While Guernsey Rally chairman Karl Marshall cannot yet unveil exactly what courses crews will be facing on Friday 20 and Saturday 21 February, the motorsport spectacle will again consist of seven stages, each run four times to create a total exceeding 50 miles.
It will start with a Friday afternoon stage like last year, followed by two more that evening, with four split across the Saturday.
Friday afternoon is a short introductory stage, tight and twisty with a crowd-pleasing hairpin mid-way.
Marshall has intimated that the Friday night stages will be ‘challenging’ and ‘in the upper parishes’, while Saturday morning introduces a different beginning to a previously used course and then a brand-new stage – a pattern that will be repeated that afternoon.
Across these stages will be tight lanes as well as fast, open roads.
‘We’ve mixed it again,’ he said.
‘You’ve got your tight and twisty stuff, your technical stuff, and a bit of open and flowing stuff.
‘It’s designed to keep the field tight and it’s worked in the past – nobody’s really run away with it.’
Although not quite matching last year’s 58 stage miles, the upcoming rally will still be significantly larger than any edition before that, at 50.4.
‘It’s slightly less than last year, but it’s just the make-up of the stages and that’s just the way it is unfortunately,’ Marshall added.
‘We’re happy with 50. Anywhere between 50 and 60 is where we’re going to be stuck at.’
The rally will once again be started by Guernsey motorsport legend Andy Priaulx from the Peninsula Hotel.
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