This Sunday (23rd February) Beverley will come alive to the sound of rally cars for the fourth running of the East Riding Stages Rally.
The first stage of the day at Wawne Common is the longest and runs at 9:29am, before Coom Hill 9:58am, Hatfield 10:29am and Dunnington 10:53am.
After service, the crews reassemble in Saturday Market for two runs on the Westwood (12:41pm and 12:56pm) and then it’s a re-run of the first four stages, before finishing back in the town centre.
Last year’s winners Mark Kelly and Will Atkinson will lead away the 169 cars from Saturday Market at 9am.
But having won last year in a Skoda Fabia R5, the pair will be debuting their VW Polo GTI R5 and registered for the Protyre Motorsport UK Asphalt Championship, where Kelly finished second in 2021.
With the East Riding Stages Rally part of the Probite British Rally Championship for the first time, it’s fitting that starting at car two are Keith Cronin and Mikie Galvin. Between 2009 and 2017 Cronin was champion on five occasions.
He was fourth in last year’s BRC with a Ford Fiesta Rally2, and Ireland Tarmac Champion too.
This weekend he is in a Citroen C3 Rally2.
William Creighton and Liam Regan are the third car away in a Toyota GR Yaris Rally 2.
They just missed out on last year’s BRC title in their Fiesta to Chris Ingram, while in 2023 they were busy in the WRC3 and ERC3 Championships.
James Williams and Ross Whittock were second at last year’s East Riding Stages Rally and third in 2022.
They are regulars on both asphalt or in the forests with their Hyundai i20 Rally 2 and have been rally winners on UK Asphalt rounds.
Callum Black and Jack Morton have been at the forefront of asphalt and forest rallying for a few years and were third in last year’s East Riding Stages Rally, before ending the year as UK Asphalt Champions in Ford Fiesta Rally 2 for the second successive season.
Meirion Evans is back in a Toyota GR Yaris Rally 2 that took him to sixth in last year’s BRC Championship, but with Dale Furniss navigating.
Much of Evans past successes have come from the lanes in Ireland.
A consummate allrounder, James Ford was the 2014 BTRDA Gold Star and Welsh Forest Champion and won the Silver Fern Rally in New Zealand in both 2022 and 2024.
Partnered mainly by Neil Shanks now, the pair have focused mainly on UK tarmac events in the last couple of seasons with their Citroen C3 Rally 2.
Romet Jurgenson and Siim Oja and the first of the M-Sport backed Fiesta Rally 2 crews.
Jurgenson is the current Junior World Rally Champion, having joined the WRC scene in 2023.
Jason Pritchard and Phil Clarke complete the top 10 starters in a Toyota GR Yaris Rally 2, having had much of their success in historic cars, taking the British Historic title in in 2017 and 2018.
