Retro Classic Tour
With HERO-ERA
Setting off from the renowned Race Retro event at Stoneleigh Park, The Retro Classic Tour wound its way on a 120 mile route through the beautiful West Midlands countryside, enjoying views from the undulating hills of Warwickshire to the incredible engineering masterpiece that is the Harbury Windmill, a 17th Century, Grade 1 Listed Building.
The route also crossed some incredibly important points of British History, including the site of the Battle of Edgehill, one of the first Battles of the English Civil War, in 1642. After passing by this historical area, the route descended into the picturesque village of Kineton, a traditional English village.
As we left Kineton, we kept an eye out for the famous Hook Norton Victorian Brewery, still brewing ales and beers in the same traditional way since the early Victorian Era, and a great tour for anyone who may want to visit on a weekend where you’re not enjoying some of the best roads that we can offer. We worked our way towards our lunch at the Vale Golf Club.
The second half of the tour saw us wind our way towards Harvington, a beautiful little village nestled in the rolling hills of Worcestershire. A little further into the afternoon we crossed the River Avon, using a narrow bridge, as we crossed this we used a road even older than some of the historical sights we passed this morning, Ryknield Street, which has been traversed by everything from chariots to supercars, and was initially laid by the Romans on their conquest of England.
Before we knew it, we drove through the gates back into Stoneleigh Park returning to the show where we were all welcomed onto the HERO-ERA Stand for a tea or coffee.
Event Schedule
Leave Stoneleigh Park
09:30 - We suggest that you plan to arrive between 9am and 9:30am. This gives you the time to have your car checked for safety, by our officials.
9:45 - 10:15 -Documentation & Registration at the HERO-ERA stand.
10:30 - First car scheduled to start.
Lunch Halt
12:45 - First car expected at lunch.
13:30 - First car expected to leave lunch.
Return to Stoneleigh
15:35 - First car expected back at Stoneleigh Park.
Retro Classic Tour, an Afterword
Thomas Proulx and Theo Bradley, SAAB 99.
Thomas, “We had a good morning, lots of pleasant roads. We got crossed up once but my expert here, Theo, got us back on track very quickly. So yeah, very good learning experience, though.”
Theo “Great. the road book is clear and complete as it was really nice. We did get lost once but that was mostly our own fault!”
Thomas, “We went to the first and second seminars on the navigation and timing courses yesterday as we’ve only done one navigation event before, and it was absolutely brilliant, we may do some more.”
Jonathan and Evan Martin, Austin Healey 3.0 litre
Evan, “We did well, most of the time. We only went wrong once when I wasn’t quick enough. So, I think we were covered. It’s difficult to look backwards in the Healey, forward is just fine you just try to turn your head and see, but we really enjoyed it.
Jon, “We did two of the courses because Evan has never done any of this before. I’ve done lots of rallies over the years both navigating and driving, usually with my wife, but she has kind of given it up as a bad job. And so I thought, right, it’s time to get the younger generation in so we both came into the tutorials yesterday, the basic one, and then the more advanced, on timing. I think it was really good to understand what it was like, so the next step is to do an event with some timing. Then we’ll see how we get on juggling the two things together.
“The Rally for the Ages in June sounds like a great event, especially now we know you get a free entry if you start with the combined crew age of under 70. That’s fantastic.
“Evan did his Duke of Edinburgh Award and through that, he did a lot of navigation with maps and that sort of thing. So, I know he’s actually a pretty good map reader. So that’s the next step.
Philip Woodfield, 1969 Rover 2000 P6 SC 19
This car was family owned from new. It went to my father who unfortunately died soon after, I’ve had it since 1995. But the interesting thing is that it was stolen in 1976 in Tamworth, it was used in a bank robbery in Liverpool. So I was put on the insurance to fetch it back in the hot summer of 76.
“I remember doing the London to Brighton, and the guys were quite interested, and they called it the ‘Bank Job P6!’
“This event is fantastic. I always wanted to be involved, I always thought it was above my capabilities but with good training and help it makes a big difference. So we’re starting with this and then we’re going to go on to Summer Trial, and before I leave this earth I want to do LeJog!
“The event has been so really well organized, a great bunch of people, and quite interesting to be following the great champion, Paul Crosby!”
Brian and Hunter Aitkin (USA) Hunter is the youngest ever navigator on a HERO-ERA event at four years of age. Porsche 911 3.4 CR
Brian was heard instructing four-year-old Hunter with the road book, pointing to tulip diagrams before they restarted the Retro Tour after lunch.
‘Remember this book is to help us get to all the different parts, right? So straight and what’s that? Right. And then it’s up but kind of to the left about this one is number five. That’s right, well done Hunter!’
Brian was asked to reiterate that his son was just four and asked how was he doing?
Brian; “He’s doing great and I’m loving it! I tried to finish the classes yesterday, but we got sucked into the auction. Now we have a fun Quattro too!
Guy Woodcock, Competition Director, HERO-ERA
“We find that the training and this tour as part of the Race Retro show itself gives us a great stepping stone for new people who come and look at what we do. We’ve had people starting at Race Retro and then going right the way through to compete on LeJog. Some are them have even been thinking about the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge.”
“Alistair Leckie and Matt Outhwaite are prime examples of a crew that started here at Race Retro three years ago and then won the HERO Challenge Championship twice in back-to-back years.”
Alistair, who normally drives, was noticed on the navigation sessions on Saturday, Guy explained what was going on.
“They’re swapping seats for this year, so Alistair is going to navigate in 2023, that’ll be an interesting dynamic I would have thought in the car.
“The show has been great for us; it was really busy on Friday and Saturday. It was reasonably busy on Sunday morning as well, but we have been signing up lots of new members, with people making lots of event enquiries, but just generally interested in what we’re doing.”