Nik Elsmore came home second behind Andy Burton in the 2008 event

The Wyedean Rally boasts a full entry list for 2009 and promises to be a real spectacle, according to Nicky Grist.

Grist, co-driver to Colin McRae in the World Rally Championship from 1997 to 2002, has also hailed the organisers of the event on Saturday, 7 February.

"This year you've Britain's best, on an amateur basis, competing," said Grist.

"And they're way oversubscribed. In this economic climate, where everybody is cutting back, most other events struggle to get near this number."

Heavy snow in the Gloucestershire area is not expected to hit the event, which kickstarts the British Trials and Rally Drivers Association Championship.

The entry list for the Forest of Dean race features all the top-five finishers from 2008, with defending champion Andy Burton lining up with co-driver Shelley Rogerson in a Peugeot Cosworth.

2009 BTRDA CHAMPIONSHIP RALLY CALENDAR 7 February: Wyedean 7 March: Malcolm Wilson 25 April: Somerset Stages 16 May: Plains 13 June: Dukeries 4 July: Quinton 5 Septempber: Woodpecker 17 October: Cambrian

Hugh Hunter, 2008 BTRDA Gold Star Rally Champion, will also be challenging along with Will Nicholls, who finished second overall in the championship standings, and third-placed Damian Cole.

Shaun Gardner and 2001 Wyedean winner Nik Elsmore, who finished second behind Burton last season in partnership with Paul Wakeley in the N4 Class, complete a strong line up of potential winners.

"Nik's incredibly fast in the Forest and it really will be quite a spectacle," Grist told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

"It's a great event to come to, it's really the start of everybody's season and the forest stages that we have in the Forest of Dean are absolutely fabulous. They're great rally roads.

"There's so many different classes and you'll see 1,400 cars coming through beforehand, which are small nimble little cars which rev and sound fantastic.

"Then you get your top world rally cars, your four-wheel drive turbo-charge flame-throwing rally cars, and from there you go down to your Group N cars and then a mixture of other cars at the tail end of the field.

"So it's a great spectacle from the first car right to the very last really."

The Wyedean Rally, based out of Chepstow Racecourse, is the first event in the eight round BTRDA Championship, which concludes with the Cambrian event in Wales in October.

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