Another event in the European Championship at that time was the Ypres 24 Hours – a personal long time bucket list item – although the days of a straight 24 Hours event and Group B rally cars are sadly long gone. These days, it is more civilised Friday afternoon / evening and then Saturday stages with the central service area in the centre of Ypres.

The Programme for the event includes the sort of detail beloved by rally fans of old – with full stage maps and details of facilities – including catering and loos – allowing detailed planning and, indeed, the chance to drive the stages prior to the event.

As we had tagged the event on the end of a holiday (it was that or Assen MotoGP … make your own judgement !), we didn’t arrive in Ypres until lunch time Friday and if, or when, we do the rally again, I would plan to arrive earlier in the week to see the shakedown stage on Thursday and spend more time around the service area.

The rally is actually a multiplicity of events – there’s the main rally which counts for the Belgian and British Rally Championships, an FIA Historic Rally and a Rally Masters invitation event. 

First through were the Historics – a sight to warm any rally fan’s heart – multiple howling M3s, a couple of Sierra Cosworths and an integrale co-driven by Fabrizia Pons (who formerly called the road for Michele Mouton).

As an Alfisti, it was good to see a GTam and the nostalgia was really invoked by the sight of the Finnish crew in their TR8 – like the one Tony Pond used to win in 1978 and 1980. Of course, there was a Mark 2 Escort … it’s the law at rallies !

Well, that was the appetizer, now to the main course – British Rally Championship competitor Tom Cave was first through in his distinctively coloured Hyundai. I’m not sure about that colour on a road car but it certainly stands out well on a competition car.

Competitors followed through in quick progression – a colourful set of extreme hot hatches – based on Fiesta, Fabia, Polo, i20 and C3 – but with little in common apart from the basic shape.

There is also a class for GT3 rally cars. Whilst Aston Martin dabbled in this class few years back, all the entries at Ypres were Porsche 997 GT3s and they sounded and looked superb !

I’d wanted to ensure that we were in the right place for some warm evening light at the end of a beautiful sunny day and was well rewarded for the Masters Rally. Bruno Thiry was first through in his Opel Corsa.

More memories were revived by the following Group A Impreza and Escort Cosworth.

The final two through in the Masters were Bryan Bouffier in the WRC Fiesta and local hero Thierry Neuville in his current spec Hyundai WRC car. Neuville was greeted with enthusiasm by the crowd which, whilst mainly local folk, also included Brits, French, German and Irish fans based on the line of cars parked up approaching the stage.

The main field got their second run through the stage as the sun was setting and evening drew in.

As we headed back to the car, the Porsches were coming through again and filling the air with their glorious sound, following by humbler, but no less enthusiastically driven, hot hatches

Heading back to Ypres town centre to our hotel, we decided to call it a day – Saturday promised to be very hot – as with much of Europe.

Among the course opening cars was Eric Camilli debuting the latest WRC 2 specification Ford Fiesta R5 from M-Sport. He was reported as posting leading times on the Saturday stages.

The fast right left combination proved popular. By this point, the Irish pairing of Craig Breen and Paul Nagle (#2) were in the lead of the rally (which they were not to relinquish) and were first car on the road on Saturday, followed at speed by the local drivers including veteran local hero and multi-time previous winner Freddy Loix (#10).

There was also a rather neat shot as the cars headed away from us through the fields of maize.

Then the Porsches arrived – where-after we promptly headed off to the Langemark stage and enjoyed the air con in the car for a few minutes.

The plan was to get to Langemark in good time to see the Masters again, which we achieved. It was getting hot by then – some above 30C – but the fans were out in force – and were rewarded with a Neuville win.

The cars headed down a long straight into a more than 90 left with dust at the edge of the road.

With the temperature rising further we decided it was time to find a cool place to relax and take it easy, but not before we had seen the Porsches through again.

Suffice to say, we enjoyed our first taste of Belgian rallying – there was a great atmosphere and where we spectated, whilst fairly busy, it was still possible to get some good photos. Will we head out that way again – I’d say so, not least because it was warmer and dryer than Donington was in March !