Peart and Connor to compete in Ypres in honour of Dick Archer

Chris Peart and navigator John Connor will contest this year’s Ypres Rally in honour of Dick Archer.

Peart and Connor competed in the car for the first time on the ORC Canal Rally – also in Belgium – and now the two will compete in Ypres on Archer’s favourite rally as a tribute.

Archer died in December last year after a brave battle with cancer. He was most famous for his antics in various Vauxhall Astras.

“The idea came about at Dick’s funeral,” explained Connor. “Chris Peart who is a good mate said ‘do you want to do Ypres with me as we can do it as a tribute to Dick.’ And I said ‘of course I do’. Chris’ service crew used to work with Dick when he was with Merlin and in the F2 days, so they knew each other longer than I’d known Dick. One of the service lads used to co-drive for him, Tim Rogers who competes in the BTRDA. Obviously we’ll drink some beer and do what I think is one of the best rallies in the world.”

Another Fiesta R2 crew competing on the event is Jamie Brown and Joe Cruttenden. They’re also in new machinery as they are competing in the turbo version of M-sport’s R2.

It’s Brown’s sixth attempt at Ypres, and he’ll be hoping any issues with the car have been sorted, as they finished first frontwheel-drive car on Rally van Wervik – also in Belgium – which they used as a pre-event test.

“The first issue we had was with the electronics, and the second I bent the steering.

“The stages in Ypres are pretty much the same I think apart from a few, so that’s good. They’re quite nice to build up the pace on.”

Another British crew,timothy and Simon Jones, will also compete in a naturally aspirated 1.6-litre Fiesta R2.