JCB Photography was at the East Riding Stages Rally on Sunday 23rd February 2025. For Special Stages 5 & 6 at Westwood Super Special in the market town of Beverley in East Yorkshire. The event was organized by the Beverley & District Motor Club.
The event is only one of five closed road rallies in the country. Which means that the club use closed public roads which are then used as special stages for the event. Competitors use other public roads to get to each stage, so the cars have to be road legal and obey the highway code.
With five stages, each run twice and a ceremonial start and finish in Beverley’s Saturday Market Place. The first of approximately 170 competitors were flagged away at 9 o’clock.
The rally featured some challenging stages across East Yorkshire’s roads, attracting some of the best competitors from across the UK and Ireland. A large number of competitors were driving Ford Fiesta’s of different specs, from WRC to R5 and R2’s. Along with a number of competitors driving Rally 2 machines from Toyota GR Yaris, Hyundai I20 N, Skoda Fabia to Citroen C3’s. The grass roots clubman was out in Ford Escort’s, Subaru Impreza’s and Mitsubishi Evo’s, along with a number of Clio’s and BMW Mini’s.
With many thousands of rally fans, lining the stage at Westwood Super Special, despite the forecast for strong winds and rain. The rain started just before the action got underway for the start of SS5. Which would at the very least mean a very greasy surface for competitors.
Special Stage 5 got under way then only fifteen minutes later, Special Stage 6 got under way. So, for the spectators this meant that several cars could be on the stage at the same time, so a Rally car would come into view every 30 seconds. As later cars starting SS5 would also be setting off as well as cars starting SS6.
A number of competitors hit trouble in the first couple of stages, including last year's winner Mark Kelly with co-driver Will Atkins in the VW Polo.
East Riding Stages Rally Top 3.
1st William Creighton driving the Toyota Yaris Rally 2 Car#3, with co-driver Liam Regan
2nd Keith Cronin driving the Citroen C3 Rally 2 Car#2, with co-driver Mikie Galvin
3rd James Williams driving the Hyundai I20N Rally2 Car#4, with co-driver Ross Whittock
Full Results from the event can be found here: