North West Stages - 20-21 Mar 20 - CANCELLED

Posted: March 21, 2020 6:19 PM - 2955 Hits

Round 1 - 2020 Motorsport UK Asphalt Rally Championship

Legend Fires North West Stages Date

Posted: March 21, 2020 6:19 PM

After careful consideration the event management team has come to the decision that the next Legend Fires North West Stages will take place in March 2021.

When the 2020 event was first postponed the organisers gave serious thought to identifying a date in September / October 2020. Despite a very congested calendar there appeared to be one possible option in mid-October. However, at this point in time, we do not feel that the logistics of organising an event in that timescale make this a tenable proposition and so the 2020 Legend Fires North West Stages is now cancelled.

As organisers we are not only required to follow the legal closed road application timetable, but we would also need to be re-starting the resident consultation process in the next month which would not follow the current social distancing guidelines and we should be attending council meetings which we assume will be suspended for the foreseeable future. Also, and most significantly, if we ran an event in October 2020, we would not have the time or resource to run another event in March 2021 and so would risk losing our anniversary date.

We also had to consider the re-scheduling of other rallies for the rest of the year. No one knows how long these restrictions will go on for, which events will still run and whether championships will continue for 2020, hence the final decision to abandon thoughts of running the event in 2020.

We understand that this will be a disappointment to some of the organising team, competitors, sponsors and spectators, but we have to be pragmatic and look at the long-term future of our event. When organisation of the 2020 event started, no one could have predicted the dire situation we find ourselves in and the knock-on effect that this virus is having on all parts of our lives, including all sporting events.

In order to protect the event financially we made the tough decision to postpone in advance of any Government or Motorsport UK directive. It is now clear that it was absolutely the right decision.

The last couple of weeks have been a challenging time for the organising team and we would like to thank the many people who have supported the difficult decisions we have had to make.

Event Postponed

Posted: March 12, 2020 5:50 PM

The organisers of the 2020 Legend Fires North West Stages Rally have had to make the very difficult decision to postpone next week’s event in view of the worsening situation with the Coronavirus pandemic.

In addition to the commercial consideration that every day closer to the event leaves us exposed to significantly more financial risk, most importantly we have taken into account the fact that the event attracts competitors, press, support crews and spectators from all over the country and we feel that to continue with the event would not be responsible or in the best interests of the community.

Although tonight’s government statement is not as bad as anticipated, it is clear than the virus will continue to escalate over the coming days. Today we had to make financial commitments to numerous organisations that would have meant any subsequent cancellation next week would have bankrupted the organising club.

Although cancelling this week will result in heavy losses it does mean that we should be able to survive to see the event run in the future.

We wish to thank everyone who committed to the event, especially the many people who have given up hundreds of hours of their time in organising, We do not intend that to be wasted and will be seeking ways of selecting a new date for the event.

To the competitors, we understand your disappointment, but can assure you it’s not a fraction of the disappointment felt by the organising team.

It was important that we let people know this decision as soon as possible but please be patient with us, we will clarify more detail in the days to come.