‘Peugeot Challenge celebrated at Stoneleigh’
Huge30thanniversarycommemorationalongsideraceretro
The championship which helped to launch the careers of Richard Burns and Kris Meeke, the Peugeot Challenge, will celebrate its 30th anniversary with on and off track activities in February 2019.
Starting in 1989, the series has had many big names, guises and cars, but its peak was the original challenge from 19891991 with the Peugeot 205. The likes of Richard Burns, Mark and David Higgins and Jonny Milner graced the championship which regularly attracted over 120 entries between its senior and junior classes.
While not always called the Peugeot Challenge, it has had many guises and another popular era was the early 2000s with the Peugeot 106, when champion Mark Fisher was given a 206 WRC for the then Network Q RAC rally as a prize drive for his 106 success.
A team of drivers and people who took part and organised the championship have joined together to create the February 23 anniversary event, with on stage demonstrations at Stoneleigh Park – at the same time as Race Retro is taking place – in association with enthusiasts club ‘Rallying With Group B’.
Challenge winners Milner, Paul Frankland and Kevin Furber will all attend, with Milner and Furber using original period machinery for the on-track display.
“It’s so exciting that we’ve got some of the original cars and drivers from the Challenge’s history,” Furber told MN. “We’ll put on the biggest display of Peugeot Challenge cars together, at the same time, that the UK has ever seen.
“There’s period machinery to be demonstrated on track, or for those not wanting to drive or to put miles on their cars, there’s the static displays.
“The first ever Peugeot Challenge co-ordinator Keith Baud and long-time co-ordinator Stella Boyles will also be there.”
In the evening, a dinner to mark the anniversary will take place at the Woodside Hotel in Kenilworth, where legendary Peugeot UK boss Des O’dell would take drivers to sign their contracts, including the likes of Henri Toivonen.
The list of drivers to compete in the challenges is endless, with Justin Dale, Rich Stoodley, Ryan Champion, Barbara Armstrong, Garry Jennings, Stuart Jones, Rory Galligan, Jason Sharpe and Martin Rowe all among the names competing.
A year before the challenge was introduced, O’dell tested the concept with Peugeot 309s, and Colin Mcrae was one of the drivers chosen, meaning the Scottish icon was also a part of the Challenge’s history.