Another two Porsche 911s have joined the 2004 Armajaro MSA British Historic Rally Championship, and both were in action on round two of the championship, the Astra Stages on Saturday (3 April).

Tim Mason/Captain Thompson and Paul Drinkall/Roy Brown have joined the post-historic section of the BHRC in 911s, meaning that more than 10 Porsches are now regularly competing in the championship. Both of the new crews finished the Astra Stages, despite suffering various delays during a demanding event.

Mason has competed extensively in modern stage rallying, most recently in an Escort Cosworth, and has contested the Rally GB three times. Now, he has converted a former racing Porsche into historic rally trim and aims to contest the balance of the BHRC season. "I always wanted a Porsche and I wanted to keep rallying," says the Yorkshireman. "Historic rallying is more of a level playing field," he added.

"The Astra was a big learning curve. We had gearbox problems all day and did two long stages stuck in third gear. We then stopped on the last stage for a long time with an ignition problem," he explained. "But we managed to finish, and that's what we wanted to achieve."

Drinkall, meanwhile, is a former front-runner in hill rallying and was Northern Off-Road champion in 1996 before taking a break from motorsport. "I've spent the last five years building the car. I wanted to get back into motorsport in some form and this is brilliant fun," he said.

Drinkall's car has been built up from a car imported from California and uses ex-works seats bearing the names of Juha Kankkunen and Nicky Grist! "I'm going to try and do all the rounds," says Drinkall, who faces another steep learning curve in round three of the BHRC over the tarmac roads of Epynt.