THE BEST OF BRITAIN IN BELGIUM

British rally drivers have taken to Belgian shores and shown the locals a thing or two on several occasions over the years.

Despite coming awfully close in 2020, Ypres has never been a World Rally Championship rally but has always been widely recognised as a world-class event. That means success in the Flanders’ fields never goes unnoticed. Enter stage left, Tony Pond.

With his pair of victories in 1978 and ’80 behind the wheel of a Triumph TR7 V8, Pond remains to this day the only foreign driver to conquer Ypres Rally twice. His legacy has recently been commemorated by the Tony Pond Trophy and Tony Pond Junior Trophy that was awarded to the highest-placed British Rally Championship and Junior BRC competitor in recent years.

Other Brits to win in Ypres include Jimmy McRae who in 1987 scored a 1-2 for Britain ahead of thendefending British champion Mark Lovell in a brace of Ford Sierra RS Cosworths. Northern Ireland’s Kris Meeke also romped to the win in 2009, when the rally was an Intercontinental Rally Challenge counter, on his debut visit to the event. And more recently, Ireland’s Craig Breen took top honours in

2019 in a Volkswagen Polo GTI R5.

But there’s a strong case to suggest that Rhys Yates’ scorching drive to victory on the 2018 Rally van Wervik trumps the lot. Using the Asphalt Rally Championship round as familiarisation for the upcoming Ypres Rally, Yates dominated in his Skoda Fabia R5 to record his first – and so far only – international rally victory and with it a slice of history as the only non-Belgian or French pilot to claim victory in Wervik.