Rally legend Francois Delecour will contest the opening round of the inaugural Tuthill Porsche Challenge, the Bulldog Historic Rally on April 2.
The 48-year-old Frenchman will drive one of Tuthill Porsche’s 10 identical historic-specification 911s on the gravel event, which takes place on forest stages in North Wales.
Tuthill Porsche, the United Kingdom’s foremost preparation firm of historic Porsche rally cars, is running the one-make rally series within the Dunlop/WONAGO.com MSA British Historic Rally Championship, managed by the Historic Rally Car Register, this season.
“I’ve always been a big Porsche fan and I’m particularly excited about driving on the Welsh stages, some of which I know from doing Rally GB in the past, and which I consider to be among the best in the world,” said Delecour, a winner of four world championship rallies.
“I know Tuthill Porsche by reputation and driving one of their cars will give me a great chance to have a lot of fun. I’m not completely sure who I will be competing against but rallies like this tend to get a lot of very good local experts so I know it won’t be easy.”
Event regulations don’t permit a pre-rally reconnaissance so Delecour and French co-driver James Bocagnano will spend Friday April 1 adapting to their 911 for the first time during a test at Sweet Lamb in Wales.
Tuthill Porsche director Richard Tuthill said: “It’s a huge privilege to add Francois Delecour to the list of world class drivers who have driven for us such as Markku Alen, Stig Blomqvist, Michele Mouton, Walter Rohrl and Bjorn Waldegard. I’ve always admired Francois’ committed and spectacular driving style and it will be a real treat for the spectators to watch him through the forests of Wales.
“Francois will drive the same Challenge-specification as our other competitors and getting him over here to drive one of our cars is a great way to get the series off to an exciting start.”
For a fee of £42,250.00 (plus VAT if applicable), Tuthill Porsche Challenge competitors will have the use of a Challenge-specification 3.0-litre Tuthill Porsche on five rounds of the MSA British Historic Rally Championship, with all costs – including maintenance, consumables, accommodation, entry fees and insurance – fully covered.
Tuthill Porsche Challenge organisers have put an exciting prize structure in place with the inaugural champion receiving a fully-paid entry into an FIA European Historic Rally Championship round, using one of Tuthill Porsche’s full-specification 3.0-litre Porsche 911s.
The second-placed crew will receive an all-expenses paid trip to watch the East African Safari Classic as a guest of the team, while the third-placed driver and co-driver will enjoy a two-day course at Tuthill Porsche’s ice-driving school in Norway.
More details on the 2011 Tuthill Porsche Challenge are available by contacting Richard Tuthill on +44 (0) 1295 750514, email richard@francistuthill.co.uk or by visiting www.francistuthill.co.uk.