2012 AS Performance NETRC championship
We are finally up and running for the 2012 championship year.
The Tyneside Motorsport Group has now been granted a permit by the MSA to once again run a recognised regional championship and we have published the Regulations and Registration Form for next year on the championship website.
As most of you will be aware, AS Performance have agreed to continue with their support of the championship for another year and we’re delighted to have them on board for the fourth season in a row.
This year, we’ve kept the tried and trusted formulas that has served us well over the last year and just tweaked things ever so slightly. Once more the championship will consist of 10 rallies with competitors being able to count their best 7 scores. The only change to the qualifying rounds will be the introduction of the Turnbull Trophy at the expense of the Solway Coast Rally. The Turnbull has been part of the championship a few times but military activity over recent years has meant that the venue was out of bounds for civilian events. Times and people change and we’re pleased that Tynemouth and District Motor Club have managed to secure the use of Albemarle Barracks once again for competition. The airfield roads are different to any other venue we visit so competitors can expect a new challenge for the championship this year. We’ve also retained the same class structure that includes a class for cars running to F1000 and FS1000 specifications – we hope that this will attract new faces and cars to the championship.
The first event of the ’year’ is the Specsavers Christmas Stages Rally. Having been planned to run in it’s traditional slot between Christmas and New Year, the organisers received a setback at the beginning of December when this date suddenly was no longer available. Instead they have been offered Monday 2nd January 2012 and as usual the rally is based at the Croft Circuit. The organisers are offering 7 stages of high quality asphalt covering 40 miles on this compact single venue rally and, because we’re running a bit late with our championship launch, the rally organisers have already published their seed entry list of 70 starters. I’m sure the organisers will be happy to accept more entries so if you’re interested, then go to the rally website http://www.northallerton-ac.co.uk/xmas/
The Jack Frost Stages, in association with AUTOGAS 2000 and Cartersport is scheduled for Sunday January 22nd and will be the second round of our championship. The organisers have this year moved their date back 1 week so the usual clash with the Autosport Show has been avoided. Once again, the event will be based at Croft and run to the similar format of last year’s rally. The organisers have only received 17 entries at the moment but anyone considering doing the event have until the 12th January to get their entry in. The link for this rally is http://www.darlington-motor-club.org.uk/series_home.php?seriesid=31
And finally for now, a quick mention about the Legend Fires North West Stages. Although the rally doesn’t take place until 3rd and 4th February and the Regulations have just been released recently, we have already seen 43 crews registering their entries.