MSV chief executive Jonathan Palmer has explained how the World Rally Championship will use the Oulton Park circuit for Rally GB’s first return to a race circuit in 20 years.
Oulton is the opening stage on the October 3-6 event and comes after the crews leave a ceremonial start outside the Cunard Building on Liverpool’s city centre waterfront.
Palmer’s team has prepared a 2.5-mile stage for the WRC’s first return to a British circuit since Silverstone featured on the 1999 itinerary.
The track map, pictured below, reveals a course that uses the majority of the Fosters circuit.
It begins at Lodge corner before turning right at Clay Hill to enter Oulton’s rally stages, and there is a watersplash that roughly cuts between Cascades and Knickerbrook.
“I’m a great fan of rallying and we’re really looking forward to seeing the sport back,” said Palmer.
“We’re 45 minutes from Liverpool and Manchester and, because we’re the first stage of the event, hopefully, none of the cars will have broken down or crashed before they get here!”
Palmer said the forest-specification World Rally Cars would be spectacular on the asphalt sections of the circuit.
“Being in the loose gravel suspension, the cars will be really subtle and really moving around,” Palmer said.
“They’re going to be really exciting to watch. We’ll really be able to see the talent being demonstrated here.
“We’ve worked with Motorsport UK and Rally GB experts to come up with something truly unique, encompassing the best of both worlds.
“We’ll use Lodge corner, through Old Hall and down to Cascades.
“From there we’re onto a bit of gravel – not as much as Wales, but a bit – and then we come back onto Oulton Park’s own rally stage.
“The good thing for us is that we’re used to running motorsport events, we’re capable of dealing with 10s of thousands of people.
“Parking’s no problem, we’ve got plenty of disabled viewing points, there are big screens, live music. It’s going to be one hell of an evening.”
Oulton Park was last used on the RAC Rally schedule in 1993, when Juha Kankkunen, Armin Schwarz and Francois Delecour shared the fastest time around a 2.73-mile stage.
Today’s launch also explained how Liverpool will work as a ceremonial start, with the cars departing Llandudno at 1pm local time on Thursday, October 3.
An autograph session will take place outside the Cunard Building at 3pm and the cars go over the ramp at 4pm and head down to Oulton for the opening test.
While the stage will run competitively just once, fans will see the rally cars three times as crews will complete their two-run recce before the start.