H&H CLASSIC RALLIES IS NOW ACCEPTING ENTRIES FOR THE 2ND PARIS-MADRID RALLY, SCHEDULED FOR 22-25 MAY 2014
17.01.2014.- Following the success of last year’s inaugural event, H&H Classic Rallies is now accepting entries for the 2nd Paris-Madrid Rally, scheduled for 22-25 May 2014. Several well-known names in the classic rally world have already reserved their places on the event, and confirmed car marques so far include Alvis, Bentley, Ford, Jaguar, Lagonda, Peugeot, Riley and Rolls-Royce.
The period-dressed crews will once again compete for the Charles Jarrott Trophy, in honour of the pioneering British driver who in 1903 led the infamous Paris-Madrid Race away from Versailles. Halted at Bordeaux after a series of terrible accidents, that ill-fated contest was the last of the great city-to-city races and marked the end of an era in motorsport. Indeed it was almost forgotten until H&H launched a prestigious new reliability trial to mark last year’s 110th anniversary. Attracting 52 crews from 18 nations and won by Alastair Caldwell and Catriona Rings in a 1939 Alfa Romeo 6C, the Paris-Madrid Rally was immediately established as a highlight of the motoring year.
The event will be repeated in May this year with a number of significant improvements. Again starting from the Trianon Palace in Versailles and shadowing the 1903 route on picturesque roads, crews will spend their first night in the delightful city of Limoges. Suitably refreshed, they will then press on through the world’s finest wine country and over the Pyrenees to rest for a second night in Pamplona, where the 2013 rally received an overwhelmingly warm welcome.
On the third day, the route crosses spectacular Spanish landscapes to finish in the north-eastern outskirts of Madrid at the Parador de Alcalá de Henares, an hotel set in medieval World Heritage site famed as the birthplace of Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote.
The rally is open to all pre-WW2 cars and has been designed to offer every participant an equal chance of winning. The £3,500 entry fee includes accommodation (with breakfast) for the nights of May 22-25 inclusive, group dinners (including the gala prize giving), parking, breakdown support, rally plates, road book, finishers’ awards and prizes.
More details of this and other H&H Classic Rallies, including this month’s Road to Mandalay, the first competitive rally to visit Myanmar (Burma), may be found on the website:
Text and photograph by: H&H Classic Rallies
