The Rally in Singleton Park 🚗

Good morning, Swansea!

On a sunny Saturday in May 1990, anyone strolling through Singleton Park could have been forgiven for thinking they’d wandered into a movie set. The quiet lawns and duck ponds were drowned out by the roar of engines, the crackle of radios, and the smell of burning rubber.

This week, enjoy the tale of how one of the city’s biggest parks became a racetrack for the opening stage of the Welsh International Rally.

Catch you on Sunday!

Andrew.

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When Swansea City Council first announced that Singleton Park would host an international rally, the reaction was fierce, both for and against. The Evening Post described it as a “storm of protest,” and within weeks, a petition had gathered over 1,000 signatures from across the city demanding the council call it off.

Local campaigner Martyn Shrewsbury warned that the park, already battered by winter storms, could be “torn to pieces under the wheels of hundreds of hurtling rally cars.” Others feared the noise would disturb the peace for miles around and that damage to the grass and shrubs would take months to repair.

On the other side, rally organiser John Henderson fought back, calling out the “misinformation and prejudice” surrounding the event. “Each car starts singly at one-minute intervals,” he explained. “There is no racing of car against car … significant damage to grass is most unlikely.”

To calm tensions, the organisers lodged a £5,000 bond with the council to cover any environmental damage. And so, with the event already given the go ahead, there was a significant tension over what might happen: half the city expecting glory, the other half expecting carnage.

When rally day finally arrived on Saturday, May 5th, the city woke to blue skies and the sound of revving engines rolling up from the seafront.

At 9 AM, the Fram Welsh International Rally was flagged away from Swansea Leisure Centre, where 200 cars and crews had gathered for the ceremonial start. From there, they headed along Oystermouth Road to Singleton Park where around 7,000 spectators had gathered to watch.

Organisers had carved out a one-mile tarmac course following the park’s service roads and winding paths - a tight, twisting sprint rather than a flat-out race. Each car set off one minute apart, timed individually from start to finish.

Not everyone had gone to cheer the drivers on. The day before the event as preparations were taking place to prepare the track, Councillor June Stanton, turned up with a handmade banner reading “Philistines.” She told reporters she was mourning the “desecration of the people’s park.” Meanwhile, fellow councillor Howard Morgan had no such qualms, accepting a test ride as a passenger “to view his beloved park from an entirely fresh viewpoint.”

Nevertheless, stage commander Andrew Abraham insisted “the grass would remain fully intact,” while fans roared as Welsh stars Dai Llewellin and Gwyndaf Evans charged off the line.

By Monday morning, the verdict was in, and it wasn’t what the protesters had expected. The Evening Post called the Rally the “Gamble That Paid Off.” And despite dire warnings, the park had survived almost unscathed. The grass was intact, the noise “hardly noticeable,” and the city had basked in the national spotlight and worldwide television coverage.

Tourism chief David Stephens told reporters that Swansea’s hotels and guest houses had their “best-ever Bank Holiday weekend,” and that they had been inundated at the tourist information centre. The rally, he added, had captured the public’s imagination and proved an ideal opportunity to show non-enthusiasts what the sport is all about.

There would be one more rally in Singleton Park, when it hosted the opening stages of the Morgannwg Forest National Rally in 1995 - but it’s hard to imagine such an event ever getting the go-ahead today.

Do you have memories of the rallies in Singleton Park? Let me know!

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