Hindley, Meaden and Raven score on Tour Britannia
The eighth running of Tour Britannia has been judged another success by competitors after a field of 50 cars competed across two and a half days in Britain’s only race and rally tour.When the tour ended in Harrogate on Friday evening (8 June), the major winners were confirmed as Phil Hindley/Andy Bull (competition), Richard Meaden/Nathan Blewer (targa) and Melissa Raven/Jeremy Haylock (regularity). The battles were close across all three elements of the event as Tour Britannia took crews to ten venues, seven of them new to the tour.As well as a clutch of new venues, the event welcomed a number of new competitors to tackle the challenge of Tour Britannia. Significantly, more than a dozen crews were family pairings on this event where the social side is an important part of building a unique atmosphere.In competition, Hindley and Bull took victory in their Porsche 911SC over the Ford Escort Mk1 of Roger Kilty and Lynette Banks with the Chevrolet Camaro of Stuart Scott and Steve Wood completing the overall podium. The result marked the fifth win in a row for Porsche, while Kilty’s drive to second was a highlight of the event. His crowd-pleasing style netted eight fastest special stage times.The works-entered Radical SR3 SL of Meaden took a commanding win on the targa event as the road-legal car showed its on and off-track prowess in style. Meanwhile the regularity event was won and lost by just over two seconds as the Porsche 911S of Raven and Haylock narrowly pipped the Lancia Fulvia of brothers Steve and Tony Graham after a fierce battle.“I’d like to thank all our competitors, old and new, for their support on the 2012 Tour Britannia,” said event director Alec Poole. “Of course, I must also thank all the officials and marshals for their help in some rather changeable weather. Without the army of volunteers we could not run this unique event.”Now, Poole and his team are finalising plans for Mini Britannia, the one-day event in October, as well as the ninth Tour Britannia in 2013. More details on both events will be announced in due course.