Hero Challenge 3 Lincolnshire Wolds

Report and images by :DEEGEE: Motorsport Photography

Saturday, 5^th October 2024

Turn up at a pre-determined starting point in your car, where you, and your navigator will be given instructions on a route, normally only a short time before the event is due to take place, which you must plot out on an Ordnance Survey map. 

Follow the instructions, with the help of referred to maps and diagrams, and drive the carefully specified route through what is almost always scenic countryside.  On your journey you will come across manned checkpoints, the locations of which are secret. 

If any of those checkpoints are missed, you incur a penalty. 

On top of that, you are given an average speed you must comply with for each section of the route.  You must maintain this speed as closely as possible, as penalties will be given for every second that you arrive early or late to a checkpoint. 

Between the sections, the route is interspersed with a series of driving tests, which, for instance, involve a lot of drifting your car sideways around traffic cones as the stopwatch ticks.

Add in timed runs through forests or private farm tracks and you have all the ingredients that make up regularity rallying.

The winning crew (driver and navigator) are those who have incurred the least penalties along their way.



The original RAC Rally was based on this format, and this relatively sedate but highly competitive sport is still enjoyed today, by competitors more likely to be donning flat caps than crash helmets.

A number of events through the year are open to experts and beginners alike and if you think it might be for you, you can even hire a period car from the HERO-ERA organisation to try it out.

The HERO-ERA organisation is recognised as the global leader in this form of historic motorsport and organise some of the most spectacular events across the globe and the UK.

Last year I enjoyed my first experience of this type of event when I took in one day of the Rally of the Tests. This is an annual four-day event that as its name suggests sets out to test car, driver and navigator around various parts of the UK, taking in hundreds of miles.

I am an avid follower of Special Stage Rallying where high-powered cars are driven against the clock on narrow tarmac and forest tracks. I went along with some trepidation last November for an event that works with the clock (as opposed to against it) and where outright speed is not a factor.  I had come away from that day having thoroughly enjoyed the experience, which provides the opportunity for some interesting photography. I was impressed with the discipline and teamwork needed to be successful, the impressive cars taking part and consequently pledged to return when the next occasion presented itself. 

The HERO Challenge Championship includes 3 rounds.  Rounds 1 and 2 had taken place earlier in the year around Exeter and Bicester, where the HERO-ERA organisation is based. 

Last weekend the final round took in roads in and around the Lincolnshire Wolds, which is where I have lived all my life. As I had promised myself a trip out to see this event so I set off on a beautiful autumnal morning, with a cloudless blue sky, to catch up with the competitors.

The event included an entry list of over 90 cars, varying in age from a 1936 Riley Sprite to a 1989 Peugeot 205 GTI, who competed in five regularities and nine tests over a 150-mile “secret” route.

I caught up with the front runners in the shadow of the impressive Belmont TV Transmitter mast, in the first of four specified spectator locations, the quiet village of Donington-on Bain, in the Black Horse pub, where a welcome coffee – break was taking place. 

The crews had already been on the road for an hour and a half after an early start from a hotel just east of Scunthorpe.

Competitors were comparing notes, in what is clearly a friendly and social sport, with the low sun, and the problems associated with it, being the predominant subject of conversation, as each car manoeuvred themselves into the small Pub Car Park.



After a welcome intake of caffeine, the crews set off on the next leg of their journey, which skirted closely to Cadwell Park, before heading westwards towards the coast and via several small villages, the names of most ending in “by”, giving away their Viking origins, eventually arriving at the Woodthorpe Karting track.

The narrow and twisting circuit was a real test for the competitors, who then headed to the market town of Louth. The capital of the Wolds with its impressive St James Church which extending to a height of almost 280 feet (the third highest spire in the country), can be seen for miles in every direction. 

A Fuel Stop and Lunch brought a temporary and welcome halt for the crews, and after another visit to Woodthorpe, there followed a journey northward and uphill, past the highpoint of the Wolds at Normanby, before dropping down to the village of Rothwell. 

This was another specified spectator location, which nestles in a scenic valley, where a small group of enthusiastic spectators had gathered.

Sadly, the pub, The Blacksmiths Arms which stands in the centre of the village where I was hoping to enjoy some refreshment was closed for renovation.

From there the cars headed northwards again past Humberside Airport and onto the very northern part of the Wolds, which terminate at the River Humber. 

Then followed a short leg back southwards to the starting point just east of Scunthorpe, where the event ended. Here the crews were able to enjoy a sumptuous dinner and the presentation of the championship trophies.



Simon Ayris, piloting his 1965 MGB Roadster, was crowned HERO Challenge Drivers Champion for the first time and his crew mate Matt Outhwaite took the HERO Challenge Navigator’s Championship for the third time.

Photographing a rally of this type is very much “on the hoof” and involves tagging on to the back of one of the cars taking part, stopping along the way, where safe, taking a few shots, and then jumping back into the car and repeating the process.

It’s useful to have some knowledge of the roads and the scenery in the area in which the event is passing through, so living in the Wolds was an advantage for me.

The need to try and keep up with the cars as they traverse the countryside, is not too difficult as they are not travelling at high speeds but the need to travel light, equipment-wise, bearing in mind I was jumping in and out of the car regularly during the day, meant I took along my Canon 80D body and my Sigma  18 – 200mm zoom lens only.  A packed lunch and a full tank of petrol before setting off is also essential, as I covered most of the 150-mile route during the day. 



I had a short journey home, reflecting on what had been a pleasant, relaxing days motorsport, enjoying a trip around the countryside, taking shots of some very impressive cars.  Although I still remain a special stage rally fan I think I have now also become a regularity follower too.

The next HERO-ERA event planned is the 2025 Rally of the Tests, which will take place between the 7^th -10^thNovember.  The four-day gruelling event will cover in the region of 750 miles and contain somewhere in the region of 22 Regularities and 30 Tests.  The route, the details of which are secret until the day before it starts, will begin in Darlington, and take in roads in Northern England, Southern Scotland and Cumbria. 



I might just find myself heading north next month.

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Thanks to David Gowshall for this report which you can share with your friends on Social Media using these links.

You can see more of :DEEGEE: Motorsport Photography by clicking his website picture.