This year marks the 55th anniversary for the wildest mix surface motorsport on the planet, named rallycross, a sport that was created by Robert Reed to be broadcasted on Saturday afternoons TV, and where Vic Elford won the first-ever rallycross event in Lydden Hill in 1967, with a red Porsche 911, a car that have become iconic in the sport and ever since then the Porsche machinery has been powering around the rallycross circuits of Europe.
This year also marks the 10th season of the Motorsport UK British Rallycross Championship 5 Nations Trophy’s Retro Rallycross class which is features an iconic Porsche 911, piloted by the reigning Retro Rallycross champion Barry Stewart.
The car is one of the oldest surviving rallycross Porsches out there, the car was originally driven by the European rallycross star Rolf Nielson from Sweden, he brought the Porsche 911 over to Great Britain for the first rallycross round to be held at the legendary Brands Hatch in 1982 – an event which he won.
After being used by Nielson for several seasons after the first win in UK, Stewart bought the 911 in 1989 to be used in British rallycross and later in 1998 he handed it over to the British female driver Sue Jeffrey.
After one year learning to obtain the flame-spitting machine, Jeffrey decided to enter the top tier class of Supercar, where she become the first female to do so and finished her first season in impressive fourth place.
Stewart took it over again after being used by Jeffrey and he started to race it again in the British rallycross before joining the Retro Rallycross and becoming a popular member but reliability with the car unfortunately became an issue causing several retirements in the early seasons runing in the class.
However last year, the 2021 Retro Rallycross season got off to a great start for him with the Porsche looking to be the car to beat in the Super Retro class, the season went so well so it was almost a clean with sweep with overall wins which ended up giving him the title.
The Porsche is currently undergoing some major repairs and the car will not be ready until the end of the season, but, Stewart aims to have it completed in tome for the British rallycross season-finale at Lydden Hill in November.
“Winning the championship was fantastic, doing the full season with the car being reliable and no major dramas made a big difference” Stewart said.
“it means the world to have such a strong support network, the car at the moment is being remapped to find out why we have lack of boost. The suspension needs repairs as does the bodyshell, the shell has been rallycrossing for over 40 years. I am hoping to get out in the latter part of the season. A huge thank you to Shirley and her team for their hard work and support in Retro.”
