Steven Smith and Andrew Siddall claimed major victories for XS Racing on round seven of the Dunlop/Gambia MSA British Historic Rally Championship, the Historic Tour of Flanders (11-13 September).
 
The annual event on the tricky asphalt roads around Roeselare in Belgium is always a challenging rally, but the XS team got all four of its cars to the finish and every one of them was in a class podium position.
 
"We were extremely happy to get all four cars to the finish without any major problems," said team boss John Cropper. "Flanders is a tough rally and you really need good reliability to get through the event."
 
Top of the pack was the Porsche 911RS of Steven Smith and Phil Spurge, which won the BHRC element of the event after a trouble-free rally. Only a high-speed spin caused Smith any concern as the car ran perfectly throughout to take a commanding overall victory by more than a minute. "We had a steady run on Sunday, but we loved the rally," said Smith. "It was fantastic fun."
 
Second in class C4 to Smith/Spurge came the second car from XS, the Porsche 911RS of Peter Smith and Russ Langthorne. They had an excellent run to finish third in category two, with the car running strongly throughout. Smith was particularly pleased to bring the car home unmarked on a rally where deep ditches can punish the slightest mistake.
 
One of the star drives of the rally came from Andrew Siddall and Captain Thompson in their XS Racing Ford Escort Mk1. Overnight they were almost level with class leaders Ken Forster and John Stanger-Leathes, but a big attack on Sunday took Siddall ahead by 20s for a famous victory. However, damage to the rear of the Escort from an incident with a road sign showed how hard they had been pushing. "It's great to win C3; that's the first time I've beaten the masters," said Siddall after a superb drive on a tough event.
 
Third in C3, behind Forster, was a modest result for Drew Wylie and Howard Pridmore by their usual high standards. For Wylie it was his first visit to Flanders with his XS Racing Ford Escort Mk1 and he had a challenging day on Saturday. "I've been off, and nearly off, more times today than in two full seasons," he said. However, they battled on to finish seventh in category two and third in class C3.
 
The final round of the BHRC is the Trackrod Historic Cup in Yorkshire on 26 September and a strong squad from XS Racing will be there to tackle the famous Yorkshire forests.
 
However, before that the team will be busy at this weekend's Goodwood Revival Race Meeting, when it will field a 1953 Jaguar C-Type for an American customer in the Freddy March Memorial Race.
 
XS Racing specialises in all types of historic rally preparation and parts supply across a wide range of cars. XS Racing can be contacted on 01246 233777.
 
Issued by Paul Lawrence on behalf of XS Racing (www.xsracing.net).