Auto Tests

Quarry Bashes

Road Rallying

Morecambe Car Club runs many competitive events throughout the year, these include The Bay Stages, The Mild and Bitter Stages, The Morecambe Rally, The Illuminations Rally, a 12 Car Rally Championship and an Autotest Championship.

THE BAY STAGES RALLY

The Bay Stages Rally has been based entirely at Cark Airfield, Flookburgh. The Bay Stages is an ideal event for both novice and experienced crews alike. With its February date being right at the start of the Rallying calendar. This event offers valuable experience of a compact event without long road sections for the novice crews, whilst the splits, merges and course alterations keep the experienced crews happy. Due to the sale of a significant portion of Cark Airfield we are currently looking for another venue for the rally, hopefully somewhere a little nearer to the motorway.

THE MILD AND BITTER STAGES

The Mild and Bitter Rally was originally started as a road rally, back in the old days of competitive, targa timed road rallies. The demise of targa timing was the final straw for the Mild and Bitter as a road event and it became a multivenue stage rally, with numerous short stages around the Morecambe area including one stage run along the promenade, onto the beach, under the West End Pier and back on the promenade. The new Mild and Bitter Stages Rally, like the Bay Stages is a single venue, multi use rally. In 1996 it was run at Pontins Holiday camp at Middleton, in 1998 the venue was moved to Hemplands Farm Airfield at Haverigg due to access problems at Pontins Camp. The venue at Haverigg is somewhat rougher than Flookbrough but with some good stretches of fast tarmac which gives problems in choosing a suspension setup. In 2000 the rally looked set to return to the popular Pontins site, but again access problems at the last minute prevented the event from running.

THE MALCOLM WILSON RALLY

The Malcolm Wilson Rally is run jointly by Morecambe Car Club, Kirkby Lonsdale Motor Club and West Cumbria Motorsport Group. It is used to be known as the Lakeland Stages until our sponsor Malcolm Wilson stepped in. The Rally runs through some of the Classic Lakeland forests such as Grizedale, Hobcarton, Wythop, Comb. Last year a Friday night section was included running through Lowther. The Malcolm Wilson Rally has its own site .

THE MORECAMBE RALLY

The Morecambe Rally is a modern road rally, ressurected after sevral years. The 1999 Rally was the first year the rally had run since 1987, and the demise of targa timing, the event was a round of the ANWCC road rally championship. Competitors started from The Greaves Hotel, Lancaster, late on the evening of August 28 for a series of tight standard sections, some of which were timed to the second, interspersed with neutral sections to take the route through built up areas. The route consisted of tight and twisty tarmac and some loose gravel roads on OS Sheets 97 and 102. Results from the 1999 Morecambe Rally can be found here . The rally was not run in the year 2000 to allow the organisers to concentrate on the Classic Illuminations and the Cock of the North.

THE CLASSIC ILLUMINATIONS RALLY

The Illuminations Rally was started in 1955 and, was originally named the Eastwood Rally, after local businessman Arnold Eastwood. The Illuminations Rally (being based in Morecambe in October the name seemed fitting), rapidly became regarded as one of the best road rallies in the North west and was soon incorporated into the National Motoring News Championship. In 1990, local Ford dealers Pye Motors offered their support for the revived Classic Illuminations Rally which takes in some of the finest roads around Morecambe Bay and the Lake District. The Classic Illuminations Rally is a round of the Historic Rally Car Register road rally championship. Run during the last weekend in October the event consists of a Saturday daylight leg comprising special test and regularity sections, a night leg which is simply a road rally and the Sunday morning special tests. After the end of the Sunday morning special tests competitors retire to the Headway Hotel for the after rally dinner and prize giving. Further details can be obtained from Derek Shepherd on 01524 412505 or by email at derek@dashepherd.madasafish.com . Results from the 2000 Classic Illuminations Rally can be found here. The 2001 Classic Illuminations did not run due to the Foot and Mouth outbreak, however an autotest was held at Halton Army Camp, results and pictures can be found here.

THE RUBY RUN

As well as the Classic Illuminations we run a classic tour at the same time, the Ruby Run. This is a gentle tour through the same countryside as the Illuminations Rally uses but with more stops for food at carefully selected watering holes. All those taking part receive a commemorative trophy and all meals in the entry fee.

THE COCK OF THE NORTH

The night section of the Classic Illuminations is opened up to all cars eligible to run under road rally rules. This is nowadays run as a basically preplot event so that both the driver and the navigator can enjoy themselves and every one can complete the route without suffering the indignity of failing to solve cryptic navigation. The roads are carefully selected to give a challenge to all. However we still remember that at least half the field is made up of historic vehicles so very few whites are used. For the year 2000 this will be a round of the ANWCC Road Rally Championship to take the place of the Morecambe Rally. The event is also a round of the SD34 MSG Road Rally Championship and the Cumbria Motorsport Group Navigational Rally Championship. Results from the 2000 Cock of the North can be found here.

THE EASTWOOD TROPHY