Last updated 19:51, Thursday, 04 September 2008

THE MOTORSPORT action this weekend centres on the Durham Dales Classic Rally, the penultimate round of the GK Group Northern Historic Championship and a counter in the NESCRO Summer Challenge.

There is an excellent entry, with around half coming from the Wigton Motor Club.

Multiple event winners Archie and Richard Simmonds in the MG Midget look favourite in this test-based event while GK series leaders David Agnew/Graeme Mactavish in the Porsche will push them hard.

Returning to the series are Norrie Halley/Ian Wilson in a Mini Cooper S. Norrie is an ex-autotest champion in Scotland so they may well be close up with the Midgets.

Adrian Steward/Richard Simmonds in their Mini will be hoping to keep up their lead in the Summer Challenge, while Robin Murray/Ron Palmer are out in their Mini after a long break this year.

Peter and Linda Dawson have their MG 1300 in works colours and Nigel Cardale/Peter Littlefield in their Anglia.

The Dales is mainly in the Teesdale area and offers some 18 tests of various sorts. As the tests are usually fairly compact on this event, the Minis and Midgets may well have an advantage over the Escorts etc.

September is a busy month with loads of events. Next weekend we have the Skiddaw Trial, then on the 20th the Harewood Hill Climb, the penultimate round of the TJ Services Northern Speed Championship.

The new Reivers Rain Classic Tour takes place on the 21st, run by MG Cumbria, and the final weekend of the year sees many rally fans heading north for the McRae Stages.

As a special tribute to Colin McRae a host of top drivers past and present, from all over the world, will be taking part.

Malcolm Wilson hopes to have his newly built Escort ready while Prodrive boss Dave Richards intends to partner Ari Vatanen as he did to win the World Rally Championship.

October 5 sees the final round of the TJ Services Northern Speed Championship, the Kames Classic, which, in addition to the usual speed classes, has additional classes for historic and vintage cars.

Looking further ahead, on December 7 we have the Christmas Cracker Run, organised by MG Cumbria.

Last week I attended a conference with Alan Dean Lewis, director of external affairs at the MSA on Major Sporting Events In Cumbria, run by consultants for the county council.

This was most interesting as we worked on how we can get involved with other sports and recreations and share skills and facilities. Motorsport has a lot to offer and also a lot to gain from working with other sports.

Too often it has been felt that we were not a true sport in that we were not athletic enough, but the fitness levels achieved by racing drivers these days is just as high as top Olympians.

Hopefully a number of leads and contacts have come out of these meetings that will be to the benefit of local motorsport in the future.