2023 Motorsport UK British Historic Rally Championship

Fuchs Lubricants RACRMC Historic Rally Championship reveals a new look for 2023

Posted: January 2, 2023 3:41 PM

The Fuchs Lubricants RACRMC Historic Rally Championship has launched details of the 2023 season, offering a top-drawer seven-round calendar for the year ahead.

After making the switch to an all-gravel series in 2022, following feedback from competitors the championship will introduce an asphalt round to the series, adding to six high quality forest events which encompass some of the best gravel stages in the country.

The Roger Albert Clark Rally Motor Club organised series will continue to provide a wide range of classes for historic specification machinery, catering for competition cars registered from 1968 to 1990 Including everything from Category One to FIA specification examples.

Building on the success of this season, the 2023 series will once again kick off in February with the Riponian Stages Rally, utilising classic tests in the Yorkshire forests. A popular opener to the championship, its closed road link sections provided a dynamic twist to test crews at the start of the year.

Rally North Wales follows on in March, offering world-class stages near its new rally base of Welshpool, before a return to Wales in May for the Plains Rally. The event made its debut on the BHRC calendar last season, with Wales Rally GB tests of the past on offer once again.

Featuring on the roster for the very first time is the Tour of Epynt. Earmarked as a two-day event across the infamous Epynt Military ranges, the rally is the only sealed surface encounter of the year but will test contenders’ precision driving to the limit in August.

After a rapturous welcome this year, the Phil Price Memorial Woodpecker Rally returns next season offering a superb mix of English and Welsh forest stages in September, before the Trackrod Rally Yorkshire offers the first foray into the darkness. The now traditional competitive mileage on Friday night before a full day on Saturday in the super-fast stages offers the ultimate gravel test later in the month.

The Carlisle Stages once again hosts the final round of the championship but adds to the traditional format with stages on Friday night. With forest tests on both sides of the Scottish Borders and the Kielder Forest complex, the event rounds out the calendar in October.

Five scores will count from the seven rounds and Historic Rally Championship Manager Colin Heppenstall is excited by the new look to the championship in 2023.

“After the success of the 2022 season, I`m very pleased to be able to reveal the 2023 Historic Rally Championship calendar”.

“The status of the British title is still in discussion with Motorsport UK but both parties are working towards this at the moment.”

“In a post-covid season, we were able to run a very successful championship with bumper registrations and I am of course eager to build on that interest next year. Whilst the calendar is largely unchanged, the introduction of the Tour of Epynt offers crews the chance to make the trip onto asphalt before the final two rounds in the forests.”

“We have been careful to select high quality events with some of the best stages in the UK and with those stages helping to create one of the most interesting title fights in years between Matt Edwards and Henri Grehan, I hope next year will bring more challenges and close competition”.

Championship Rounds

Posted: January 2, 2023 3:30 PM

1. Riponian Rally - 12 Feb 23
2. Rally North Wales - (Sat) 25 Mar 23
3. Plains Rally - (Sat) 20 May 23
4. Tour of Epynt - 5-6 Aug 23
5. Woodpecker Stages - (Sat) 9 Sep 23
6. Trackrod Rally Yorkshire Forest Stages - 22-23 Sep 23
7. Carlisle Stages - 20-21 Oct 23

British Historic Rally Championship (BHRC)