TWO of the highlights of the winter for motorsport fans take place at Croft Circuit near Darlington over the next month but, unless they are well supported by the paying public, it could well be that both the Specsavers Christmas Stages Rally and Cartersport Jack Frost Stages Rally are axed from the calendar.

With last year’s High Court ruling severely restricting the track’s availability nowadays, the operators, Croft Promosport, are under increasing pressure to allocate these two days to more profitable summer activities meaning it can no longer subsidise the likes of Northallerton Automobile Club, who run the popular Specsavers Christmas Stages Rally in late December and Darlington and District Motor Club who organise the Cartersport Jack Frost Stages Rally in mid-January.

Unable to pass on any major price hikes to competitors, many of whom have reduced their activities because of the economic downturn, the only way that the events remain commercially viable is for a decent crowd to attend both events whereby, if that is the case, the events could probably remain on the calendar.

Last year, because of the implications of track usage, the Specsavers Christmas Stages Rally was forced to run in early January rather than its traditional bank holiday date between Christmas and the New Year and coupled with bad weather, a relatively sparse crowd attended.

Having secured a date for bank holiday Tuesday, December 28 this year, both NAC and Croft are hoping for good weather in order to attract a decent crowd, which in the past has attracted crowds in their thousands.

The Cartersport Jack Frost Stages Rally takes place on Sunday 16th January 2011 and prospective competitors are urged to submit their entries prior to the closing date of January 4th 2011.