Groundbreaking ‘Free’ Rally for the Ages wins Royal Automobile Club Historic ‘Innovation’ Award
*HERO-ERA new for the ‘Young and for Free’ with free entry and biofuel concept impressed judges
*Accessible rally attracts 47 new crews with 40% under 30 and 18 crews aged 15 and under
*Coryton ‘Sustain’ Classic Biofuel powered 70 cars to finish line
The groundbreaking, for the ‘Young and for Free,’ Rally for the Ages which attracted an impressive 90 cars to the start line at Bicester Heritage, has won the Innovation Award at the prestigious Royal Automobile Club Historic Awards in Pall Mall.
The 100-mile competitive route of four regularities around Oxfordshire and four tests at Bicester attracted 18 crew members aged 15 and under, two aged just 11! 40% were under 30 and 55% of the field were new to regularity rallying. The purpose, to encourage young people into the sport, was achieved and recognised by the Innovation Award as it provided a free entry and free biofuel as most of the field were eager to try the sport and be part of the sustainability programme.
Tomas de Vargas Machuca, Chairman HERO-ERA was delighted with the award; “We are proud to win the Innovation Award as it endorses all our hard work with our initiatives for the young and on our sustainability programmes. The Rally for the Ages surpassed all our expectations and left us all with a warm glow! We aimed to instill camaraderie and ignite the passion for classic rallying in young hearts, which we certainly witnessed on the rally. If we can help inspire a new era of responsible and enthusiastic participants in our wonderful sport, then we will have achieved something very worthwhile, this award confirms we are making great progress.”
The accessible ‘Free’ rally concept points to the future as budding young enthusiasts who competed could grow to nurture and protect historic motoring. In addition to their interest in classic cars, they also sampled the ‘fuel of the future’ with Coryton advanced Biofuels ‘Sustain’ brand which keeps emissions to a minimum.
David Richardson, Business Development Director of Coryton Fuels said; “We had 70 cars use our fuel! I didn't expect that, we thought we were going to handle less thinking maybe there was going to be scepticism about the fuel, but it was quite the opposite. It was a really positive response, very encouraging.
“Our partnership with NET-HERO is important and fundamental to the success, they are another voice promoting sustainability.”
Motorsport UK’s Rallies and Cross Country Manager, Jonathan Jackson, flagged the 90 crews away from Bicester Heritage and was pleased with what he witnessed; “Regularity rallying is a fantastic discipline to have within rallying as a whole. It’s very popular and ever-growing as we've seen, and Motorsport UK is really pleased to be here today supporting it.
“It is fantastic to find a discipline which is bringing initiatives like this, so we are so pleased to be supporting it. It's a big thing for us at the minute within the UK rally strategy to be looking at ways in which we can get more people into the sport, particularly younger people. So, initiatives like this are fantastic, and you know, at motorsport UK we really want to encourage youngsters into the sport.”