The seventh and penultimate round of the Dunlop/Wonago.com MSA British Historic Rally Championship takes crews to Belgium for the Historic Tour of Flanders (10/11 September).

The annual contest on the challenging asphalt roads takes on a new format for 2010, with the bulk of the rally packed into a long and demanding Saturday after two stages on Friday evening. By late on Saturday night, the rally will be complete.Three crews stand out at the head of the title race, with current points’ leaders Jonathan Gale and James Whitaker (Sunbeam Tiger) striving to fend off the Porsche 911 of Dessie Nutt and Geraldine McBride. However, it is David Stokes and Guy Weaver (Ford Escort Mk1) with the most to gain. If they can take maximum points in Flanders and again on the final round, the Trackrod Historic Cup (25 September), they will have an unbeatable maximum BHRC score.Category 1Gale and Whitaker top the category one entry in the thundering Tiger and should go well on the Belgian asphalt. Should Stokes and Weaver falter, Gale/Whitaker could get to within one point of a maximum score, so they need to beat the Nutt/McBride Porsche to maintain their title hopes.But the pace of Nutt’s Porsche will surely take the fight to the Tiger on an event that Nutt and McBride know well. Equally, the Porsche crew still has its own title hopes in what remains a very open contest.Other contenders in category one include the Porsche 911 of Rikki Proffitt and Bob Duck; while among the smaller-engined category one cars are the Mini Cooper of Peter Horsburgh/Graham Carter, the Sunbeam Stiletto of Mike Barratt/Jody Watson and the Sunbeam Imp of Ian Fisher/John Connor.Category 2The focus of category two will be the progress of Stokes and Weaver as they try and add another win to their growing tally. However, they face plenty of opposition, notably from Jeremy Easson and Alun Cook in another Escort Mk1. If Easson and Cook can win the category in Belgium and Yorkshire, they still have a chance of taking the overall BHRC crown.Other leading class C5 cars include the Escort Mk1 of Chris Browne and Liz Jordan, who should fly given their extensive experience of the Belgian roads. Meanwhile, class C4 should be the domain of the Porsche 911 of Peter Smith and Russ Langthorne, although the mighty Chevrolet-powered Vauxhall Firenza Can-Am of Mick Strafford and Graham Henshaw will be a real highlight of the event. This is Strafford’s first BHRC outing with the spectacular 5-litre monster and his progress on the Belgian roads will be watched with great interest.In class C3, Andrew Siddall and Captain Thompson are having a tremendous season and have come back strongly after an engine failure on the Isle of Man in their Ford Escort Mk1. They will start favourites for the class victory in Belgian, while C2 features a late entry for pacesetter Vince Bristow in his Escort Mk1, with Jane Edgington co-driving for the first time. David Kirby and Sean Kennedy also contest class C2 in their Escort Mk1 and a welcome addition to category two is the class C1 Lancia Fulvia of Steve and Tony Graham.Category 3Category three is the most open of all, with four or five crews all in the running for victory. Top of the bunch, in both event and championship terms are Will Onions and David Williams in their Ford Escort Mk2. Onions is steadily building his asphalt experience and will head to Belgium after strong runs on the Isle of Man and in Ulster, while Darren Moon and Graham Wild are also strong contenders in their Escort Mk2. However, class D4 pacesetters Rob Smith and Shaun O’Gorman had a great result in Ulster with their Vauxhall Chevette despite Smith’s lack of time on asphalt.

Meanwhile, the return to the BHRC of former champion Steven Smith, partnered by Phil Spurge, in his recently acquired Triumph TR7 V8 adds a real dark horse to the mix. The Triumph will go up against the Chevette and the Porsche 911 of Adrian Kermode and Maurice Beckett in class D4. Back in D5, Onions and Moon have strong opposition from the Escort Mk2s of Tomas Davies/Gwynfor Jones and Phil and Mick Squires.The Historic Tour Flanders is organised by the Autoclub Midden Vlaanderen.