RacerViews is taking a step back in time today with a look at the recent Lombard Rally Festival. The event was recently held over two days at The Revesby Estate, which is situated within the heart of rural Lincolnshire and close to the town of Boston.
Over the two day event members of the public had the chance to get up close to some of the most iconic rally cars from the 80’s such as the Audi Quattro A2, Metro 6R4, Renault 5 Turbo and many others. In fact, there were just under 50 cars taking part over the two days along with live music on Saturday evening and camping for those that wanted to make it a full-on weekend.
We asked Tim Nash, the main organiser of the festival for an overview of the Lombard Rally Festivals.
“The Lombard Rally series of historic rally car demonstration events has been running since 2018, initially set up to look like a 1970s rally, with multiple venues, connected by 200 or more road miles. However, we realised that this was not the way to run these events, for two reasons. Firstly, the entrants did not want to travel long distances in their rally cars and secondly, there was a lot of spectator interest in seeing the cars in action.
The answer was to continue with one more traditional looking rally, allowing the cars short road sections, this is Lombard Rally Bath which continues each October. In addition, our Rally Festivals run, as Revesby did, in one location, allowing the drivers to return to their parking spot between runs, enjoy a social atmosphere and at the same time allow spectators access to the cars and drivers to ask questions and take photos. The idea is to recreate what the Lombard RAC Rally did from the late 1970s onwards in finding venues which were easily accessible to spectators, rather than having to trek many miles through a remote forest to see the rally cars in action.
Since 2019, we have taken these events to South Wales, Yorkshire, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Lincolnshire and in 2024 to Scotland for the first time at Kilmarnock and to a second Lincolnshire location at Revesby.”
Revesby offered a natural choice for the event and while the first event was a success, the organisers have taken many lessons for the future years. One of the priorities is about spectator enjoyment, as Nash explains.
“We chose Revesby because it offered a run for the rally cars through a genuine forestry section, followed by a tarmac section of road. It also offered plenty of space for other attractions, plus the landowners were very keen. Whilst the drivers enjoyed driving through Revesby very much, it was challenging to find suitable spots for spectating, as a result we will be changing the route drastically to improve access. We will also be moving the rally car parking area closer to the start of the run, to allow spectators even better access. Finally, due to the size of the event field, we will be working to bring another event into the field to run simultaneously with the rally cars.”
If you get a chance, pop along to one of the events they are great and a great way to see these iconic cars in action.
For more info about Lombard Rally Festivals head over to their website www.lombardrallybath.co.uk
The RacerViews info
By Matt Hancock
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