World Rally Championship leader Elfyn Evans is expected to compete at home for the first time in six years when he tackles the Grampian Forest Rally in August.
The Toyota-driving Welshman will be joined for a Rally Scotland warm-up by M-Sport’s fellow WRC stars Jon Armstrong and Romet Jürgenson. All three will drive their team’s Rally2 cars on the Banchory-based August 7/8 event, which runs across similar terrain to next year’s Scottish WRC counter.
While he has been seen at Goodwood Festival of Speed in recent years, Evans hasn’t started a competitive UK rally since finishing fifth on the 2019 Rally GB – the event he scored his maiden WRC win at two years earlier.
The Grampian Forest Rally will be observed as a candidate rally ahead of Rally Scotland arriving on the WRC calendar next season. This will be the first time the world championship has run through the Aberdeenshire stages in its modern form.
“I know very little about the stages up there so, of course, I’d be interested in any opportunities to learn something for the future,” Evans told DirtFish.
Asked if he’d ever tackled the Granite City Rally, a British national event which was the precursor to the Grampian, he replied: “The name rings a bell, but I don’t think I did compete up there when I was doing national events. It would be good to get up there.”
M-Sport team principal Richard Millener also confirmed Rally1 pilot Armstrong and WRC2 driver Jürgenson would be driving factory Ford Fiesta Rally2s. Jürgenson tackled the rally last year as part of his British championship campaign.
Utilizing a Friday evening and Saturday format, the 10-stage Grampian Forest Rally includes action in the Fetteresso and Drumtochty forests within a 59-mile competitive route. These woods sit south-west of Aberdeen, the host city for next year’s Rally Scotland.
Jürgenson drove the Grampian stages last year, but this year will be joined by Jon Armstrong
A source close to the event told DirtFish: “Given the testing restrictions in the WRC these days, events like the Grampian make a lot of sense – the roads are pretty much the same and time of year’s not going to be too dissimilar either.
“It’s a great opportunity to have a look at the roads; we’d be expecting a few more WRC2 runners to be coming across as well. We’re all aware of the regulation changes in the WRC next year, so to have these drivers competing in Britain before the end of the year would be a real bonus for the fans.”
The Grampian, which also qualifies as a round of the British and Scottish Rally Championships, runs the week after Rally Finland.
