This Saturday will see the beautiful Forest of Dean reverberate to the sound of rally cars once again. After last year’s event was postponed, the hard work and dedication from a new organising team made sure this year’s event would go ahead,which is also a boost to the local economy at this time of the year.

The Winner Garage Wyedean Stages in association with KGD Services will see nearly 90 cars leave the Vantage Point complex at Mitcheldean on Saturday morning for six special stages and 42 miles of competition.

The first block will include Category 1 and 2 historics and up to 1400cc cars seeded in reverse order, and these will be followed by the rest of the field in performance seeded order.

There are some fantastic old historic cars in this first block, with the Volvos of Bill Douglas, the events associate sponsor, Ken Davis of KGD in his Amazon, former Wyedean winner Ian Beveridge in his Toyota Corolla TE 27, and the BDA Mk 1 Escort of Andy Stokes, who did the first ever Wyedean in 1975.

One of the first local drivers on the road is young Luke Watts on his first ever gravel rally in the NJ Auto Repairs /Ian Watts & Son 1.0 Toyota Yaris. Ably guided by Colin Jenkins,Luke’s grandfather Phillip Turley was the Wyedean clerk of the course for 40 years, with mum Karen is in car 202. Also in this block will be the first of the husband and wife combinations James /Kelly Dunkley in the Vauxhall Corsa, the spectator’s favourite car, the Dennis Motorsport Mini GT of Eric Davis and Russ Joseph, back for yet another Wyedean. But the battle for overall honours at the front of this section is expected to be between BTRDA 1400 front runners Steve Black with Ross Motor Clubs Paul Morris on the notes in the Suzuki Swift 1400 S and local husband and wife team Nigel and Karen Jenkins in the NJ Auto Repairs /M. E. Damsell 16v Nova.See the full story in this week’s edition of the Ross Gazette, or subscribe to our online edition here