PREVIEW / BRITISH HISTORIC RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP
03/02/2025The Motorsport UK British Historic Rally Championship is set to kick off this weekend with the first round of the 2025 season.
Once again, FUCHS Lubricants returns as the headline sponsor, supporting the popular historic stage rallying series organized by the renowned Roger Albert Clark Motor Club.
However, before a competitive wheel had even turned, the Championship, just like other national rally championships, faced an unexpected setback.
NRW (Natural Resources Wales) informed Motorsport UK that it would be closing its forest plantations for an extended period to address extensive storm damage (Click Here to read more about this).
As a result, several Welsh events were unfortunately cancelled, including Rally North Wales, scheduled for late March, and the Severn Valley Stages in April, both part of the British Historic Rally Championship calendar this year.
In response, Championship and Rally Manager Colin Heppenstall quickly put together a plan B, which now includes the Carlisle Stages Rally in the Kielder Forest region, replacing the Severn Valley event on April 12th.
“It’s been a difficult time for many events in Wales and the Championships that were due to attend the cancelled rallies”
“Our thoughts are of course with them, and we thank them for their support of the BHRC. With two events cancelled from our seven-round calendar, we have been working very hard behind the scenes to come up with an alternative that suits our competitors in what is already a very busy year for Historic rallying. Thanks to the RACRMC, we were able to come up with a solution that offers good mileage on great stages on the right date with the return of the Carlisle Stages”
“Of course, we looked at other alternatives, but this was the best all round. We are in regular communication with the Plains Rally [round three] organisers in terms of their access to the forests but for now, we are looking forward to getting our season underway at the Riponian Stages Rally”
The revised calendar now looks like this:
There is also a new points scoring system in place for this year, which will enable any registered competitor in any of the categories to take the overall British Historic Rally title. Cars from 1968 right the way up to 1999 can be eligible to compete in the series, which includes a new Category 5 for this year which adds F2 Kit cars and Group A four-wheel drive machines from 1991. There’s also still the Rally 2 field and the BHRC2 Championship for non-historic cars wanting to come out to play.
The new points scoring system will see points allocated to registered crews in each category, with the overall BHRC title going to the competitor whom scores the highest number of category points at the end of the season. So in effect, any one from a 1968 car in Cat 1, through to Cat 3 Escorts, but the headline news from this is, that now for the first time, the four-wheel drive Historic Cat 4 and 5 cars are also included in this.
Now, turning to the opening round, the forests of North Yorkshire are set to welcome Championship crews once again on February 9th, as the Riponian Stages Rally kicks off the season.
Hosted from its Rally HQ in Thirsk, the event will feature 44 competitive miles across six gravel stages. The rally will start to the north of Pickering in Gale Rigg and Cropton, before moving West to Boltby.
After the midday service, the crews head back into the forests for another round of those stages. They will then return to Thirsk at the end of the day, where the first winners of the year will take to the podium.
There are several notable names missing at the opening round, including all of last year’s title winners, who won’t be making an appearance in the forests of North Yorkshire. However, this doesn’t distract from the strong lineup of competitors who will turn out for the first round.
George Lepley will lead the field away for the BHRC crews in the stunning Mitsubishi Galant, joined by Baz Jordan in another of these Group A cars, and now that they cars are in the overall title fight, they might just also encourage other Group-A machines to come out of the woodwork and compete in the series.
Last year’s Riponian winner, Matthew Robinson, will follow in his MKII Ford Escort as he looks to replicate that rally victory.
And last year’s Cat3 runner-up, Adrian Hetherington returns looking to perhaps go one better this year, along with 2021 BHRC Champ Ben Friend.
Also back in action is Dan Mennell, who displayed impressive pace last year before his season was curtailed following that big off on the Argyll Rally.
Former Scottish Champion, Englishman David Henderson is also back in action for his second season in the seat of an MKII Escort, having stepped away from modern cars.
2019 BHRC Champ Simon Webster is another to make a welcome return to the series after a year away from it.
Disappointingly the iconic Fiat Abarth 131 of Nick Elliott & Dave Price will not be making an appearance in Yorkshire at the opening round, “a conflict of schedules” means that fans of the Italian machine will have to wait a little longer to see it out in action this year.
Bringing some variety to the field at the Riponian are Ben Jemison in the Vauxhall Chevette, Drew Struthers in a Cat2 Avenger, and Phil Hall in a Skoda Favorit for Cat4. They’ll be joined by a mix of both new and familiar faces, all ready to take on the stages.
