UK rally news: Rally Scotland confirms 2027 dates as Brands Hatch stands down

Rally Scotland will bring the World Rally Championship back to Britain over six days next autumn, starting on 28 September 2027 and culminating on 3 October, with Aberdeen as the event’s base. The dates were confirmed in the week that Elfyn Evans was crowned Britain’s first WRC drivers’ champion in 25 years.

In this week’s UK rally news:

• Rally Scotland confirms its 2027 dates
• Brands Hatch Winter Stages stands down for a season
• Bowen takes the Asphalt co-drivers’ title

Rally Scotland confirms its 2027 dates

Pace notes: Rally Scotland will run from 28 September to 3 October 2027, a six-day event that culminates in three days of competitive stages. The first two days are set aside for reconnaissance at controlled speeds and a shakedown at full pace on Thursday 30 September; competition starts that evening, with stages on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The rally’s headquarters and service park will sit at The Event Complex Aberdeen, and the stages will use closed forest roads on gravel in the north-east of Scotland.

Hugh Chambers, chief executive of Motorsport UK, said: “Elfyn Evans becoming Britain’s first WRC Drivers’ World Champion in 25 years gives the championship’s return to the UK even greater significance, and gives fans another reason to look forward to Rally Scotland in 2027.”

Splits:

• The dates were announced in the week following Evans’s title at Rally Italia Sardegna, Britain’s first drivers’ crown in more than 25 years.
• Reconnaissance fills the first two days, crews refining pace notes at controlled speed before the shakedown on Thursday 30 September, which runs at full pace.
• The competitive action begins on the Thursday evening, with the stages then running from Friday to Sunday.
• Aberdeen is the base: rally headquarters and the service park are at The Event Complex Aberdeen.
• The confirmation came after a three-year broadcasting deal that will put every round of the championship live in front of UK viewers from next year, Rally Scotland included.

Stephen Flynn, Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Tourism and Transport, said: “This event will showcase to a global audience what Scotland has to offer and will attract thousands of visitors, teams, and fans from around the world.”

The road ahead: With the dates fixed, teams, organisers and spectators have a target to work to, and the announcement landed in the week the championship gained its first British drivers’ champion in 25 years. Accounts of the schedule differ in scope: the confirmed start is 28 September with six days culminating on 3 October, while one account of the same announcement describes the event as running 1-3 October with the shakedown on 30 September.

Brands Hatch Winter Stages stands down for a season

Pace notes: Chelmsford Motor Club has confirmed that the MGJ Engineering Brands Hatch Winter Stages will not run in 2027. Brands Hatch has more circuit works than usual scheduled through the winter of 2026/27, which rules out the planned January date; with no alternative found, the event takes a one-year break and returns in 2028.

Splits:

• The club says MSV advised that the planned January 2027 date would not be available, and that it worked with MSV and its championships to find an alternative.
• The announcement is dated 7 October 2026 and lands as the circuit reaches the end of its centenary year, with heavier-than-usual works scheduled through the winter.
• The club says an event of this scale needs contractual and volunteer commitments fixed well in advance, and that competitors need certainty that its plans are robust too.
• The club had already been talking to MSV about opening up more of the circuit’s roads, backed by infrastructure works that are already planned.

The road ahead: The break removes a January fixture from the winter circuit calendar for a season, and the club has set the bar for its return: the club wants a return with more variety in its stages and more competitive miles than 2026 delivered.

Bowen wins the Asphalt co-drivers’ title by three points

Pace notes: Jack Bowen is the Protyre Motorsport UK Asphalt Rally Championship’s co-drivers’ champion for 2026, taking the title by three points from Chris Lees. The 26-year-old from Hereford went into the final round two points behind and took maximum points at the Hills Ford Stages, having had 47 points taken off under the dropped-scores rule across the seven-round season.

Splits:

• Co-drivers enter the championship in their own right, separately from the drivers: a registered navigator can still score alongside a driver who has not registered, as long as the car runs the championship’s official championship decals.
• Rob Fagg scored maximum points in that way alongside Ryan Loughran on the Manx National Rally, and Jack Morton matched that with two drivers who were not registered: Garry Pearson on the Argyll Rally and Callum Black on the Tour of Epynt.
• Four different navigators led the co-drivers’ standings during the season: Max Freeman and Rob Fagg after the opening two rounds, then Bowen from round three.
• By the end of round six the dropped scores had changed the picture: Bowen had to discard the points from an eighth place on the East Riding Stages, which put Lees in front of the standings before the finale.
• The final top five reads Bowen 134 points, Lees 131, Rhys Stoneman 126, Sam Spencer 107, Alun Cook 98.
• Bowen sat alongside Aled Wyn Morgan through the latter’s first season in a Fiesta Rally2.

Jack Bowen said: “To win the Protyre Asphalt Rally Championship this year is far beyond what I could have ever expected,” adding that the season had been thoroughly enjoyable and competitive, and that the aim had been to help Aled Wyn Morgan get up to speed in the new car in their first full season together.

The road ahead: The title was settled by the dropped-scores arithmetic as much as by pace. Bowen discarded 47 points, more than the three-point margin he won by, and on all seven scores he would have won by 38. The season was open enough that three co-drivers each scored maximum points twice and four led the standings at some stage.

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Next on the stages

• 11 October — Kevin Ephraim Memorial Toyota Harlech Stages 2026 — Welsh Tarmacadam Championship
• 17 October — Rali Cilwendeg 2026 — TVMC and WAMC road rally championships
• 18 October — GPMC Autumn Stages Rally 2026 — ANWCC and SD34 stage rally championships
• 24 October — Lewis & Hunter Cambrian Rally 2026 — British Rally Championship, BTRDA Rally Series and Pirelli Welsh Rally Championship