Grizedale Stages Rally - 3-4 Dec 21 & 14-15 Jan 22 - CANCELLED

Re-scheduled Event Cancelled

Posted: January 2, 2022 10:47 AM

"Sorry, we’re chucking the towel in. Grizedale Stages Rally, re-scheduled for 14th& 15th January 2022 (having been postponed from 3rd/4th December 2021, due to the damage caused by Storm Arwen in the forests) is being cancelled due to a lack of entries.

The finances don’t add up in a world where there are virtually no variable expenses in running a rally. Due to the last minute postponement of the event in December 2021 – at the request of Forestry England – the Organisers were already committed to £10,500 of expenses.

However, the 84 car December entry dwindled to just 54 at the closing date for the revised January event. This would represent an £18,000 loss, and considering the event has assets of c.£5,000 the organisers decided they didn’t need an accountant to do the maths.

110 entries were received for the rally, representing a more-than-50% withdrawal rate. Competitors will be refunded in line with the Supplementary Regulations if they send the Entries Secretary their account details. The Organising Team would like to express their appreciation of those competitors who remained loyal to the event and the revised date. We know that you – as have many marshals, radio crews and officials – have lost money on accommodation etc and we are sorry for that. All spectators who had bought car parking tickets (again) will be refunded (again). Coniston Mountain Rescue Team will also miss out on their annual fund raising.

For those of you who are not based locally, Storm Arwen caused significant damage. In fact, the West side of Grizedale Forest is still not open to the public, although the efforts of the local forest office were on track to have the stages clear and safe for the middle of January. Our appreciation for their efforts.

For the record, we should state that Grizedale Stages Rally has run every year since 1988 (except in 2010 [snow] and 2020 [COVID-related Forestry England restrictions]). During that time the event opened up 3 new forests for rallying – Broughton Moor, Chapel House Wood, and East Grizedale – and 3 new Service venues – Park Coppice, Skelwith Fold and Miller Bridge in the centre of Ambleside. Since Motorsport UK introduced Safety Delegates in 2017, we have never had a single area marked below the required level of compliance – that’s 50+ areas of safety and organisation that are assessed each year. There aren’t many events able to claim this.

We are not in a position to comment on the future of the event, although you might want to ask your accountants to run you through the figures above. The figures do not take account of the hundreds of voluntary hours put in by the Organising Team, nor their feelings of disappointment at this outcome. A ‘Big Thank You’ goes to everyone who worked so hard to try and make GSR2021-ish happen. Motorsport needs competitors, marshals, spectators, grafters, pen pushers, safety officials, a sense of humour.

Happy New Year!!

See you in forest sometime soon."

The Grizedale Stages Rally 2021-ish Organising Team.

Hippo Motor Group Grizedale Stages Rally 2021 - POSTPONED

Posted: December 2, 2021 3:28 AM

It is with enormous regret that the organisers of the Hippo Motor Group Grizedale Stages Rally 2021 announce the cancellation of the event due to run this coming weekend, on the grounds of safety.

Storm Arwen has reaped considerable damage to the forests, which the organising team had surveyed over this past weekend and hoped could be cleared in time. However, whilst there is a slim possibility of re-opening most of the forest tracks in time, there remains an unacceptable and significant danger posed by the truncated ends of trees protruding, and semi-fallen trees mean that the spectator areas remain fundamentally unsafe. The forests are currently closed to all users.

To the organising team, this is a hammer blow for all our hundreds of hours spent working on preparing the rally, as well as the considerable costs incurred so far. We acknowledge competitors, marshals and officials will also have laid out a lot of money and will be as disappointed as we are to be in this situation. Clearly it is beyond anyones control. To put it in perspective, the villages of Coniston and Ambleside have been without power since Friday night.

A further statement will be issued on the future of the rally, whether we can just postpone or whether this is complete cancellation. We will commit to refunding competitors their entry fees (less the admin charge – sorry) and everyone who bought car park tickets will get an automatic refund.

We thank everyone who entered, who volunteered, who supplied and helped us. Gutted doesn’t begin to cover it."

The GSR2021 Organising Team

Entries Received / On Line Entry / Regulations / Details

Posted: November 12, 2021 3:07 PM

www.rallies.info/webentry/2021/grizedale/

Event Website / Details

Posted: September 4, 2021 5:54 AM

Grizedale Stages