ROGER ALBERT CLARK HISTORIC ASPHALT RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP

Press release: Monday February 16, 2026

EAST RIDING START FOR HISTORIC ASPHALT CHAMPIONSHIP

• Flying start for new Historic Asphalt Championship
• Will Rowlands heads historic contenders away 
• East Riding closed roads event opens season

The new Roger Albert Clark Historic Asphalt Rally Championship will get off to a flying start on this weekend's East Riding Stages Rally (February 21-22) with a fine entry of 15 historic cars from across the historic categories.

The new Historic Asphalt Championship takes in five high-profile UK closed-road rallies and is open to competitors in all categories of historic car, including the new Categories 4 and 5.

Top seeds from the new championship in the 160-car entry list are Will Rowlands and Emyr Hall in their Ford Escort Mk2 and they will be tough to beat, given their established pace on asphalt events. With the running order re-seeded into position order for Sunday's stages, it will be interesting to see where Rowlands re-starts on Sunday morning.

Leading the chase will be fellow Welsh ace Stefan Davies with Owen Rowcliffe alongside in their similar Ford Escort Mk2 while Graham Muter and Mark Mason start close behind in their Escort Mk2.

Creating a lot of interest will be the fresh Ford Sierra Cosworth of Simon Bowen and Craig Simkiss as Bowen switches from his regular Ford Fiesta S2000T to make his historic debut with the Sierra Cosworth.

A little further down the entry list come more Ford Escorts for Andrew Plunkett/James Burns and Mike Simpson/Dale Gibbons, who will be hoping for better fortune than a year ago when they retired on the opening stage. Barry Connolly and Clive Alford are followed by David Jones and Nigel Roberts and Jones in particular is expected to move up quickly from his seeded position.

Three Minis run together and will make a great spectacle from Categories 1 and 2 for the order cars. Shane Gamble and Julia Perry are first away but are followed immediately by Andrew O'Hanlon and Kevin Hogan and Les Allfrey and Keith Fellowes. Allfrey has made a late change back to his Mini after initially hoping to run his Peugeot 205 GTi on the event.

Matthew Baddeley and Graham Wood start next in their 1600cc Ford Escort Mk2 while Mark Holmes and Thomas Simkiss have picked up a rather lowly start number in their two-litre Ford Escort Mk1. Finally adding great variety to the entry list are Ian Robertson and Andrew Scott in their Hillman Avenger who complete a tremendous entry.

With one or two cars still not quite ready to start the season, it is nevertheless a hugely encouraging start to the new championship, which is set to grow and develop as the season progresses.

The East Riding Stages Rally is based in the town on Beverley in East Yorkshire and opens with four special stages on Saturday evening. The rally then resumes on Sunday morning for a full day of closed-road special stages before the finish back in Beverley.

More information will be posted on the championship Facebook page:

www.facebook.com/RACRMCrallychampionship

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Issued by Paul Lawrence, e-mail: paul@tfmpr.com or tel 07778 547918