About the Endurance Rally Association

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The Endurance Rally Association
St. Mary's Road, East Hendred. Oxon, OX12 8LF.  Tel: +44 (0)1235 831221
Email: admin@endurorally.com 

The ERA has organised over 60 major events through more than 50 countries around the world and is responsible for some widely-acclaimed initiatives now adopted by the rally world. As well as kick-starting the entire Historic Rally movement back in the 1980s, we instigated the all new Endurance Rallying scene to encourage the trend to smaller and more fuel efficient cars.

When it comes to organising long-distance rallies, experience counts for a lot. From the empty plains of South Africa, the sands of the Sahara Desert, across northern Canada and America, from London to China, Peking to Paris, and the first-ever Around the World in 80 Days, we have been there, helping hundreds of competitors. Nobody has more experience or does it better than the ERA – several members of the team have been organising major events since 1988 with an even longer history as competitors.

Philip Young

The driving force behind the Endurance Rally Association is Philip Young. As a boy Philip was inspired by Britain's post war rally achievements in the heyday of the British motor industry and avidly followed the exploits of the great rally teams depicted in films, like Shell’s highly evocative 1958 movie, “Coupe des Alpes” and books, such as the “Seven Year Twitch” by Marcus Chambers. In the early 1980’s Philip was editing, writing for, and publishing his own motoring magazine, “Sporting Cars”. that twice won the premier award for journalism from the Guild of Motoring Writers. When the magazine was taken over by a large publishing group Philip was able to realise his ambition to organise an event in the style of the period he admired so much by organising an International rally specifically designed to cater for the ever growing numbers of classic car owners.

Philip would fulfil his ambition with the first Pirelli Classic Marathon held in 1988 before going on to create a remarkable catalogue of more than 60 major events >> Read more ...

In addition to organising events Philip is a past-competitor on many long-distance events, including the 1977 London to Sydney Marathon, Paris Dakar, and five Himalayan Rallies and has driven as a works-team driver for Skoda, and the Unipart Rally Team in various Leyland cars including Triumph TR8 and Rover SD1. The Heritage Motor Museum at Gaydon exhibits two cars from his former escapades.

The formation of the Historic Rally Car Register was his inspiration and he is a co-founder of what is today the largest rally club in Britain with over 2,000 paid-up members. Philip was the creator and first editor of the club's acclaimed Oldstager magazine and is still a regular contributor.

The hub of the Endurance Rally Organisation Philip is the Rally Office located in a Victorian school building just south of Abingdon, South Oxfordshire. From this busy office the team organise their extensive range of events such as the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge, the longest rally for Historic cars; the Flying Scotsman, the longest rally in Britain for vintage cars, and is currently planning the Trans-America Rally, London to Cape Town World Cup Rally and the Classic Safari.

Heidi Winterbourne

Keeping the ERA on the right road and taking care of the immense task of event planning and logistics is the irrepressible Heidi Winterbourne.

Heidi joined the ERA team in 1996. Since then she has been responsible for the event management of some 29 major events, including the World's longest ever rally.... the Around the World in 80 Days. Far from being permanently tied to the office Heidi has driven the route on both the 2007 and 2010 Peking to Paris events in the position as joint Rally Director.

It is very unlikely that there is anyone with more knowledge or experience in business of moving a group of several hundred competitors and event officials to countries and places where the independent traveller is a rarity never mind that the group will be driving their own cars. Not content with organising other people's adventures Heidi, over the past couple of years, has been competing in rallies herself. Early in 2010 she drove her own Ford Escort on the Automobile Club de Monaco's Monte Carlo Historique making it to the finish after driving competitively on snow and ice for the first time. It seems the rally bug has bitten, as early on 2011 Heidi will again be on the rally road to Monte Carlo, this time driving her 1966 MG Midget.

Barbara Bradshaw

Dealing with the mountains of paperwork, computer files and telephone enquiries is Barbara Bradshaw, the newest recruit to the full time ERA team. Barbara has already notched up nearly ten years on the front line.

As an essential player in the full-time Rally Office team Barbara handles the Entries Management and provides vital administrative support for the smooth running of events. Ensuring the correct completion of the essential paperwork required by a myriad of government departments, controlling authorities, shipping companies and others is no easy task.... a task that Barbara undertakes with efficiency and good humour.

Barbara has a keen competitive spirit herself reaching county level standard as a regular and enthusiastic netball player. Barbara is the calm and unflappable anchor of the often-manic atmosphere of pre-event administration and has helped hundreds of entrants overcome numerous difficulties in order to reach the starting line.

Kim Bannister

Kim Bannister has spent his life in the motor-industry and has a strong interest in rallying. In his time with the ERA Kim has masterminded the route planning and organisation of the sporting side for both the 2007 and 2010 Peking to Paris rallies, as well as several other major events for us. During this time, and also benefiting from his years of involvement at all levels of motorsport, Kim has amassed an unmatched expertise in overcoming the challenges that occur when organising the sporting side of international adventure motor rallies.

Before his recent dramatic increase in time spent working on ERA events Kim fronted training seminars and product launches for major motor industry manufacturers, working for Peugeot, Saab and Vauxhall. Kim also spent many years at the sharp end of the motor industry as a car salesman... no doubt this is where he learned his easy-going manner and developed the ability to work with a diverse range of people and personalities to bring his plans together.

During Kim's long involvement with rallying he was a regular driver and co-driver at many levels of the sport from small club events right through to competing on several Lombard RAC Rallies. Always wanting to return something to the sport that he has enjoyed so much he now undertakes work as an MSA Steward helping to nurture and maintain the grass routes of the sport. On most spare weekends he will be out and about in club motorsport, whether as a Steward at a Kart race for youngsters or organising a fleet of official vehicles on the International Wales Rally GB.

A Dedicated Team

Taking events on the scale of Peking to Paris or the Around the World in 80 Days around the globe requires a reliable and experienced team of people to keep the wheels turning. The Endurance Rally Association is proud and confident that its competitors benefit from the most experienced and dedicated team of event officials available.

The organising team on the 2010 Peking to Paris had a fleet of 16 vehicles covering the whole route with many local agents joining with additional vehicles and personnel for specific sections of the route. Everyone chosen to join the ERA on-event team brings an unrivalled and essential expertise to ensure the events run smoothly and safely.

Our team includes the acknowledged best bush-mechanics in the business; a group of highly qualified doctors and medical assistants with specialist knowledge and experience in remote area medicine; several widely travelled overland travel experts and guides; shipping agents with a proven track record for transporting cars around the world against critical deadlines; specialist visa and insurance agents..... and many more.

30 Years of ERA Events

Back in 1987 Pirelli executives were inspired by Philip's enthusiasm and persuaded to support his plans for a classic car rally from London to Italy and back. The event was named The Pirelli Classic Marathon. From the press-launch in the Whitbread rooms at the Barbican in the centre of London the announcement of the first-ever international rally for classic cars was reported in The Times, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail, the Daily Express, the Financial Times and the Daily Mirror. The press reception was attended by several former international works drivers who all said to each other “I’m sure I’m too old for all this…” while quietly plotting on where to borrow a car.

The 1988 Pirelli Classic Marathon was filmed by the BBC, whose documentary, “The Great Chase” attracted a British TV audience of 6.2 million. Historic Rallying had arrived thanks to Philip's vision, Pirelli's support and the BBC's rocket in the sky.

Former rally star Anne Hall took part in the first Classic Marathon driving a Ford Anglia, other stars were soon to follow. Stirling Moss competed four times between 1989 and 1992 winning two Alpine Cups. Paddy Hopkirk drove several Classic Marathons in Mini Coopers, winning the 1990 edition with Alec Poole. Roger Clark drove anything he could get hold of, including a Mini Cooper, MGB, and a Lotus Cortina with Tony Mason. The Classic Marathon attracted many other stars from the past include Timo Makinen, Gijs Van Lennep, John Sprinzel, Willy Cave, Paul Easter, John Haughland, and former American rally champion Bobby Unser. After several years in the Alpes, the Classic Marathon ventured further afield and became the first rally to take classic cars into Africa with a drive to Marrakesh. The Classic Marathon continues to this day, now organised by the Classic Rally Association

The Classic Marathon became the foundation stone for a worldwide scene… Japanese drivers came and drove it, to go home and form their own “Marathon Classico” …drivers from South Africa came and drove it, and went home to found their own Pirelli Classic Marathon… there is now a Classic Rally Association of Australia, and the concept of road-rallying against the clock for older cars is now a vibrant rally scene worldwide. Three years after the first Pirelli Classic Marathon, the FIA sat down to draft a set of international regulations. The FIA’s Max Mosley invited Philip Young to meet him at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone – Historic Rallying was clearly now going to be worldwide motor-sport.

To compliment the Classic Marathon, held each summer, came another ERA initiative, The Monte Carlo Challenge, reviving the tradition of winter rallying and establishing a highly authentic event, with crews in period dress such as duffle coats, and navigating from maps. This produced what is fondly regarded as perhaps the most accurate and historically correct recreation of how events were originally organised, with a highly challenging and demanding route. The first event set out from Glasgow in 1990, Sir David Steel and former BBC Commentator Raymond Baxter manned Time Controls, and ten years later, 234 cars were taking part. After watching cars arrive on the harbour front opposite their offices every January for year after year, it was perhaps inevitable that the Automobile Club de Monaco should finally feel persuaded to start up their own historic revival, and want rallying to Monte Carlo for themselves.

All was not lost, the Rally of the Tests was then created by the ERA to revive the original traditions of the RAC Rally, and a marathon route took cars from Scarborough to Brighton, with numerous test venues along the way, in the style of the RAC Rally of the 1950s. This was for pre-1962 model-types, and it proved an instant hit – the Rally of the Tests recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, and is now regarded as a “must do” event on the British calendar, attracting drivers from far and wide, run by Jeremy Dickson’s team at the Classic Rally Association.

To mark the new Millennium in the summer of 2000 the Endurance Rally Association set out again from London’s Tower Bridge on a truly unique event which was to go down as the longest rally ever organised – the Around the World in 80 Days, driving overland to China, catching a special air-lift to Alaska, driving across Canada and America to New York, flying to Morocco, and then driving back to London’s Tower Bridge. With timed competition every day, it remains the only timed event to ever circumnavigate the globe running in no less than four Continents.

Sensing the trend in favour of smaller and more economical cars the ERA launched The World Cup Rally in 2001, an ambitious attempt to revive the concept of the long distance epics of the 1970s, in a format within the bounds of the ordinary enthusiast. This event pioneered a new low-cost formula based on standard production cars, with minimal modifications, with an engine-size limit of 1400cc. The first event, supported by the Daily Telegraph, drove from London to Marrakesh, and returned via Portugal and Spain, and was won by a VW Golf. Former British ladies rally champion Barbara Armstrong finished second overall in a works-entered Peugeot 206 in a cloud of smoke, having driven the final day on three cylinders. Other factories to support the World Cup Rally with works-supported entries included Mercedes, Skoda, and MG.

Subsequent ERA World Cup Rallies included the London to Athens in 2002, the first international rally to cross Albania. In 2003 with the ERA World Cup Rally around Tunisia, taking in the fringes of the Sahara Desert. By now, entrants were asking “why can’t we rally these cars in the UK” and this was answered by the British governing-body of motor sport, the MSA, who in a matter of a few weeks drafted new regulations for “Endurance Rallying” limited to 1400cc cars with standard unmodified engines and gearboxes, and so established the first entirely new rally initiative for the British scene since the arrival of Historic rallying. In 2004 the first major event in this new category ran as The Lombard Revival Rally with support from Lombard Finance and the CSMA. Lombard continued their support for several years, recognising the affinity with the great days of the early Lombard Rallies of Great Britain. In November 2005 over 120 drivers took part in this gruelling around-Britain rally taking in over 60 different venues. Today, there is lively national British rally championship linking up a series of local weekend events that provides club drivers with a unique low-cost formula for driving forests and other off-road locations.

Perhaps the toughest ERA rally to that time came in 2005 when the ERA staged a special event in Africa, the London to Dakar rally in which giant killer Alastair Caldwell beat all comers including the specialist 4x4s in his diminutive Peugeot 205.

The most ambitious Endurance Rally Association event has been the Peking to Paris held in 1997. Ninety years earlier four intrepid pioneer motorists had driven from Peking to Paris establishing the World’s first trans-continental event and proving that the motor-car could indeed “make frontiers redundant now that the motor-car can go anywhere.” However, repeating the remarkable success of Prince Borghese had been impossible. Under Chairman Mao the overland borders remained firmly closed. However, they were finally persuaded to allow cars to drive across Tibet, the first rally to do so, …with the precious permit in their pocket, the ERA Team produced a remarkable route that went on across the Himalayas, camping at the foot of Mount Everest, driving over the top of India and Pakistan, becoming the first rally to cross Iran since the 1977 London to Sydney… to finish with a wild celebration in the centre of Paris. The ERA team repeated the Peking to Paris event in 2007 and again in 2010.

When Prince Borghese first turned off his engine on arrival in Paris to complete his famous victory in 1907, he announced: “Gentlemen…you said driving such a route would be quite impossible… You are perfectly correct”. Taking on the impossible has become something of a hallmark for the team at the Endurance Rally Association.

To compliment their highly challenging and demanding events the ERA has runs a series of Classic Safari events providing the opportunity for small groups of classic car enthusiasts to drive their cars on an African Safari visiting the best game reserves and staying in the best lodges. The Classic Safari first ran in 2003 with subsequent events in 2006 and 2008. The fourth Classic Safari runs in 2011

The Endurance Rally Association is affiliated to the Royal Automobile Club’s Motor Sports Association and is a member of the British Federation of Historic Vehicle Clubs.

For more information, give The Rally Office a call on 01235 831221 or email: admin@endurorally.com 

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