Hindley wins 2014 Tour Britannia
Phil Hindley and Andy Bull claimed a hard-earned victory on Tour Britannia to maintain their unbeaten record on Britain's only classic race and rally tour. The result completed a hat-trick of Tour Britannia wins for Hindley's Porsche 911 SCR, but he had to work hard for his win and it was only on the final day that Hindley could get ahead of the Ford Escort Mk2 of IRDC members Steve Perez and Paul Spooner.
At the end of the second day in North Wales, Perez had established a five-second lead which had been built using his pace around the stunning Great Orme stage. Hindley then won the race at Anglesey on Friday morning to level the times. But it was over the long airfield stages at Llanbedr on Friday afternoon that Hindley really pressed home the Porsche's advantage to build a 20-second lead going into the final two stages at Mostyn Hall. Perez attacked once more and pegged the final margin back to just 13s.
Perez was one of the stars of the event as he made his racing debut. With engine issues for his Lancia Stratos, Perez borrowed the Escort Mk2 rally car of his friend Geoff Bell and turned in a great performance, including in the races. "I really enjoyed the races and I could be tempted to do some more!" The battle for third overall and was only settled as three seconds covered three crews after the deciding pair of stages. Steven Ratcliffe/Chris King (Porsche 911) took the place by a single second from Tony Robinson/Keith Fellowes (Porsche 911) and John and Lesley Sheldon (Lotus Elan).
In the concurrent regularity event, Max Taylor/Mike Hickson turned in a near-faultless performance in their Aston Martin DB2/4 to lead from the start and run out commanding winners over Derek and Sue Skinner (Porsche 356) and Andrew Brodie/Richard Payne (Citroen SM).
9th August, 2014