Last updated 19:23, Thursday, 30 October 2008

NOVEMBER could just about be called Nostalgia month in terms of motorsport.

OLD CARS: Competitors on Honister in a previous Lakeland Trial

With most of the main championships now completed, there is a series of events for older cars or at least in the spirit of events from the past.

It kicks off with the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run on Sunday with several hundred cars taking part in this celebration of the abolition of the Red Flag Act before which all self-propelled cars had to be preceded by a man with a red flag to warn other road users.

Starting on the sixth there is the Lombard Endurance Rally for near standard 1400cc cars and historic cars up to 1600cc.

This aims to bring back the spirit of the old Lombard RAC Rallies when the competitors rallied night and day almost non-stop.

Using near standard cars to Enduro rally regulations aims to reduce the costs but still places the emphasis on good driving and navigation with the old stages being replaced by selectifs run mainly in the forests at a 40mph average.

This year the route heads north into Scotland for the first time but on the return will feature tests in Greystoke and Warcop.

November 8 sees the Vintage Sports Car Club’s Lakeland Trial for pre-1930 cars with a full entry of nearly a 100 cars taking part.

The Roger Albert Clark (RAC) Rally takes place from the 14th to 17th and this is another attempt to revive the ideas of the old RAC Rallies of the 70s but with proper stage rally cars of the time.

It is also open to modern cars and quite a number of the entries are in fact modernised Escort Mark 2s. The event has a couple of overnight halts in Carlisle and also a forest stage in Greystoke.

The same weekend sees the annual classic car show at the NEC in Birmingham, traditionally the biggest indoor show of the year.

Sadly, the Hexham Historic Rally has been cancelled due to a lack of an organising team.

However, the month is completed by Furness DMC’s Grizedale Stages Rally. Entry forms are now available on the rally’s website www.grizedalestages.co.uk

This is a very popular and well-run event and the number of entries it gets will be a very good indicator on how the recession is hitting stage rallying.

For many years it has been over subscribed but the last couple of years have seen a drop in entries despite its excellent value for money.

The Grizedale is the penultimate round of the SG Petch ANECCC Stage Rally Championship and the regulations for the final round, the Christmas Stages on December 28, are now available.

This runs as a single venue event at Croft and again should indicate the current stage of the sport with Tarmac events currently attracting more entries than gravel ones, generally.

Entry forms are also available for MG Cumbria’s Christmas Cracker Run on December 7 and the list is already half full, with entries coming from all over the country.