Hero Challenge One Rally comes to Chesterfield

The Hero Challenge One Rally hailed a great success for being run in Derbyshire for a number of years basked with temperatures peaking at over 30 degrees in the beautiful Derbyshire Dales and rolling hills of the Peak District.

The rally saw an entry list of over 85 classic cars that would usually be seen under lock and key in a museum or garage but the owners of these machines wanted them to be used as they should be.

They included great motoring marques such as Porsche, Ferrari, MK1 Ford Escort and VW Golf as well as Triumph, Volvo and even an eye-catching 1937 Bentley Derby to name a few.

The 145 mile route across the area comprised of ten special tests and eight regulatories and at one point took in a short link section around the top of Chatsworth House which was famous for Sunday spectator stages on the RAC Rally in the 90s.

The crews were kept busy by a combination of climbs and drops over narrow hilly roads and along the way navigational challenges.

The highlight of the day, bookending the start and finish of the day’s competition, was rally driver and CASA Hotel (Rally HQ) owner Steve Perez’s Walton Lodge stages.

The first two stages saw the backdrop of Walton Lodge with the cars thundering up the drive and sliding past the front door and gardens of the Perez household.

The last two stages in reverse order saw much the same with clouds of dust drenching the cars as they tackled not only the lodge’s tarmac roads but through the farm tracks around the estate that caught one or two drivers out, either with mechanical issues or slight excursions into gates or fences, but without too much damage.

First over the line overall was the BMW 323i of Angus MacQueen and Mick Cochrane, second went to Alistair Leckie and Matt Outhwaite in their SAAB 900 Turbo and hot on their tail the spectacular 1967 Hillman Imp Deluxe of Nick Pullan and Andy Pullan.

The popular event is expected to return once again next year