Disappointment as park rally called off

There's been a pledge to support the future of Lurgan Park Rally - following the cancellation of the motorsports event for this year.

Upper Bann MP David Simpson expressed his regret that North Armagh Motor Club, who are responsible for hosting the rally, have been forced to cancel the event.

The local MP pledged his support in securing the future of the rally: “It is regrettable that the organisers of Lurgan Park Rally have had no other option but to cancel the event this year.

“This type of event takes major organisation and significant funding.”

Rally organisers said the decision had been made because of a number of obstacles: “Lurgan Park is not available to us... on our planned date so we had to opt for May 20. We face an ever increasing cost of meeting Health and Safety standards. This, combined with the potential bill for repairing the grounds of this lovely park should it happen to be a wet event, we feel is too big a risk for the Club.”

The earlier date also has a number of event clashes and they had been unable to attract a suitable sponsor as a result. The club will attempt to run a ‘Clubman event’ at a different venue on May 20 and aim to bring back the Lurgan Park Rally in 2018.