www.wgdfmcc.org.uk

West Glos & Dean Forest
Motor Cycle Club

Celebrating 71 Years of Motor Cycling 1953 - 2024

Rally Events 2013

Words: Colin and Mike Wells

This is now our main Rally page where you may find links to previous Rally related stuff.

We've had an exciting year in 2012 with Mike Wells riding all the BBRC Championship rounds, crossing fingers that he kept it upright and pointing the right way. We all knew he could do it.

Events so far

Report - Brechfa Rally (Dyfed Dirt Bike Club) - Only one West Glos entry but Mike claimed a 3rd.

Coming up

Entries have just opened for a new event, the Pikes Peak Rally on 28th April, but in a familiar Tarenig Forest. Here is the entries page on the ATRC website.

BBRC is now ATRC - Class Changes for 2013

The UK rally series next year will be open to all sizes of bikes. Classes are likely to be - under 300cc enduro and trail bikes, over 300cc but under 575cc enduro and trail bikes, and over 575cc trail or rally bikes, single or multi cylinders. The organisers are likely to run the championships under the ACU banner. This will include a 3 day rally based in Carlisle to celebrate 100 years of the ISDT/ISDE (Ben get the Bulto ready, and maybe Jules should think about that superb Enfield!)

At this moment Mike is thinking of stepping down to a KTM 500 EXC (tiddler class!) for an easy life, but things may change if the KTM factory come knocking on his door.........yeah right!

All Terrain Rally Challenge 2013 (formerly Big Bike Rally Challenge)

Update 31.08.13

Mike Wells has now competed in 5 of the 6 rounds of the ATRC for 2013 and is currently leading the Rally Lite class for enduro bikes between 350cc and 574cc. He is riding his KTM 500EXC and has a healthy 32 point lead with 2 rounds of the championship remaining.
For those unfamiliar with UK forest based rallies they generally consist of 1 or 2 day events, usually multi lap (100 – 150 miles in total) and have between 1 and 3 special tests per lap, timed after an initial sighting lap. Any type of off road bike can be used, but most rallies cross roads so need to be road legal. There are classes covering engine capacity, two stroke / 4 stroke, trail, rally, big bike singles and big bike multi-cylinders, anything goes.....except for converted motocross bikes. Riders are self graded on the entry system from beginner to expert. Most of the going is hard based forestry tracks with a low proportion of muddy single track  (roughly 80% / 20% split), this is to allow the big bikes to get around (KTM 950 Adventures / BMW HP2's etc) . The ATRC  is run over 8 events with the best 6 results to count.
The season opener was the Brechfa rally in West Wales where Mike finished 3rd in class and 8th overall. This was followed by the Pikes Peaks rally and the Rally Moto Sprint events, both run in mid Wales near Llangurig (Sweet Lamb rally complex, TV's Top Gear testing ground for their rally car outings and Bentley test).
In June Mike travelled north to the famous Kielder Forest for the K2 rally, another favourite for car fans with fire roads that the Rally of GB utilises, well known for it's fast, sweeping but often dangerous corners. In July Mike opted to miss the Ryedale Yorkshire based rally, opting instead to ride the Powys enduro with a number of other WGDFMCC members, an enjoyable event and one of the best time card enduro's out there. Enduro virgins in attendance were Denver, Andy and Gareth, all seemed to enjoy the experience, some more than others. Denver went especially well gaining a great result and muscling his Honda CRFX450 through some of the technical going.
Mike's next rally was the Centennial Rally based in the city centre of Carlisle. This one off event was to celebrate 100 years of ISDT / ISDE's. Carlisle was chosen as this was the venue for the first ever ISDT in 1913 and a separate ride out was arranged for the older bikes which followed the original 1913 route.
The actual rally consisted of 3 days riding, 2 days in the Kershope Forest (150 miles per day) and 1 day in the Kielder covering 200 miles. This was one of the fastest UK rallies with speeds of over 100mph on the forest roads, with some very twitchy moments. On the Saturday night a rider's get together was held in a local hotel with presentations from Dakar rider Lyndon Poskitt and Edo Mossi. An announcement was made by Edo, who organises rounds of the World FIM rally Championship, that he would like the organisers of the ATRC to host a UK FIM round in 2014, watch this space. The organisers are local to ourselves being from Cheltenham and Worcester (Burt and Moly).
There are two events remaining this year, the Hafren Rally on September 22nd (Llangurig) and the Cambrian Rally October 12th / 13th (Llandovery). Mike hopes to wrap up the Rally Lite 4 stroke championship at the Hafren, needing just an 11th place finish in order to go one better than last year when he ended up on the 2nd step of the podium aboard his KTM 690R in the big bike singles class. If all goes belly up at the Hafren then he still has the Cambrian as a back stop.  
Entries open for the Hafren on Monday Sept 2nd and the Cambrian is already open, links via enduronews.com. 
The All Terrain Rally Challenge has a separate web site –
http://www.bigbikerallychallenge.co.uk/content/events
Mike's results to date –
Brechfa – 3rd in class, 8th overall
Pikes Peaks -  2nd in class, 5th overall
Rally Moto Sprint -  3rd in class, 6th overall
Kielder – 1st in class, 4th overall
Ryedale – not attended
Carlisle Centennial – 1st in class, 3rd equal overall