THE Somerset Stages Rally -worth over £500,000 to the area each year - has been cancelled for 2018 because of “serious financial losses”, the organisers have announced.

The rally, which brings top drivers and thousands of car-rally enthusiasts to Minehead and Exmoor every April, this year inflicted crippling losses of over £11,000 on the two car clubs which organise the event.

“We hope we can get the Somerset stages back for 2019,” said organisers’ spokesman Matt Cotton.

“But costs are increasing all the time and, unless we have more entries and more sponsorship, we can’t be very optimistic about the future.

“The Burnham-on-Sea and Minehead Motor Clubs have run the Somerset stages of the rally since it started 39 years ago and until now we have managed to break even.

“We are small clubs and certainly can’t afford another catastrophic loss like this year’s.

“The problem is there’s a general drop in entries for this sort of event and there’s no guarantee it will improve.”

The decision to pull out of next year’s rally - part of the national BTRDA? rally series - was described as “seriously disappointing news for West Somerset” by Minehead Chamber of Commerce chairman Alex de Mendoza.

“We are losing big events right left and centre, and this is a major blow,” he said.

“It is worrying that we seem to be losing our desirability as a venue for prestigious events like the rally, which is a real money-earner for the town.

“We have got to take a serious look at what is going wrong – everyone says Exmoor is the ideal place for rally stages and yet now thousands of people who would have spent money in the area will be going elsewhere.

“We will certainly do all we can to help get the event back in West Somerset in 2019.”