CIRCUIT bosses at Knockhill are hoping to "bounce back to normality and beyond" in 2022 after unveiling an action-packed calendar.

The venue, located north of Dunfermline, are hopeful that their schedule of events will not be hit by restrictions on crowd numbers, which has been the case in 2020 and 2021.

In the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bennetts British Superbikes – one of the circuit's two flagship events – was cancelled before being held in front of a limited crowd of 1,000, while the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) took place behind closed doors, and in front of up to 10,000, in each year respectively.

This year, those events have been pencilled in to be held on the weekends of June 17-19, for the superbikes, and July 30-31, for the touring cars, with officials hopeful they can host as large a crowd as possible to watch.

Stuart Gray, events director at Knockhill, is especially hopeful that will be the case as "the big two has become the big three" following confirmation the McRae Rally Challenge will take place on July 2-3.

Commemorating the late Colin McRae becoming Britain's first world rally champion in 1995, as well as the achievements of his father, Jimmy, brother Alister and third generation rising star, Max, it will be the second running of the invitational challenge, which was last held at Knockhill in 2015.

It is set to incorporate a variety of rally attractions, combining static displays with dramatic on-stage rally action; feature some big names within the sport, as well as two, one-day single-venue rallies, a power stage finale on the second day and a junior rally; and a 'battle of the McRaes, as three generations of the family go head-to-head to determine who is fastest.

Looking ahead to this year, Stuart explained: "The unknown is the next quarter, the next three or four months for us all.

"We're all going into the unknown but, from a Knockhill perspective, we're going into our quiet time, our off-season if you like, so we've got fingers crossed there won't be any backlash with the new variant, and things will be back to normal, or near normal, when we get going in early spring next year, early April.

"We're quite fortunate from that point of view from a timing perspective.

"The big two has become the big three with the return of the McRae Rally Challenge. Over the next month or two, we're going to be able to announce some really key elements to it and some big names that are going to be attending. We're in talks with these people at the moment.

"I'm being a bit biased but it's certainly going to be the best rally event of its type in Britain next year.

"No business can ever stand still but, certainly for this year, there's plenty of things in the pipeline.

"We've all been really challenged for two years so hopefully this year it will really bounce back to normality and beyond."

Outwith those events, the SMRC (Scottish Motor Racing Club) are introducing a new, junior category – bespoke to Knockhill – for 14-17-year-olds, running in both clockwise and anti-clockwise configurations.

A hot hatch track day, open to all types of road and track cars and drivers who have a full, current driving licence, takes place on April 17; an SMRC racing day, including Knockhill's seventh Armed Forces and second NHS appreciation day – where those current and veteran military personnel, and NHS staff, are admitted free – will take place on June 12; and the Caterham Championships, bringing up to 150 competitors to Scotland's national motorsport centre, is scheduled for September 17-18.

After the 12th running of the Grant Construction Rally, on February 20, opens the season, the first of a number of events between April and November begins on April 10 with round one of the SMRC, and ends with the circuit's annual bonfire and fireworks night on November 5.

For more information about their events in 2022, and for ticket information, visit www.knockhill.com.