RALLY BACKGROUND:
LONDON TO PEKING

CLASSIC RALLY ASSOCIATION

THE CLASSIC RALLY ASSOCIATION is based at Ashbrook Mews, Westbrook Street, Blewbury, Didcot, Oxon, in England. The President is Sir Stirling Moss, the famed race driver. Chairman is Philip Young, journalist and rally organizer. Treasurer is Heidi Winterbourne. They sponsor races and rallies throughout the world, including an annual Monte Carlo Challenge which is now the biggest event of its kind in Europe, the 1997 Peking to Paris ( celebrating the ninetieth anniversary of the 1907 Peking to Paris), and the Classic Marathon. Philip Young founded the historic rally scene's first every internation event, the Pirelli Classic Marathon in 1988. The event attracted some all time greats: Stirling Moss, now Sir Stirling Moss, Chairman of the Classic Rally Association,; Paddy Hopkirk, Timo Makinen, Bobby Unser, John Buffum, and others. No other organizaer has staged more historic rallies and these events set standards which are now copied by others. There are Classic Marathons in South Africa and Japan. The Peking to Paris was the first motoring event to cross Iran in twenty years. The route included crossing Tibet. As a result, the border between Tibet and Nepal over Friendship Highway remains open to all overland travelers, a lasting achievement. Over 80 drivers survived the 12,000 mile course, until now the longest event ever organized for classic cars. Drivers went into areas which had never been "rallied" before; This was the first to drive north-south across China, the first time Westerners drove their own cars through Tibet; when negotiations first opened with the Chinese authorities, this border had been closed to anything more than a local goat for more than thirty years. Philip Young is a former newspaper journalist, who spent three years on the News Desk of the Daily Mail. He has written for many British publications, including the Times, the Guardian, the Observer, and the Daily Telegraph. He started the entire scene of international rallying for classic cars, organizing the first event in 1988, the Pirelli Classic Marathon which went from Tower Bridge in London to Cortina in the Dolomites, returning to London. Philip has driven a number of international events himself, including the Paris-Dakar, and six Himalayan Rallies.