Tour Britannia

Harrogate, Yorkshire

With a 1979 Porsche 911SC straight out of the box, former GT racer Phil Hindley swept to a commanding victory on Tour Britannia, Britain’s classic race and rally extravaganza.

Hindley, who had never competed on an event of this nature before, was co-driven by the experienced Andy Bull and used the event to showcase the rally-prepared 911 built by his tech 9 operation. While other leading contenders faltered, Hindley was quick on the special stages and peerless in the races at croft and Cadwell Park to secure a winning margin of almost two minutes.

“It’s a fantastic event and very hard work,” said Hindley, after two and a half days of competition based around Harrogate. Heavy rain at times made the event particularly challenging, but the 911SC ran faultlessly.

With a reduced entry of 50 cars in the face of on-going recession, prime organiser Alec Poole still laid on a popular event and once again opened up a raft of new venues, including the spectacular raby castle and aske hall special stages in North Yorkshire. But it was the 20-minute races at croft and Cadwell Park that really decided the result and Hindley won both, despite not having raced at Cadwell Park before.

Throughout the first day and a half, 2011 winner John Clark and co-driver Philip Walker challenged for the lead in their Porsche 911. Tour Britannia Harrogate, Yorkshire however, a brake problem at Harrogate showground sent them off the road and out of contention.

The 911 of Mike Smith and Ian Ashley suffered a damaged gearbox in the race at croft and so it was Roger Kilty and Lynette Banks who moved up to second in their Ford Escort Mk1 from the Chevrolet Camaro of Stuart Scott and Steve Wood.

The radical SL of Richard Meaden and Nathan Cumberland won the Concurrent Targa event for modern cars, while the regularity event was won by the Porsche 911s of Melissa Raven and Jeremy Haylock.

Paul Lawrence