A new award instigated on this years Pirelli international Rally was the Alan Bateman Memorial Award, given to the Stage Commander of the best prepared and organised special stage on the Kielder based event. Alan was a long serving, and hard working, member of the organising committee who sadly died last year and his presence was sorely missed on this years rally. The judging was done by all the course cars, the Chief Marshal and the stage clearing crews and after much deliberation, the inaugural award goes to Stage Commander Graham Parker and his team who ran the Richard Burns Rally Stage.
The Pirelli International Rally's Chief Marshal, Barry Armstrong commented, " It was a very difficult decision as the standard of preparation on all the stages was of a very high standard indeed. I must thank the Stage Commanders and Marshals for their hard work and dedication, the new rally format and night time stages presented a real challenge but they managed to cope with the manpower available and the rally was again well up to British Championship standard.
Cumberland Sporting Car Club, the organisers of the Pirelli International Rally, really pulled out all the stops to look after the marshals on this years event and in addition to the award mentioned above, all marshal's received a "Goodie" bag containing a complimentary rally programme, magazine, pens, various snack foods and drinks, and a 2004 Pirelli Rally Tee Shirt. As soon as all the necessary paperwork is returned, all signed on marshals will receive a personal thank you letter from Chief Marshal, Barry Armstrong, and a souvenir enamel brooch.
The 2004 Pirelli International Rally utilised the services of over 600 volunteer marshals plus numerous other bodies including the Army Cadet Corps and Round Table members.
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