TRACKROD ENTRY FOR BLOMQVIST

WRC champion back on UK rally stages Photos: Paul Lawrence, mcklein-imagedatabase.com, LAT

World Rally Champion Stig Blomqvist will return to the stages in the UK for the first time since 2011 when he competes on Trackrod Rally Yorkshire Historic Cup.

Blomqvist – who last competed in a UK rally on the Colin Mcrae Historic Forest Stages Rally five years ago – will drive a Opel Ascona which is true to period.

“It’s not an ex-works car but it was built by the Opel importer with a bit of help. It’s a proper historic, a period car,” said the car’s owner Chris Birkbeck.

“I’ve used the car at Goodwood for the last couple of years, we’ve just been chipping away at it, improving it and tidying it up.”

Birkbeck – who runs a BARS certified rally school in Yorkshire – will prepare the car on the event. Blomqvist didn’t use one in period as he was competing in Saabs, Talbot Sunbeams and Audis when the Ascona was at the front end of the WRC.

The Swede is competing to help Birkbeck promote a new ice driving school in Sweden.

“We’re opening a rally school, which I know has been done by people before but this is right up in the Arctic Circle. There’s lots of other attractions up there, like the northern lights. Stig is going to help us launch it and do some one-to-one tuition in it.”

The Trackrod begins on Friday, September 30, with the added challenge of night stages on a national event.going into the final round of the British Historic Rally Championship, Simon Tysoe leads the points.