Oswestry rally driver hoping support at Shropshire event will help bring home motorsport title

A Shropshire motorsport driver has said he is “thrilled” to have a rally event on his doorstep this year.

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Oswestry-based rally driver Lee Edwards says he normally has to travel the length and breadth of the British Isles to compete in his sport.

However, the Shrewsbury-based Hills Ford Stages comes to the county over the weekend of September 19-20.

He is hoping that local support for the Shropshire event will help him towards another top result in the car that is self-designed and developed.

He is currently contesting the lead of the Protyre Asphalt Rally Championship, the high-profile national championship that concludes on the Hills Ford Stages.

And Edwards, who drives a self-developed Ford Escort G3, which uses a Jaguar V6 engine, says the event will also be good for the county as a whole.

“It is massively important for us to have a local event,” said Edwards. “We’ve been travelling long distances to get to other events in Yorkshire, Scotland and the Isle of Man. It's great to have a rally on the doorstep. I think it'll bring a lot of revenue into the county.

Edwards says that having such a high-profile event close to home is good for the small businesses that support him.

“It is good exposure for the businesses that help us,” he said. “We're just a small team from a small town and we always try and get their names out there. It'll be brilliant having an event of this scale on our doorstep. With the following, the social media and all the TV it will do well for everybody.”

Before his local rally Edwards will be travelling again, this time to Northern Ireland later in August for the Down Rally which is the penultimate round of the championship. If he has a good result in Ireland, Edwards will make the short journey to Shrewsbury in September with a chance of winning the championship.