Revesby Lombard Rally Festival

Report and images by :DEEGEE: Motorsport Photography 

Sunday 15^th September 2024

It is easy to forget that Iron Age Britain had an established system of roads which, although perhaps not as well engineered and maintained as Roman roads, or as centrally structured, continued to be valuable routes into the Roman period and beyond. 

One such route in Lincolnshire is the Caistor High Street (B1225), a prehistoric trackway running north / south along the eastern edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds but which continued to be an important Roman route, linking the settlements of Caistor and Horncastle, as well as a host of smaller villages and farms along the way. This most ancient of roads is a wonderful route to drive along today, taking in some pretty scenery and villages.

Almost every motorcyclist in Lincolnshire knows of the Caistor High Street (B1225), which is 20 miles of motorcycling joy, ending just north of Horncastle.

The road, which passes about 5 miles west of Cadwell Park, about 2/3 along its path, as the crow flies, is part of the Lincolnshire 100, which is a 100-mile (106.61 to be exact) route through some of the best motorcycling roads in Lincolnshire.

For my weekend photographic action, I had the pleasure of driving this route on Sunday on my way to Revesby Abbey, the venue for the inaugural Lincolnshire Wolds Car and Bike Show, which featured the Revesby Lombard Rally Festival.



The event took place in the grounds of the Revesby Estate, with the rally cars involved circling the Estate reservoir, one of the most highly regarded carp fishing locations in the UK, so I’m reliably informed, from which carp, exceeding 40lbs, have been caught.

The “stage”, located in the Revesby Estate, was of a “mixed” type with both loose gravel and tarmac providing the road surface over a short but demanding 2-mile stage, most of which passed through dense woodland.



Amongst the car’s taking part was an example of an Audi Quattro A2, which in the mid-1980’s dominated World Rallying.  It followed on from the highly successful A1 version, with an aggressive aerodynamic look with wings and spoilers in the front and rear of the car and is capable of 0 to 62 mph in just 3.1 seconds.

Quattro’s were rallied successfully by the Audi UK team and in 1983, Swedish legend Stig Blomqvist used both the A1 and A2 to win the British Rally Championship, before becoming world champion with Audi the following year. 

Blomqvist won the 1984 Drivers World Championship title with wins in Sweden, Greece, New Zealand, Argentina and the Ivory Coast.

1984 provided my first introduction rallying, when I ventured into the mighty Dalby Forest, in North Yorkshire, for the traditional World Championship season ending event, the Lombard RAC Rally. 

On that occasion Finn Hannu Mikkola, Blomqvist’s team-mate, was dicing for the lead throughout the five-day event with what was to become the dominant force in Group B rallying, a Peugeot 205 T16, driven by fellow countryman Ari Vatanen.  The two were eventually separated by just 41 seconds after having completed 540 stage miles and 56 special stages !!!



Sunday’s exploits at Revesby were spoilt for spectators somewhat by the onset of rain during the afternoon, but all the crews seemed to enjoy their opportunity to showcase their vehicles.

All the Lombard Rally Festivals offer the chance for spectators and families to interact with the drivers and the cars in “Parc Ferme”, although the opportunities for fans to see the cars at Revesby “in action” were limited, due to the dense woodlands through which the stage ran, which also presented a challenge photographically.

This is my third visit to a Lombard Rally Festival, having covered similar events In Duncombe Park in North Yorkshire on a cold February day and at Grimsthorpe Castle, which was paired up with the Baston Car and Bike Show, on a very warm July day, last year.



The event followed a similar format to the previous ones I had attended, with the cars, driven “enthusiastically” rather than competitively, completing 6 untimed runs of the stage over the two-day event, in both directions, giving me as a photographer with a Media Pass plenty of opportunity to capture them in action. 

The events, which are the brainchild of Tim Nash, who was a co-driver who took part in a number of Lombard RAC Rally’s in the 1970’s, give the owners of older rally cars, the opportunity to drive and demonstrate their vehicles in front of the public on a closed road “stage”.

Taking place in the grounds of a stately home rekindle memories of the Sunday spectator “mickey mouse” stages, as they were known, that were part of the Lombard RAC Rally for a number of years from 1997, which, although unpopular with the drivers, gave more members of the public more opportunities to see the crews in action.

Being the inaugural running of the event there was a relatively small group of spectators present, and very few cars and bikes on show, but given the opportunity next year I’m sure there is the potential for it to grow, particularly if more of the woodland section of the stage can be opened up to those wanting to see the rally cars in their “natural” habitat.

Having attended the Grimsthorpe Castle event, which included the opportunity for spectators to be driven through the stage, which was combined with the Baston Car and Bike Show, and included a flypast by a Lancaster bomber, I can vouch for the fact they can be very entertaining family events.

The next event in the series will take place in Bath for the seventh time, in October, where the UK's first Lombard Rally Festival was held in 2018.

You can see more of our rally reports by clicking the image below.

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.