Gearing up for vehicle rally fun (From Herald Series)

Owners urged to enter and volunteers sought

4:15pm Thursday 7th March 2013 in News By Colin Palmer

THE annual Wallingford Vehicle Rally and Parade is gearing up to be one of the biggest and best to date. Organisers of the ninth event have already been flooded with entries from owners wanting to take part with their cars, lorries and other forms of transport. And this year’s event on Sunday, May 12, promises to be extra special as the main display of vehicles will be a celebration of 100 years of car production at Cowley. The team behind the transport extravaganza is urging any other owners interested in joining the rally to get in touch as soon as possible. Event deputy chairman Neal Reed said: “We have already beaten our pre-registration record from last year and now have only 70 spaces available on the parade, so are urging people who wish to attend to book early as we can’t fit any more than 250 vehicles on to the Kinecroft on the day. “Pre-registration is available online on our website using PayPal, or you can simply print off a booking form and post us a cheque. Simply visit www.wallingfordcarrally.org.uk for more details.” On the day, the parade of vehicles will leave Wallingford Sports Park in Hithercroft Road at 11am and travel through the town centre before arriving at the event site on Kinecroft, where there will be displays and food stalls. The event will be raising money for charity, principally SeeSaw, which helps children and families after bereavement. Television personality and car fanatic Mike Brewer will be putting in an appearance, chatting to owners about their vehicles and presenting some of the awards.

The organisers are also hoping to have firefighters cut him out of a ‘crashed’ car during their demonstration of accident rescue techniques. Members of The Sporting Bears motor club will also be offering visitors to the event the chance of a ride in an array of supercars in exchange for a donation to charity.

Mr Reed said: “We are working on a programme of events which will be available to buy prior to the event as well as from the bucket collections on the day, showing the work of some of the local charities involved, promoting our very generous sponsors and a timetable of what's what throughout the day.”

He said the event was organised by a small group of volunteers who would welcome anyone interested in helping, even just for an hour to help set up on the morning of the event. Contact the group via its website at: www.wallingfordcarrally.org.uk/