HERO Challenge One 2025 - The HERO Challenge Championship Returns

The HERO Challenge Championship returns on the 22nd of this month, with round one taking place in the dramatic scenery of the Peak District National Park, and with a bumper entry of 105 cars it will take some serious skill to finish at the summit of a highly competitive field.

The Challenge events are one day rallies, designed to offer up a full taste of action without taking up an entire weekend, and have been pitched at a broad church of competitors from novices through to those with more experience. There are tougher rallies out there, but with only one day to win it or bin it, the pressure is on from the outset.

Those making their way to Chesterfield this weekend for round one of the three round mini championship can expect a challenging route of some 150 miles, packed with 6 regularities and 8 tests offering plenty of action in the ‘never long enough day’ to prove themselves against their peers. Last year’s champions were Simon Ayris and Matt Outhwaite, with Matt now having won a hat-trick of the coveted navigator’s title.

Despite the HERO Challenge events offering a springboard for some of the newer members of our sport, there are still plenty on the start list that would qualify as experienced hands, in a field that includes the current HERO-ERA Cup and Golden Roamer champions Dick and Harry Baines, and last year’s drivers runner up James Holt, this time with former double drivers champion Alistair Leckie in the maps seat. It is a field that HERO-ERA Competition Director and Clerk of the Course Guy Woodcock describes as “highly competitive”, and he tells me that there are a “great number of people that could take the win.” The entry has no doubt been buoyed by the dissolving of the Masters Category, a move that will also see the Challenge events counting towards the HERO-ERA Cup and Golden Roamer awards this season. The Masters category had been put in place to help bring on a new set of up-and-coming competitors, a purpose that the competition team now feel has been served.

This opening up of the series will see regular masters’ entrants like Stephen Owens mixing it with everyone else, and Stephen is entered into the first round in his eponymous 911 with extremely experienced navigator Iain Tullie sitting alongside him. To triumph though, they will need to beat competitors such as the Steve and Julia Robertson, father and son and former champions Stephen and Alexander Chick, Stephen Hardwick and Ian Riley, Paul and Sandra Heaney, former HERO-ERA Cup Champion Paul Bloxidge and Phil Cottam, Nick Bloxham and Emily Anderson, Mike Farrall and Zach Burns, Mike and Liz Dixon, Mark Lillington and Mark Bramall, John King and Mike Cochrane and the list goes on.

This is also a series that has bought a lot of young blood through in recent years, and round one this year will continue that tradition, with an entry for this year’s Bob Rutherford Scholarship winner Miles Fieldhouse. Miles continues his training programme that began with HERO’s novice event, A Novice Trial, which he managed to win. HC1 will certainly be a step up, and this time Miles will be navigating for HERO chief sweep Dave Alcock, in his beautiful Datsun280z. Dave won’t mind where they finish, as long as they beat another HERO sweep, Martin Payton, who is entered in his Volvo PV544 with Paul Aram navigating. Miles, on the other hand, has already shown he is a very competitive individual!

There are also ten entrants that were on the recent A Novice Trial event, the training weekend held at Hellidon Lakes, designed to help total novices with their navigation and knowledge of the mechanics of the sport. They finished that weekend with a mini rally to get a taste of competition, but this event will really give them a chance to practice their newly acquired knowledge and get a feel for a full day of competition, amongst their more experienced peers. We are looking forward to seeing them all, and hope they relish their experience.

The Peak District will provide the backdrop for the upcoming weekend, but just what can be expected from round one? Well, according to Guy Woodcock, “A really engaging one day rally to kick the HERO Challenge events off with. There is a real mix of navigation and Tests, but I’m really looking forward to the Tests at Walton Lodge, they will produce a really special beginning and end to the day, so a big thanks to Steve Perez for letting us use his brilliant facility.”

The tests will be a real feature of HC1, and with a bumper crop of 8 to contest the drivers will certainly be happy, and with test names like ‘Damp Timber!’ and ‘Mars!” who knows what Mr Woodcock and his team have conjured up, no doubt it will be entertaining.

There are also 6 regularities to conquer, with a mixture of navigation from tulips, to some map work and jogularities. The longest reg is the Shining Ford regularity, and at over 16 miles long and featuring ‘some cryptic instructions’ this could well be one that does a bit of sorting out.

Win or not though, this is an event that is supposed to be fun, and more than anything, Guy is hoping that the 105 crews enjoy themselves, and on the quiet he is feeling a bit of pressure himself with such a big entry. But, as Guy puts it, “The ingredients are certainly there for HC1 to become a bit of a classic. There are the wonderful roads of the Peaks National Park, a wonderful set of Tests and a fantastic entry. Now it’s a big build up, but I’m excited for the day and can’t wait to see everyone at the finish.”

The rest of the HERO-ERA team can’t either, and we will look forward to seeing everyone at the start on the 22^nd of March.