting from 8:30pm, the competitors will head out to the forests for two relatively short stages before finishing the first leg back in Fochabers around 70 minutes later. To help shake things up, this first leg of the event will again run reverse seeding with the crews battling for the rally win start last on the road.

Building on the success of the floodlit spectator area at the Whiteash stage - which attracted over 1200 fans in 2023 - this will continue in the same location once again and event organisers are currently looking at ways to try and further improve the experience.

After the evening’s excitement, crews will get the chance to fettle themselves and their cars before restarting the event on Saturday morning with the traditional two stages around Elgin's Cooper Park. The park blasts are another feature unique to the 'Speyside' and with the Saturday's running order based on the results at the end of the previous night the rally leader will be first to tackle the town centre tarmac test. After the two park stages the event will once again head back out to the traditional heartland of the event in the forests around Elgin, Keith & Huntly.

𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝘾𝙡𝙚𝙧𝙠 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘾𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨𝙚, 𝙉𝙚𝙞𝙡 𝙎𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙠𝙨, 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙗𝙚𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙣𝙚𝙭𝙩 𝙮𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙨;
“Following on from the huge success of last year’s event, we started getting questions on whether we would continue this format for 2024 even before the event was finished! It was intended as one-off event, but with the amount of feedback we received, and another important milestone to mark, we felt that we should stick with it for 2024. I don’t think it’s intended to be a permanent change in format, as it takes a huge amount of work by all of the team at 63 Car Club, with help from our friends from other clubs around Scotland. But being able to pull it off, without any real teething problems is testament to that work, and the team were happy to continue.

It also lets us continue our ethos of taking the event to the people and communities of Moray. We strongly believe it’s more than just a sporting competition, it’s an event for the whole area. It’s fantastic to be able to involve other community groups giving them a chance to raise funds by helping us with the running of the event. Last year we were able to raise over £4000 for local groups from the spectator car parks, and that work will also continue.”

𝙈𝙞𝙜𝙪𝙚𝙡 𝙂𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙯 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙈𝙘𝘿𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡𝙙 & 𝙈𝙪𝙣𝙧𝙤 𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙠𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝟏𝟎 𝙮𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙨𝙥𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙤𝙧𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙥;
“This is always a very well organised local event that brings a lot of enjoyment to the spectators as well as lots of trade to all the local businesses throughout the week. We really look forward to this every year and are proud of our association with the event. It doesn’t feel like it’s been 10 years of title sponsorship. Last year’s event with the addition of the Friday night was fantastic, and we can’t wait to experience rallying in the dark once again. Well done to 63 Car Club for agreeing to include the Friday night stages again as I know it’s a huge amount of additional work for them on top of the normal Saturday’s stages.”

𝗗𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁 @followers 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝟭𝟵𝘁𝗵 & 𝟮𝟬𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗹 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰 𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝘆𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁'𝘀 𝘀𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮 𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗳𝗲𝘄 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁. ...

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