Back in the early eighties I competed on several occasions on what was the 24 Hours of Ypres. I even ended up in the same field on 2 consecutive years, co-driving for different drivers in a Toyota Corolla and Peugeot 205 respectively. My last attempt was on the Historic rally in mid 90’s in an HS Chevette, which ended in retirement due to a propshaft joint failure.

So, when Steve Stringer asked me to co-drive on this year’s historic rally in his Sunbeam Lotus, it was a chance to return to the scene of a few victories and several disappointments.

Ypres was always a long event with numerous different stages spread out over quite a wide area, including some very long ones. 2006 was no exception, 9 different stages the longest being 32 kilometres and apart from that and one other one, the historics only got to do each stage once.

I set off straight from work in Chester on Tuesday night, met up with Stringer and caught the shuttle trough the tunnel to arrive at our accommodation on a Belgian farm at around 01:00.

The historic rally uses the same stages as the European Championship event, but other than that it is a completely different rally, based in Belverdinge, just north of Ypres. The only time we actually had to go into Ypres was to collect our road books on Wednesday morning. We then spent all day Wednesday and Thursday noting the stages. Wednesday evening should have been the shakedown stage for the historics and as our car was still in UK we pitched up to spectate. We got a beer and a hotdog and stood around, in the company of several hundred others, but nothing appeared to be happening and after a while we gave up. We found out the next day it had to be cancelled due to an administrative error which meant that a vital piece of paper detailing emergency ambulance access, which needed to be in place 72 hours prior to the running of the stage had been omitted.

However the shakedown stage for the moderns, run on Thursday evening, used part of one of the main event which ran right through the centre of a village and included a double chicane through a car park and the historics that wanted to were able to run at the end of the session. The village was absolutely mobbed with all approach roads blocked and cars parked up to 2 miles out. We stuck our service plate on the car and drove right in to the point where, just as we were about to give up hope of parking, a marshal opened a barrier and let us in, enabling us to park just a few yards away. Armed with a beer and hot dog we were not able to see a lot due to the huge numbers of spectators, but we were able to wander around the service area.

After missing their ferry on Thursday evening our service crew arrived with the car at about 02:30 on Friday morning.

Scrutineering, for us, was at 11:00 on Friday, which was, as always, nerve wracking, but went without a hitch. We then went into Ypres for lunch before the start. The route was 45 kilometres over 3 stages, running in front of the moderns, with the first car away at 4pm. All went without hitch and from our 5:01 start we were finished by 7:30 and lying 7^th ovreal/2^nd in class in the national (as opposed to the FIA) event.

Saturday morning was a leisurely noon start as the moderns were doing each stage twice and we were basically doing each stage once between their two attempts. The first leg was two stages including the dreaded 32 km one, run in the heat of the day. We were held up by another car which cost as a small amount of time, but towards the end we were both starting to feel a bit sick, probably due to a combination of heat, a bit of dehydration and no lunch. It was then back to service, for a cup of tea and some food, and a quick check over on the car. We also decided to try softer tyres, which we had been reluctant to use due to the length of the stages and the heat, but they actually seemed to work better over the next group of 4 stages. It was then service, followed by a repeat of the days first 2 stages, but fortunately it was a bit cooler, unfortunately the tyres must have gone off a bit over the 32 km stage as we were a few seconds slower.

We put the car into parc ferme and went back to the farm for a quick shower and a change from our sweaty Nomex overalls before returning for the meal (including wine) arranged by the organisers, followed by several beers. When the results were published we were eighth o/a and second in class to the TR7 V8 of fellow brit Steve Hall. By going back to the farm to change we had also collected the trailer and so only one of us had to remain sober enough to drive back.

Sunday morning was a relatively leisurely drive home via the obligatory stops for beer and baccy, finally arriving home in Cheshire, completely knackered, just after 7pm.