The route for this year's Rally Great Britain will be revealed in Cardiff later today – and it will include significant changes to last October's event.
The main change to the Nov. 11-14 event is the inclusion of three new stages, and the addition of six miles of asphalt on the Crychan stage on Saturday.
Cardiff Bay will get an asphalt superspecial stage, run on the private dockside roads on the eve of the event and on the Saturday night. The crowd pleaser is a shade under a mile in length.
The opening day of the event is identical to last season. Day two, however, starts with a return to Radnor for the first time since 1999. The 9.38-mile stage will open the leg's proceedings and the crews will return first thing after lunchtime service. That service will be a remote – meaning the drivers can only fit spare parts carried in the car with them. Friday and Saturday will include remote services in Builth Wells, north of Cardiff, as opposed to just day one running a remote last season.
Also new to Saturday is the Monument Hill stage, so called in memory of the first ever RAC Rally special stage, which ran 50 years ago this year. The Monument Hill stage runs after Radnor and before the lengthened Crychan stage which includes asphalt sections in the Four Ways area of the Epynt military ranges.
This year the Ford, Citroen and Petter Solberg World Rally Team will have services in the area at the front of the Millennium Centre in the Cardiff Bay area, as opposed to considerably less scenic port parking lot which the organizers were forced to use in order to cater to the manufacturers and their hospitality areas last year.
Rally GB 2010 itinerary
Thursday November 11
Start Cardiff 1845
SS1 Cardiff Bay (0.99 miles) 1930
Friday November 12
SS2 Hafren 1 (19.87 miles) 0938
SS3 Sweet Lamb 1 (2.67 miles) 1019
SS4 Myherin 1 (17.32 miles) 1037
Remote service Builth Wells 1210
SS5 Hafren 2 (19.87 miles) 1351
SS6 Sweet Lamb 2 (2.67 miles) 1432
SS7 Myherin 2 (17.32 miles) 1450
Service Cardiff 1830
Saturday November 13
SS8 Radnor 1 (9.38 miles) 1000
SS9 Monument Hill 1 (6.27 miles) 1110
SS10 Four Ways Crychan 1 (16.21 miles) 1141
SS11 Halfway 1 (11.41 miles) 1219
Remote service Builth Wells 1333
SS12 Radnor 1 (9.38 miles) 1458
SS13 Monument Hill 1 (6.27 miles) 1608
SS14 Four Ways Crychan 1 (16.21 miles) 1639
SS15 Halfway 1 (11.41 miles) 1717
SS16 Cardiff Bay 2 (0.99 miles) 1925
Service Cardiff 1937
Sunday November 14
SS17 Resolfen 1 (18.20 miles) 0833
SS18 Margam Park 1 (4.97 miles) 0946
SS19 Resolfen 2 (18.20 miles) 1127
SS20 Margam Park 2 (4.97 miles) 1240
Finish Cardiff 1357