29 replies to this topic

[retrospeed]

Tour Britannia. is it a race or is it a rally? Good question. All we know is everyone had a good time. Full report and two image galleries are at www.retro-speed.co.uk

[john ruston]

Did they?


It's UK's answer to Tour Auto which is a mixture of both..

[retrospeed]

Did they?

Hmm. There are some big holes in the organisation. it just wasn't special enough. I wonder how many competitors will return next year? I can't help but feel that the majority where looking for real south of France sunshine and fancy hotels with long lunches. They were wrong and their Ferraris got very wet!

[RTH]

Probably more like those 'Avon Tour of Britain' events in the 1970s.
Quite impossible to predict type of weather at any time of year in Britain anymore. Feb March April and May have been the driest for 100 years in the south east region. The rain in the last 10 days has come as a major relief. Events in Britain are always likely to be of different character to the south of France. Rain and sporting events are all part of the fun here.

[john ruston]

There is no problem with Hotels or food on Tour Britannia.It is better overall than Tour Auto.That's why it started 6 years ago

The problem this year was the type of rally stages used for the fancy cars,traffic and changes in some of the sporting aspects.

It misses the guiding hand of John Davenport and Fred Gallagher as Alec Poole can't do it all on his own.

Back to mid week and out of main Tourist areas would help.The Lincs, Yorkshire ,Cheshire,North Wales were so much better.

June is odd date as September has always given decent weather.

Just my opinion

[simonlewisbooks]

June in the South West - it ALWAYS rains!
Take my word for it I live there and that's why Glastonbury is held at this time of year .... it gives the 'music lovers' so much more mud to play in while stoned....

RTH, glad you had some long awaited rainfall in your part of the world but contrary to what they tell us all on the news, it hasn't been that way for us....
I've done 5 outdoor events with my book stall so far this spring . Two were virtual washouts , one was rain-affected and at the remaining two it was threatening to dump a cloud on us at times. All have been very windy and this weekend's Prescott hillclimb looks like it'll be a bit soggy at times unless we are very lucky.

[RTH]

Simon, I know you in the west have had a quite different weather situation.
Every day for many months we had watched the rain radar deposit big rain in south west , Wales, Ireland the north of England and Scotland with envy . It has never got to us with parched brown fields and huge cracks in the ground.

If you want a dry rally set it in East Anglia.

[Stephen W]

It came to Aintree last year and was great. Looking forward to 2012 when it may well be back in the North West.

[john ruston]

The weather was not problem it's just something you put up with.

The sporting parts let it down.This has not happened before and may be just a blip.

Must be easier to run the event from Coventry ,Yorkshire or Chester.

The Sunday road route was ideal.

[arttidesco]

I'm still bowled over by what occurred at Castle Combe on Saturday



when the Tour Britannia came to visit my local circuit, got up just in time to catch the rally stage,



went home to pick up my camera (doh!)



and was back at the track in time to see two extremely entertaining races.



Hope the weather does not put off Tour Britannia visiting the South West again.



One further comment to add for future reference, did someone somewhere miss a promotional
opportunity by omitting to mention Danny Sullivan was taking part ?

Thanks to Simon Lewis for his assistance in getting me track side

[RTH]

Many congratulations to TNFs Fred Gallagher on a fine drive to 5th on Regularity in his 1936 Lancia Aprilia, co-driven by a chap who had a number 1 hit in the top 40 in 1973 !

[retrospeed]

It came to Aintree last year and was great. Looking forward to 2012 when it may well be back in the North West.

I thought the stage run over the Great Orme last year spectacular. The weather was perfect and with sea as a backdrop it could easily have been Sicily.

[arttidesco]

Many congratulations to TNFs Fred Gallagher on a fine drive to 5th on Regularity in his 1936 Lancia Aprilia, co-driven by a chap who had a number 1 hit in the top 40 in 1973 !

Probably not the best time to announce my self to Fred as a fellow TNFer as he was arriving at Castle Combe then ;)

Looks like Noel Edmonds was a big hit with the pre teens circa 1973 when Simon Parks went to number 1 on the 499 edition of TOTP :-)

[john ruston]

Simon Park did quite a lot of club racing some years ago. Driving a Marcos(?) comes to mind, but, sadly, I have no photos of him.

Didn't know Elaine Mcloud had a No 1.
It's her in photo

[arttidesco]

Are you saying there was a programme error and Simon Park was not in the #34 Lancia John ?

[Giraffe]

Are you saying there was a programme error and Simon Park was not in the #34 Lancia John ?

You might need van der Valk to sort this one out.

[RTH]

Fred did tell me that this bloke who is a huge Lancia fan sat beside him on Friday, I presume for the whole event ?

[john ruston]

Simon could only do Friday and having never done a regularity before which was difficult and left Fred in about twelfth place.They also had no trip!

Elaine joined him for Sat/Sun after her car expired on Friday.

They climbed at one point to third place and finished fifth.

Seems they are all set to win next year.

So Pre War car won regularity this year and driven by an occasional TNF person!

[RTH]

Ah.. so now we know.

.......And congratulations to you John for winning regularity.

Do please put up some photos if you have some.

Edited by RTH, 22 June 2011 - 07:04.

[Fred Gallagher]

The only view anyone in Regularity had of JR last weekend!



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

I never saw the Ferraris or Healey trying to get into shot with me....



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Fred

Edited by Fred Gallagher, 22 June 2011 - 07:57.

[arttidesco]

Unfortunately I missed the regularity runners on the stage and open lap segments at Castle Combe, but I did catch their arrival for the afternoon run.

I remember Johns Talbot starter motor not wanting to engage with the flywheel gear ring just after it had been checked in to Combe, it was a thrill to lend a hand with a short push, congratulations on taking the regularity honours class honours John



Thanks also for unravelling the van der Valk mystery of Freds co - drivers I have added a note to my programme notes

[Peter Darley]

You might need van der Valk to sort this one out.

"Eyelevel" ?

[Giraffe]

"Eyelevel" ?

No Peter, it's just my spectacles.

[McTaff]

I think it's nice that the event is moving around the country. What was the 'sporting' problem? Despite the rain they all seemed to enjoy Epynt, Danny Sullivan went off on our finish and two of us encouraged him to get back in the car and try and drive out. He was hoping to get recovery but a bit of local knowledge and pushing had him back on in no time! I do have a picture of it but it's being saved for the 2015 Epynt book update!!

Can't post any pics as it doesn't seem to want to take Photobucket images.

Edited by McTaff, 25 June 2011 - 16:51.

[arttidesco]

I think it's nice that the event is moving around the country. What was the 'sporting' problem? Despite the rain they all seemed to enjoy Epynt, Danny Sullivan went off on our finish and two of us encouraged him to get back in the car and try and drive out. He was hoping to get recovery but a bit of local knowledge and pushing had him back on in no time! I do have a picture of it but it's being saved for the 2015 Epynt book update!!

Can't post any pics as it doesn't seem to want to take Photobucket images.

Try postimage simplicity it's self with Firefox and Mac :-)

[McTaff]

Mmmm tried that, still doesn't want to play...........

[arttidesco]

Wonder if your using the right codes McTaff the ones I use on this forum from postimage are labelled 'Hotlink' for Forums 1. Alternatively if your having trouble loading your pics on to Photobucket of photoimage they may be too large ?

PM me if you would like to discuss loading images further.

[McTaff]

Tried again, this is the message. Doesn't make sense to me.


You are not allowed to use that image extension on this board. A valid format is: http://www.domain.com/picture.gif, an invalid format is: http://www.domain.com/picture.one.gif

[David McKinney]

Must be the comma...

[David Birchall]

What is the entry fee for the Tour Britannia?
Is it considered good value?