Ticket offer for disappointed Wales Rally GB fans at Chirk Castle
Disappointed rally fans who were turned away from Chirk Castle after hundreds of people packed the venue have been told they can use their tickets this weekend.
Organisers of the Wales Rally GB have been forced to apologise to rally enthusiasts who missed out on Saturday.
The car parks at Chirk Castle filled up almost as soon as the gates opened and organisers struggled with the sheer volume of traffic travelling to and from the castle grounds along narrow country lanes. To try to pacify ticket holders the organisers said that they would be able to use their tickets for the Kinmel Park RallyFest stages on the North Wales coast on the Sunday.
With the number of spectators also causing delays to the Chirk stage, organisers have declared that the Kinmel Park stage will only be open to existing ticket holders, in an attempt to avoid a repeat.
There were similar problems in Llandudno as thousands of people poured into the resort to watch the forest stages at Dyfnant and Clocaenog and on the Great Orme. Andrew Coe, chief executive of the event organiser International Motor Sports, said: "We were thrilled with the response and interest in this year's new look Wales Rally GB. Moving the event to north Wales has proved a huge success and we have seen unprecedented spectator numbers lining the forests and roads of every stage.
"Unfortunately this led to a number of spectators not being able to gain entry to the stages at Chirk Castle. We're aware that many of these were existing ticket holders and for that we apologise.
"The venue's car parks simply reached capacity and there was simply no alternative."
