Approximately 80 crews are expected to start the Best Cars-sponsored Chris Kelly Memorial Manx Stages Rally tomorrow afternoon, Friday.

The leading seeds will leave the TT Grandstand in Douglas from 12.30pm and head north of Onchan to Begoade for the first 3.89-mile stage (Dog Kennels) at 12.49.

This will be followed by Dreemskerry, Maughold at 1.18 (first car), The Lhen at 1.53 and the 6.68-mile Brandywell stage at 2.22.

The field will then head back to Douglas for the first service and regroup for the evening stages.

These did include two laps of a round-the-houses spectator stage in Ramsey but this has unfortunately been cancelled because of a lack of marshals to man it.

So the action will resume at 7.24 on the Lhen stage, then the ever-popular run through the Baldwins at 7.53pm.

There will be a refuel and regrouping back at the Grandstand before two more stages at Dog Kennels (8.50) and Maughold (9.17pm).

Saturday sees the concluding eight stages in two loops of four. The first is St Mark’s 1 (9.49am), followed by Round Table 1 (10.14), Staarvey 1 (10.47) and Little London 1 (11.03am).

After the last service at the TT Grandstand, the final loop of four will consist of St Mark’s 2 (12.43pm), Round Table 2 (1.08), Staarvey 2 (1.41) and Little London 2 (1.57pm).

The traditional Champagne spray back at the TT Grandstand will be from around 2.30pm.

In total 18 stages are planned across 130 closed roads tests.

The event will include crews contesting the Protyre Motorsport UK Asphalt Rally Championship, the Mintex HRCR Stage Masters Challenge, ANWCC Stage Rally Championship, SD34 MSG Stage Rally Championship and the JD Tyres Welsh Tarmacadam Rally Championship.

Carlisle driver Peter Taylor will lead the field into action in a Ford Fiesta WRC. A regular event winner on UK events, the pace is definitely there, although you have to go back to 2013 for his last finish on a Manx event.

In contrast a crew who have the most recent on-island form set off next. Blackpool’s Neil Roskell and Newcastle’s Andrew Roughead won May’s Manx Rally in dominant fashion in their Fiesta R5. They’ll look to complete the double on the back of two event victories last weekend, one on Saturday, another on Sunday!

Behind these two crews are the three drivers battling for the Protyre Motorsport UK Asphalt Rally Championship title, which will be decided this weekend.

Aberystwyth’s Steve Wood (Fiesta WRC) makes his debut in the island, which potentially puts him at a disadvantage to title rivals Mark Kelly (Preston, Skoda Fabia R5) and Blackburn’s John Stone (VW Polo R5), both of whom have had good results here, Kelly finishing as runner-up on both his previous appearances.

Top local driver Steven Ormond-Smith is also registered for Asphalt points and is looking to avenge a heavy crash on the Manx Rally when he was holding a top three place. He is co-driven at No.9 by Welshman Dafydd Evans (Mitsubishi Evo IX).

The leading local crews are as follows: No.11, George Collister and Ian Postlethwaite (BMW); 12, Rory and Paul McCann (Honda Civic); 15, Martyn Jones and TBA (Vauxhall Nova); 17, Maxx Bradshaw and Liam Whiteley of Bolton-Le-Moors (Mitsubishi Evo IX); 21, Kex Walker and Dannii Matthews (BMW 325); 25, Gary Leece and Sarah Coole (Ford Escort RS2000); 30, Tim Cole and Dave Sutcliffe (BMW E30).

l Thanks to Chris Boyde for his input on the above preview. Rally reports next week.