Galloway Hills Rally

It is great disappointment, that together with our co-promoters Machars and East Ayrshire Car Clubs, we have today announced the cancellation of this year’s Armstrong Galloway Hills Rally scheduled to take place on Saturday 14th September.

This decision has been made due to the high costs being imposed for the reinstatement of the stages; the temporary deal which is in place for repairs in 2024 (where the repair scheme is managed by an external company on behalf of Motorsport UK and charged on a fixed rate per mile basis, and Forestry and Land Scotland only charge a small set permit fee) is cost prohibitive for a smaller event such as the Galloway Hills Rally.

The event had been in prolonged discussion with Motorsport UK to negotiate a different approach to cover repairs on the 2024 Galloway Hills Rally, proposing to pay only the true cost of our repairs plus a management fee covering the paperwork and insurance element, however it was not possible to get this deal over the line in time for our 2024 event. Our three-club committee will endeavour to further explore the proposal we have put to Motorsport UK. We hope that after open discussion with the other Scottish forestry rallies, a deal which works for all sizes of event can be agreed for 2025+, and thus ultimately help to safeguard the future of gravel rallying in Scotland.

Note: We have always enjoyed a great relationship with Forestry and Land Scotland (formerly the Forestry Commission) in our corner of Dumfries and Galloway, and they have been nothing but supportive of every event we have run. Similarly, we would like to thank our headline sponsor The Armstrong Group for all they have done over the past 24 years, and hope that a deal can be struck which enables us to give them the 25th Anniversary event they deserve, and allows us to return to run the 50th Anniversary Galloway Hills Rally next year.

The full statement issued on 24.07.2024 can be found on the official Armstrong Galloway Hills Rally website.