Phil Harris and co-driver Derek Davies collected their trophies at the 2024 British Historic Rally Championship awards dinner at the Casa Hotel, Chesterfield on Saturday.
Phil and Derek won the prestigious Category 2 Championship, which is for all cars from the period 1968 to 1974, in their Harris & Co backed 2 litre Ford Escort Mk1. It was Phil’s second British Championship, having won Category 1 for cars before 1968 in 2018 in his 1963 Mini Cooper.
A record number of crews registered for the 2024 Championship and they faced a record number of rounds stretching from the forests of Wales to the vast expanse of Kielder Forest, with a few tarmac events like the world famous Isle of Man thrown in for good measure!
The 2024 British Historic Rally Championship began with treacherous conditions following weeks of heavy rain in Yorkshire with the Riponion Rally. Heavy rain and fog dogged the next two rounds in Wales before the crews moved to the tarmac roads of the Isle of Man and the military ranges of the Bannau Brycheiniog.
The season reached a dramatic finale in November with the Anglo Caledonian rally covering two days in the challenging Kielder Forest complex and the famous stages of Southern Scotland. It was a daunting task made all the harder by the arrival of Storm Bert on the Saturday leg. Heavy snow, black ice and dense patchy fog, primarily in the dark due to a delayed start, made driving almost impossible, and many crews crashed out.
Phil and Derek just needed to finish the rally to get enough points to clinch the Category 2 title. They managed to get the car round the treacherous roads unscathed and got 2nd in class too.
It was a magnificent climax to a season that had had many ups and downs.
Phil said “The Anglo Caledonian was the hardest rally I’ve ever driven on. How we kept it on the road, I’ll never know.”
“But in a way, it summed up our season! As a driver in those conditions, in addition to battling with whatever challenges the organisers plan for us, we’ve had a lot of events where the weather has been truly atrocious.”
“All season long, I just had to have complete trust in the co-driver, the car and the mechanics from RSR Historic Engineering to just perform so I could deal with whatever the elements and the organisers threw at us!”
“And they delivered every single time!”
“Without the whole team supporting us, we could never have won the Category 2 Championship and they have my grateful thanks for their superb work!”