Endurance Rallying - the story so far...

he first totally new initiative in British rallying began with a surprise call from Roger King, then Chairman of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, inviting Philip Young to his London office to discuss a new rallying idea. The Peking to Paris had just ended, and his wife had read about the event in a women's magazine. "… this sort of event is interesting to the public and gets publicity the motor-trade could do with… if you could run something for the kind of car we all depend upon…" ran King’s persuasive argument.

This was November 1997, and the seeds of an idea had been planted. But there were no rules, no regulations, few could remember the days of Group One and motor-sport for cars with little or no modifications, which would be vital if costs were to be revolutionised and kept right down to basics. It would require a blank sheet of paper and starting up. Who would join in and help get it all going, who would help make things happen, and who would sign up with entries to a new concept?


In 2001 the first rally for everyday 1400cc cars - The World Cup Rally - covering ten arduous days from Brooklands to Marrakesh and back again showed the potential of rallying ordinary cars with very limited modifications. The event ran under an FIA Historic Road Rally permit after the MSA’s Tony Newsum found a way to tack it on the back of an historic rally and run it under the same permit. His further support was forthcoming when it was discovered that the Blue Book allowed “all-forwards autotests” with scratch-timing, and so the first of our Selectifs was organised on British shores with two-mile blats on farmland south of Abingdon. The experiment proved successful, with many lessons learned on the road to Morocco.

Other World Cup Rallies followed. In October 2002 the World Cup pounded classic Leige-Sofia-Liege ground through Croatia, Albania and Greece to the superb gravel sections of the Acropolis Rally. Alastair Caldwell driving his Peugeot 205 with Gill Cotton won the 2002 World Cup, with Mick Darcey and Steve Hutchinson second in the MG ZR.

It was actually Mick Darcey who should now receive credit for the next initiative. During a memorably alcohol-fuelled Athens prizegiving Mick suggested that the MSA should recognise the value of having clubmen use their cars nearer home. This particular suggestion caused some hilarity among other tables, who thought the idea wouldn’t stand a chance of being considered. After the dust had settled and everyone was back home, Philip Young had lunch at The Bear in Woodstock with Stuart Turner, former BMC and Ford Competitions Manager and member of the MSA’s Motor Sports Council. By now, it was November 2002.

“I can't see what possible harm this could do” was Stuart's immediate reaction. So… how could all this come into being? "Well, knowing you...", suggested Stuart, ".... you’ll go down to Colnbrook and stuff ten pounds of Semtex through the letterbox and hope a letter rises to the top floor. But, here’s a thought … why not walk round to the back door and just ring the bell?” And so over glass of Merlot a strategy was hatched.

Before Christmas 2002 the idea was taken to Tony Newsum at the MSA with a lunch at The Crown, down the road from the MSA. Tony provided some key advice. “Don’t even think about altering something already in existence. It takes ages. It would be far quicker, to make the case for an all-new thing. It's not quite a road rally, and it's not quite a stage rally.... It will get nowhere without the support of the Rallies Committee." said Tony… next step, “go and pay a visit to John Richardson in person”. John is chairman of the MSA’s Rallies Committee

Meanwhile, Tony Newsum had thrown the paper ideas across his desk in the direction of Ian Davis, then his Number Two, and who was to get to grips with the nitty-gritty of regulation-writing behind the scenes. Ian’s role became pivotal in further progress.


At the time, the new format didn’t have a name, just that it would be a stand-alone form of rallying for 1400cc cars. Philip Young then pedalled his Rover 75 up the M1 to Selby to meet up with John Richardson at the China Palace restaurant over sizzling-beef-in-Daddy’s Sauce. John agreed with the original sentiments of Stuart Turner and offered to take up the ball to bowl a few overs down the corridors of Colnbrook.

In January of 2003, Philip Young received surprise invitation to attend an MSA Rallies Committee Special Working Party looking at all aspects of road-rallying. The meeting took place on February 5th, with the 1400cc-concept on the agenda as a possible “third-way, middle-rung-of-the-ladder” idea. It became clear that nobody objected, with some members, particularly Ian Tullie, Martin Chinnery and John Thornhill, speaking out in favour. We were winning friends and gaining ground. The format needed a name.

Lots of names were bounced about around the committee room. Endurance Rallying seemed to stick – but as other members of the Working Party pointed out, these events might be longer, but, they don’t have to be, it could even be a Sunday afternoon clubbie.….. Nobody could think of a better title.

Roger King and Mick Darcey suggested it, Philip Young pushed it forward, and now we had Stuart Turner, Tony Newsum, Ian Davis, John Richardson and the endorsement of the Rallies Committee’s own working-party. So far, so good….

The full Rallies Committee met on Friday February 13th, 2003 - the all-new Endurance Rallying concept would need their approval. It was the first item on the agenda after the lunch. Neat timing by whoever writes agendas. Lunching on rocket-leaf sandwiches saw there was no discussion! Item approved. (All supporters of Endurance Rallying should send a bunch of flowers to Andrea Wren, Motor Sports House, Colnbrook, SL3 OHG for such nifty scheduling).


Driving home up the M1 to Selby, John Richardson received a call from Philip Young. “The answer is yes - nothing more to say right now.” And there wasn’t, except that the first Welsh Endurance Rally could now take shape.

The Welsh Endurance was set for 11th-13th of July. Hywel Thomas had heard that things were on the bubble at Colnbrook and suggested that if Philip Young could promote it, Amman and District Car Club would be the first to run a club-rally to the new Formula. It couldn’t happen unless all the fences were cleared, but the horse was by now at full gallop. Philip Young printed colour leaflets and banged the drum for the Welsh Endurance Rally as the Rally Office built up a mailing list that quickly exceeded 1,000 interested competitors. Adverts in Motorsport News were arousing the curiosity of many interested in anything that offered lower-cost rallying.

John Richardson had one more Rallies Committee on May 1st, and then took the proposal to full Motor Sports Council for endorsement on June 5th. Ian Davis had given verbal clearance that providing all was passed here, the first Welsh Endurance could run with massive waivers from the existing Blue Book “as an experimental dry run”.

The Motor Sports Council had lots of amendments and rally regulations from the Rallies Committee, and the concept of Endurance Rallying as an all-new thing was merely tucked into the middle of a long day. Again the agenda had all this listed as an after-lunch item, and again it went through without discussion. “We had much more important things to talk about,” is how Stuart Turner remembers it, “probably nobody was paying much attention, Richardson wanted a raft of things through… all boxes were duly ticked. I don’t remember it being seen as important - after lunch we are entitled to nod off. It’s called passing things on the nod.”

On June 15th, a few days after the Motor Sport Council meeting, a 40ft yacht slipped out of Southampton water on a Force Three breeze for a fast run down the Solent to the Isle of Wight. Haymarket publisher and boss of a clutch of motoring magazines Jo Biggs had asked Philip Young to come along as crew and join her for a spot lunch at The Royal Yacht Club. It was a sunny day, so why not? The return was a hard tacking run against the wind into the teeth of the spray, requiring two pairs of hands at the wheel... But Jo had agreed that Endurance Rallying would benefit from wind in its sails with exposure in Haymarket titles.

A special meet-the-press conference followed at Haymarket's Twickenham headquarters initiated by Peter Foubister, now Publishing Director, but who had been Rallies Editor of Autosport and had joined Philip Young on the first Pirelli Classic Marathon of 1988. John Richardson and Philip Young explained the new Endurance regulations to the late David Williams, Motorsport News columnist, David Evans, Rallies Editor at Autosport and Hannah Curry, Rallying Correspondent at Motorsport News.

The first Welsh Endurance Rally ran five weeks later with exactly 50 entries. Pat Flynn won it in his Peugeot 205,. Simon and Brian Weir in their Skoda Felicia, David Johnson in his ex-World Cup Proton, Karen Young in her Perodua, Sophie Robinson with her VW, the Turner brothers in Metros, Alan Pettit in a Citroen AX, Jane Edgington in the usual three-cylinder Citroen banged and popped off the start line, along with John and Gill Cotton and Paul and Mathew Heal among the entrants. Using Epynt as well as Caerwent on a brilliantly sunny weekend, the event was a resounding success. But on July 23rd the MSA’s Historic Committee met and heard objections to the new Endurance Rallies from the historic rally representative.

Fred Henderson met Philip Young at Cherwell Valley Services on the M40 and, over a mug of tea, meat pie and lashings of chips agreed to help saying that said he would investigate how feasible it would be to put back into production a wide range of sizes in the Colway Road-Plus range, which had only been used in certain Historic rallies but which were the basis of the Escort Mexico, Lada and Skoda one-make championships in the '70s and 80s - it would cost Colway to invest in tooling up. Fred outlined the benefits of having a control tyre that was used by all. Until then, no other rally had tried this since the days of the Avon Tour of Britain of the early 70s.

In September, Rallies Committee chairman John Richardson and his wife Ann joined the 2003 World Cup Rally to marshal in Tunisia where John was able to see first hand how a bunch of Brits enjoyed a different style of rallying but had to take their cars abroad for the pleasure. John became a leading supporter of bringing 1400cc, limited modification, rallying to Britain. The 2003 World Cup Rally covered many of the best rally roads in Tunisia and skirted the Sahara desert. World Cup winner in 2003 was Nicky Porter and Malcom Sinclair in Nicky's Mitsubishi Spacestar.

The Motor Sports Council ratified the new Endurance Rally regulations in September. From the February working party, it had taken the MSA in effect little more than three months to pick up the idea and knock it all into being. From a cheese roll in the Woodstock hotel, Chinese sizzling beef in Selby… to the cars starting the first Endurance Rally had taken little more than six months.

The first “Lombard Style” Revival Rally was hatched during the summer of 2003 in the garden of the The Red Lion in Blewbury. Allan Goddard and Alan Smith met Philip Young and agreed 'csma' involvement and urged him to “get on with it.” At a meeting at the Brighton HQ of the csma on October 11th, 2003, Terri Jacobs, Motor Sports Manager, agreed csma support for the new venture.


The Revival Rally was launched at a press conference at the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall on October 14th, four weeks after the MSA’s Motor Sports Council had signed off new regulations for the Blue Book under the heading Endurance Rallying. In January 2004 the Revival Rally was promoted at the NEC Autosport Show. Gwyndaf Evans dropped in saying he would like to enter. Jimmy McRae visited to inspect the route. In March a series of Motorsport News Rally Forums began with seminars around the country - 130 packed the Kings Arms, Stokenchurch, with guest speaker Stuart Turner, and others followed on at Sevenoaks, Cambridge, Swansea, Taunton, York, Knutsford and Carlisle.

In September 2004, at the Royal Bank of Scotland's Holborn HQ, Lombard Marketing Director, Neil Edwards, confirmed Lombard support for the forthcoming Revival Rally, wishing it to be called The Lombard after a first year "trial run".

The first Revival Rally set out from York in November 2004 with 108 entries, among them Gwyndaf Evans in an MG with circuit racer Anthony Reid as team-mate, a Mercedes A-Class from Mercedes, Daihatsu supporting Andy Actman, and Skoda providing their rallying Fabia for Motorsport News rallies editor Johnathan Mudd. Matt Fowle and Peter Joy snatched victory on the final few Selectifs in Wales to drive into Cheltenham as winners of the Lombard Trophy. Their names are now under that of Carlos Sainz. Mike Biss got his name on another Lombard Trophy as the top “oldie” who had competed on an original Lombard Rally. The die was cast.

It was not all plain sailing, beer and sandwiches. The Forestry Commission went back on an earlier agreement and hiked up the prices massively, so what we thought we would pay for the first Revival was now a huge amount, and sure to send the accounts into a big loss for the first event. We ended up having to secure a loan of £30,000 to make sure the event would run - and pay the new demands to the Forestry Commission... budgets had been blown to bits by a sudden and out of the blue pricing, and it became clear before the event started that the entry-fee would never cover the costs for such an ambitious route.

During the infancy of Endurance Rallying in the UK the Endurance Rally Association had not been neglecting it's World Cup series. The longest and hardest of the World Cup series, The London to Dakar, ran in January 2005 with 100km long timed sections in the Sahara, and the famous beach-run alongside the Atlantic. The Peugeot 205 of Alastair Caldwell and Brian Johnson claimed top spot, ahead of Adrian Grinsted / Nick Mason - Rover 214 and Andrew Actman / Catriona Rings - Daihatsu Sirion.


In March 2005, the MSA looked at how Endurance Rallying was shaping up when its working-party met for the first time in two years to look at a number of regulation changes. It was clear that the Endurance scene needed to embrace those who had prepared cars for stage-rallying and were not continuing with this aspect of rallying so boosting further the potential for the new formula. Regulations for adjustable ride-height front struts were agreed and forwarded on the Rallies Committee who met in July.

In the summer of 2005 the Chelmsford Mid-Summer Endurance Rally ran for the first time. Hywel Thomas put on his third Welsh Endurance Rally – won by Jamie Turner in his Metro. The year ended with the second Lombard Rally, despite the lead changing six times in the four days of close-fought competition, Jamie Turner and Graham Dance pulled off another win. The image of a car winning outright that had only cost a few hundred pounds to buy strengthened the unique case of Endurance Rallying offering low-cost rallying.

In January 2006 Fred Henderson of Colway, whose support for Endurance Rallying and re-introduction of different Road-Plus tyre sizes has helped the Forestry Commission accept the non-damaging nature of Endurance Rallying, announced his support for the Colway Endurance Rally Premiership.

March brings the first of the Premiership events with the South-Hams Motor Club’s South-West Endurance Rally sponsored by Audi kicking off the series with a route taking in Devon and Cornwall. The new scene has now put down foundations with a number of other local clubs adopting the Formula.

Almost immediately after the 2005 Lombard, Kenny Owen and Fred Bent began work on a new Great Northern route for the 2006 Lombard Rally to start in York and venture into Scotland.

Entries opened for the 2006 Lombard Rally on February 1st, the next chapter of the Endurance Rallying story.