There’s just over a month to go until the fourth annual Motorsport at the Palace sprint competition, in association with the Ancaster Group. This year, the popular two-day time trial will be held on Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday, 26 & 27 May.

This year’s event maintains the quality and quantity of entries, which have quickly helped establish it as one of London’s leading motorsport events. Notable entrants this year include a 1913 Vauxhall Viper, a 1966 Cortina 1500GT – used as the course car at Crystal Palace in 1967, when Jacky Ickx won the main event – and a 1926 Chrysler G70 roadster. These cars will be joined by a host of classic and modern machines, including Ferraris, Jaguars and Aston Martins.

Visitors will be able to enjoy plenty of exciting attractions and exhibitions away from the track. The Kit-Car Village is new for 2013, and features a number of manufacturers and exhibitors, while returning attractions include the Kleers Show & Shine concourse competition and the ever-popular Diggerland. The Classic Racing Motorcycle Club will also be on hand, demonstrating their finest two-wheeled machinery in the live arena.

Car club displays include the North Kent Lotus Group, the GTR Owners Club, the Jaguar Drivers Club, the Lotus Cortina Register, and TVR South London & Kent.

As usual, visitors will be able to enjoy the relaxed atmosphere of the open paddock, where drivers and mechanics are always keen to stop and chat.

Notes…

:: Motorsport at the Palace has raised over £10,000 for local charities: Royal London Society for Blind People and St Christopher’s Hospice and will be continuing its support for these organisations in 2013.

:: Tickets are £10 for adults; children under 16 enter free (but must be accompanied by an adult). Advance tickets are £8, available from the event website at motorsportatthepalace.co.uk.

We are pleased to announce that the entry fee will be frozen, and so, for the 3rd year running, it will be £460. We will maintain the usual 40 miles of stages, but this year each of the 6 stages will be different. We are also in discussions which may lead to a different type of vehicle joining the event in a class of its own.

The event will take place on the traditional date of Sunday, 3rd November and will again be based at the Dalby Forest Visitor Centre near Pickering, North Yorkshire. The stages will be held in Langdale, Gale Rigg and Cropton forests with central servicing at Adderstone Fields which is close to the start location in Dalby Forest. This start location will enable a compact event with reduced public road mileage whilst maintaining the usual 40 miles of stages.

This will be the 16th year that Chris Mellors, proprietor of the MEM World Rally Team, has supported the club with various events. MEM prepares the works PROTON S2000 rally cars for the IRC and Asia Pacific Championships.

Regulations will be available in late August on the rally website www.maltonforestrally.co.uk Online entries will be available and requests for paper versions of the regulations should be made to the entries secretary, Maxine Leggott, 6 Meadowfields Close, Easingwold, York, YO61 3DP Tel 01347 821391

A good entry of historic cars is anticipated as the event counts for points in the Motoscope Northern Historic Championship. Historic cars will run at the front of the field. The event is also a counting round of the following regional championships: ANECCC, ANCC, ANEMMC.

British motorsport specialist MML Sports Ltd has announced that it is to take part in the Rally America series for the first time, supplying reigning NORTH AMERICAN and Canadian Rally Champion Antoine L’Estage with one of its Mitsubishi Lancer World Rally Cars. L’Estage, who holds second place in the 2013 series after two rounds, has already tested the Lancer WRC and is looking forward to more action against current Rally America Champion David Higgins (Subaru) and Gymkhana star, Ken Block (Ford).

The MML Sports Mitsubishi Lancer WRC has seen competition in numerous countries around the world, since the company was created from the former works Mitsubishi rally team. It has gained a reputation for being a car which drivers are able to become competitive in quickly and is perfectly suited to the Rally America series.

The current regulations require very little changes from its existing specification: the series stipulates the same 34mm restrictor as specified by the FIA while the main modification will be the removal of the pneumatic paddle shift gear system, reverting to a fully mechanical shift for the sequential gearbox.

L’Estage tested the Lancer WRC in the Czech Republic at the end of 2012 and was immediately impressed with the performance and handling of the car, which on paper would appear very similar to the Open Class EvoX he had been using. However, the systems which MML Sports developed for the car, in its previous guise as MMSP Ltd, should give the multiple champion – with five North American and five Canadian championship titles to his name – the tools he needs to add another highly competitive series win to his CV.

Commenting, L’Estage told his website; “This is big news! To take part in rallies at the wheel of a car that has been in the [FIA] World Rally Championship is fantastic and I’m really looking forward to more great battles with Ken Block and David Higgins.”

The program will be the first time a Canadian driver has used a modern WRCar from the WRC and the first time that MML Sports has been involved in rallying in North America. However, MML Sports MD John Easton has some experience of the series, having worked with David Higgins in 2003, when he won the championship with the official American Mitsubishi team.

The company will also support Rifat Sungkar in an Open Class Mitsubishi Lancer EvolutionX, run by John Buffum’s Libra Racing operation. This car will use MML Sports’ R4 suspension kit, an engine producing close to WRC-specification power and torque and a sequential gearbox. Sungkar is also no stranger to rallying, having won the Group N ‘Rally Class’ category of Rallye de France in 2012.

Commenting, MML Sports Managing Director John Easton said; “I am delighted that we have reached an agreement with Antoine to provide him with a Mitsubishi Lancer WRC and on-event support for the 2013 Rally America series. This will be a program of firsts – for us, for Antoine and for Canadian drivers – yet one which is extremely exciting. We know that the Lancer WRC can be extremely competitive from various campaigns around the world and Antoine’s credentials are beyond compare, so I am very excited about this Rally America season.

“I am also thrilled to be involved in Rifat’s campaign. We will be supplying the R4 suspension kit, which we co-developed for Mitsubishi as the official R4 conversion, as well as assisting with set-up and on-event work, supporting John Buffum’s Libra Racing specialists.

“I think that with Antoine in the Lancer WRC, David [Higgins] in the Subaru, Ken [Block] in the Fiesta and Rifat in the EvoX, there will be some fantastic action in North America this year.”

The first event for MML Sports with L’Estage and Sungkar will be the third round of the series, the Oregon Trail Rally over the first weekend of May.

Pirelli tyres provided crews with a winning advantage on multiple rallies taking place in the UK and Ireland over the weekend including the Granite City Rally, the Somerset Stages, the Monaghan Stages Rally and the London Rally for Heroes.

In Scotland, Pirelli’s K6 and KM6 Scorpion gravel tyres assisted the top eight finishing crews on the demanding Granite City Rally – round three of the Scottish Rally Championship. However, it was four-time Scottish Rally Champion David Bogie who came out top, winning the event with his ex Colin McRae owned Ford Focus RS WRC equipped with Pirelli tyres.

It was a similar success story for the Italian tyre manufacturer south of the border with another podium lockout for Pirelli on the Somerset Stages, round three of the BTRDA series. Piloting a Subaru Impreza WRC complete with Pirelli’s K6 and KM6 tyres, Connor McCloskey took the overall victory ahead of Charlie Payne in a Ford Focus RS WRC. Kevin Rowledge completed the podium line-up in another Pirelli-equipped Subaru.

Pirelli also starred on Saturday’s London Rally for Heroes: an asphalt rally staged close to the capital which used land belonging to the Ministry of Defence. Gary LeCoadou took the overall victory by over a minute at the wheel of a Pirelli-equipped Toyota Carolla WRC.

In Ireland, Sam Moffett took the win on the Monaghan Stages Rally in a Subaru Impreza WRC which was equipped with Pirelli’s asphalt RX and RE tyres.

Pirelli Tyre UK Motorsport Operations Manager Matthew Corby said: “The fact that Pirelli tyres helped crews take victories on rallies spanning the length and breadth of the country in one weekend is testament to the reliability of our product. Both the K6 and asphalt RX rally tyres performed faultlessly and proves why Pirelli continues to be chosen as the preferred tyre by teams competing on rallies throughout the UK and Ireland. With the Pirelli-supported British Rally Championship nearly upon us, I am looking forward to further success stories in British motorsport at the Pirelli RBF Rally later this month.”