Click on the picture to enlarge
Other Castle Combe Racing Club Photos

The Castle Combe Racing Club, responsible for organizing the race meetings at the Wiltshire circuit, continues to add to its collection of awards after receiving a number of further accolades.

Having achieved third place in the Motor Sport Association's 'Motor Club of the Year' competition in 2008, the club went one better in 2009 by grabbing the runner up award. A cheque for £500 and an impressive trophy were presented to the club's President, Howard Strawford, at the recent Autosport International show at the NEC by Allan Dean-Lewis, Head of External Affairs at the MSA.

With competition from more than 800 other clubs, Castle Combe was singled out for its initiatives with cadet marshals, recruitment & training of existing marshals and its new for 2009 concept to introduce more doctors to motorsport, which attracted more than 30 new medics.

Special recognition was also given to the strength of the club's three local championships which produced full grids, despite the recession. The club's unique race starter rebate scheme which gives 'cashback' to regular competitors was a strong contributing factor to the health of its entries.

For the second year running, the club also gained the 'Club of the Year' award from the Association of South West Motor Clubs.

 

Click on the picture to enlarge
Other Bentley Drivers Club Annual Race Meeting Photos

The Bentley Drivers Club will return to Silverstone for its 61st Annual Race Meeting on 7th August 2010, continuing its unbroken run of annual BDC events at the circuit, from 1949 right through to the present day. In 2010, however, the Bentley Drivers Club will be celebrating a very special anniversary… 30 years of the mighty Bentley Mulsanne.

“We hope to illustrate the full 30-year heritage of the Bentley Mulsanne at Silverstone on 7th August,” says Sebastian Welch, Competitions Captain of the BDC, “from the earliest models of Mulsanne produced in 1980, through to the brand-new 2010 Mulsanne being built at Crewe – a breathtaking, modern-day flagship for the marque.”

While the Bentley Mulsanne will be a strong theme of the August meeting, there will additionally be an enormous variety of Bentleys from all eras, racing flat-out on the Silverstone circuit. Plus plenty of other marques, too… The meeting will include a round of the Thoroughbred Sports Car Championship and of the Morgan Challenge Race Series, while the Allcomers’ race attracts not only Bentleys but Aston Martins and Jaguars, through to the Ginetta G4 and the Kurtis 500S. In total, there will be 10 races at this ever-popular meeting.

 

A delectable line-up of Lister Jaguars – the Cambridge-built sports cars that took the big manufacturers on at their own game and won - will be showcased at this year’s Race Retro, held at Stoneleigh Park, Coventry from 12th to 14th March.

Examples of the earliest models – including founder Brian Lister’s first car, through the classic Lister ‘knobbly’ and Costin-bodied models and onto the 1990s’ Storm, which saw the name’s revival, will be reunited with the man behind the marque.

Their appearance coincides with a book written by highly-regarded Jaguar enthusiast Paul Skilleter, which chronicles the company’s sports cars, their founder Brian Lister and their successes during the late-1950s.

Closely associated with driver Archie Scott-Brown, Listers originally used MG and Bristol engines, but the switch to Jaguar engines and the shape of the car, dubbed ‘knobbly’, brought the company unparalleled success and exposure.

A later model, designed by then-leading aerodynamicist Frank Costin shepherded in a new cleaner, wind-cheating appearance, but didn’t repeat the success of earlier models.

Those earlier models proved successful in the fledgling historic motor sport scene, but the Lister name was revived in the 1990s with an all-new (but still Jaguar-powered) sports car. Laurence Pearce’s 600bhp Lister Storm ran at Le Mans and at Daytona, bringing home both the FIA GT Drivers’ and Teams’ Championship in 2000.

 

Tasmanian Jason White is looking like the man to beat in this year’s Targa Wrest Point, upstaging his rivals in his Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera Type R on the opening day on the stages south of Hobart.

West Australian, Dean Herridge, is in second place, 26 seconds behind the Burnie driver, impressing in his Subaru Impreza WRX STI.

Another from the West, Steve Jones, is third, a further 12 seconds back, and he will be looking to charge home on Sunday in his Nissan GT-R. Reigning Targa Tasmania champion, Tony Quinn, also in a Nissan GT-R, was on the pace early, but slipped back to fourth as the opening day unfolded, over a minute in arrears of White.

Eight-time Targa Tasmania winner, Jim Richards, could not match the pace of his younger rivals in their Japanese machines, and is back in fifth place in his Porsche 911 GT2.

Leading the Classic Overall competition is John Ireland and Michael Robot in a 1977 Porsche 911, 53 seconds in front of Peter Eames in his 1974 Porsche 911. Bill Pye is third in his Porsche, after a fascinating day’s competition.

“I’m surprised to be leading actually, because I thought we’d dropped quite a bit of time on the second run through the Tahune stages, but our pace on other stages has been quite good,” Ireland said.

“The car has been sticking to the road like a leech in the rough sections, and we’ve managed to maintain a comfortable pace throughout the day. Anything can happen tomorrow, but I’m hopeful of getting to the finish in Hobart still in the lead.”

The Showroom category for stock-standard production cars is being headed by Tasmanian Tony Warren, just six seconds clear of motoring journalist, Dean Evans, both driving Mitsubishi Lancer Evo.

The second running of Targa Wrest Point is being run over 14 Targa stages, with a total competitive distance of 210 kilometres. Weather conditions on the first day of the two-day rally have been perfect, with dry roads and no chance of rain.

 

7 Countries in 21 Days - A classic drive in Central America, from Panama to Mexico - February 12th to March 5th 2010.

The Maya Classic Rally is a 21 day adventure traversing seven amazing countries in Central America taking the participants from Mexico City to Veracruz in Mexico.



The route takes you through Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize and the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico.

The driving ranges from stunning mountains, to Caribbean seas and from the cacti studded deserts to cultivated lowlands. Here, there is the full range of fabulous scenery and local life laid out before you.