Mike Cowlam: Classic Yorkshire Editor
Classic Yorkshire is all about nostalgia, classic cars can connect us with memories and for me, rally cars take me back to the 1980’s. In the mid 80’s me and two friends would hire a van and drive from a Safari park in Bath to a forest in Yorkshire.
My clearest memory is standing in Dalby in the middle of the night hearing a brap, brap, brap long before the cars arrived at our corner. In the distance trees would light up for a few seconds before plunging back into darkness. Then a blinding light would hit you as the cars passed and all you could see were the red tail lights as they plunged deeper into the forest.
These are the memories that Rallye Harewood is trying to rekindle and it seems to have succesfully tapped into this nostalgia market.
Harewood has a genuine claim to rallying legitimacy as it was a stage in 1974, 1975 and 1982 and has been driven by all the rallying greats of the time. For those who didn’t want to plunge into the forests, stages like Harewood would get you close to the action with facilities and car parking close by.
Rallye Harewood sold out its spectator tickets about 10 days before the event and there were many desperate posts asking for tickets. BARC members could get in for free though the £12.50 ticket price was more than reasonable.
The event was essentially two events, a daylight event and a dark evening event. (3pm-7pm). A strong entry of 85 cars represented many of the era’s of rallying though as you would expect Ford Escorts were well represented. I had two favourites, a wonderful Renault 5 Turbo 2 in works colours and a beautifully prepared Austin Mini Mk1.
An interesting development was the difference in lighting. A MK 2 Escort with a light pod certainly looks the business and delivers a broad yellow light. The modern lighting is an LED light bar which throws out a stronger brighter light but is virtually invisible on the car. For my money older is better.
I hope that this becomes an annual event, it certainly was a successful first event and a great opportunity to build on. I would have loved to have seen more Group B cars but that is my only niggle.
Finally, thanks to the orange army and officials who make these events possible.