ANCRO announces 2004 schedule

ANCRO decide against Mewla Rally inclusion for 2004.

The Association of National Championship Rally Organisers (ANCRO) have announced that the Mewla Rally will not be forming part of the 2004 KUMHO National Rally Championship.

After a recent meeting of the championship organising body, it was decided that the intention to provisionally include the Epynt Ranges based tarmac event at this years Annual General Meeting was not to be implemented into the full championship calendar for 2004.

An ANCRO team of observers sent a highly commendable and favourable report back to the ANCRO Chairman John Trevethick after visiting this years event. However, after further discussions with a wide cross section of competitors from this years championship, ANCRO have decided to withdraw from partaking in the 2004 Mewla Rally for the following reasons:

- A lack of sufficient interest and positive response from current KUMHO Championship competitors.
- Concerns over another rally being included that is based in Wales.
- Uncertainties over the future direction of top level national rallying within the UK.

ANCRO Chairman John Trevethick said :

"Its vitally important that we stress that no faults were found regarding the Mewla Rally itself. The report we received from our experienced observers was extremely positive, commenting on a well organised rally. We had no concerns regarding the organisation or the quality of the event.

However, it was brought to our attention that the inclusion of the event had not found much favour within our own registered competitors. For various reasons, they expressed little enthusiasm in contesting the event, and the fact that it was another event within Wales was also seen as a negative aspect.

As a result of this, allied to the current changes and upheavals taking place within British rallying, we decided against including the Mewla Rally within the KUMHO National Rally Championship for 2004, but we sincerely thank the Epynt Motor Club organising team for their co-operation in all discussions we had with them."

The KUMHO National Rally Championship organisers are still actively looking to include the Kall Kwik National Rally into their calendar as soon as humanly possible. Due to the restrictions currently in place regarding summer usage within the North Yorkshire forests, both De Lacy Motor Club and ANCRO are working to find a date that will allow the event into the calendar as a full round of the series.

The confirmed 2004 KUMHO National Rally Championship calendar is as follows:

Rallye Sunseeker  -  February 28th, Bournemouth.

Astra Stages  -  April 3rd, Llangollen.

Roush Manx Rally  -  May 7/8, Douglas, Isle of Man.

Mutiny National Rally  -  June 5th, Llandrindod Wells.

Swansea Bay Rally  -  July 17th, Swansea.

Park Systems Rally  -  September 11th, Newton Stewart.

Bulldog National Rally  -  October 23rd, Shrewsbury.

-ancro-