The organisers of the rescheduled 2018 Grooms Garage Mid Wales Stages rally have had to cancel the event scheduled for Sunday, May 27 due to a shortage of officials, marshals and entries.

Due to difficulty in finding people to fill all the roles of officials and marshals and half the number of entries required – only one entry was received in the last fortnight – to break even, Newtown and District Automobile Club decided the event was not safe or financially viable to run.

Clerk of the course Wayne Jones said the club had no other option as it faced a potential loss of £15,000 if the rally went ahead. The club had already incurred a £5,000 loss after snow forced the postponement of the rally’s original date on March 4.

“I feel very sorry for the hard work that the organising committee have put in to organise both the March and rescheduled May event and I would like to thank them all for their efforts,” he added after an emergency meeting of the organisers on Sunday.

“I would also like to thank the officials, marshals and competitors who had committed to the new May date. It is a shame that after all this work that there didn’t appear to be enough interest in what we thought was a reasonably priced, compact event.

“I’m not sure what else we could have done to attract more people to come along to the rally.”

Competitors will be contacted regarding refunds.