The eagerly awaited 2005 Armajaro MSA British Historic Rally Championship kicks off with the Alternative Sign Centre Robin Hood Historic Forest Stages on 12/13 March. The superb entry of 85 cars for the historic section of the rally will run first on the forest stages of Nottinghamshire, with three stages in the dark of Saturday evening and a further seven stages on Sunday. Historic (category 1)Defending champions Dessie Nutt and Geraldine McBride head the field away in their Porsche 911, but the Irish GP knows that he faces a big challenge. In particular, the similar car of Geoff Crabtree and Liz Jordan will be a real contender having matched Nutt's pace on the Clipstone stages a year ago. However, starting third on the road will be the Sunbeam Tiger of Patrick Watts and Elgan Davies. Twelve months ago, Watts arrived at the start of the Robin Hood facing his first ever rally. This time around, he will start as a real contender and will exploit the thundering power of the 4.7-litre Tiger on the long straights in Clipstone.Chasing the sportscars will be Chris Green in Lotus Cortina, who has Andy Turner on the maps for this event as wife Hilary is away skiing! Neil Calvert/Arlene Cookson and Philip Atkinson/Gary Wood will be chasing Green in their Lotus Cortinas, while Graham Waite and Andy Elcomb will be fighting the Ford pack in their ever-spectacular Volvo Amazon.Ronnie Roughead and Ian Canavan (Ford Cortina GT) should set the pace in class B3, while the Mini Cooper S of Mike Barrett/James Stait heads a pack of five Minis in class B2. In B1, three Saab 96s, headed by John Parker/Robert Harrison, take on the Austin Mini of Gordon Cameron/Sheila Grimshaw.Post-historic (category 2)A fantastic field will line-up to contest the post-historic category and it is 2004 Robin Hood winner Ray Bellm who will head the field away, partnered by Mark Solloway in his Escort RS1600. However, running right behind Bellm is another race/rally ace in the form of Nick Whale. The former Robin Hood winner has partner Sally Wood on the maps in his Porsche Carrera RS for her debut rally!The hard-charging David Stokes, partnered by Ian Oakey, runs third in his Escort RS1600, while Dominic Frattaroli/Wyn Thomas are next in their Datsun 240Z. Jeremy Easson/Den Golding (Escort RS2000) run sixth on the road, and may well find that the perfect position from which to launch their victory bid. Anyone of these five crews could win and the pace will be fierce from the start. Steven Smith/John Nichols (Escort RS2000) head the 2-litre class and will fly, but the pace of the more powerful cars should be just too much for the Pinto-powered car in this territory.Dave Watkins/Neil Duncan step down from their ex-Timo Makinen Escort RS1600 to run another famous car in class C2, where their opponents will include John Worthing/Bill Robertson, Kevin Broadhurst/tba, Ken Forster/John Stanger-Leathes and Robin Shuttleworth/Mark Midgeley in a gaggle of 1600cc Escorts. Finally, a welcome addition to the entry is the class C1 Skoda 120S of Richard and Leslie Simpson.The Robin Hood is organised by Lindholme Motor Sports Club Ltd and for more details about the event, please visit the website at: robinhoodforeststages.co.uk