The organisers of the SG Petch Tour of Hamsterley, round three of the West Wales Rally Spares R.A.C Rally Championship, are planning for a capacity entry for the rally on Sunday 28 April.With exactly one month to go until the Co Durham-based rally, over 40 of the 90 available places have already been taken and the organising team expect the entry to be full by the time entries close.

"We are very pleased with how the entry is filling up so early. The local hotels are reporting a lot of bookings, so we are expecting a capacity entry of 90 cars, said clerk of the course Steve Waggett. We are also looking at trying to extend the entry to 100 cars in case we need more places.Being a round of the new R.A.C. Rally Championship has given our event a real boost and we're already working on plans to develop the rally further for 2014 and beyond, confirmed Waggett. This will include a couple of new stages to reduce the time spent in service and shorten the day. However, for now it is all systems go for this year: we have seven challenging stages, with a 14.3-mile final stage which some competitors have said includes one of the best sections of forest stage they have ever done.The Tour of Hamsterley is a round of four regional championships, including the Motoscope Northern Historic Rally Championship. An agreement is already in place to allow crews in historic cars to score points on both the R.A.C. and Northern championships.We are very grateful to our principal sponsors SG Petch Garages and numerous others including GAP Plant and Peter Stephenson of ABLE UK whose support has been tremendous, said Waggett. The event will include a ceremonial start in the centre of Bishop Auckland on Sunday morning.The Tour of Hamsterley is organised by Stockton & District Motor Club in association with Teesside Motor Sport Group. More details at: tourofhamsterley.co.uk