Stars of rallying, racing and motorcycling at Race Retro

Michele Mouton, one of the most successful and best-known female rally drivers of all time, will be opening Race Retro, the International Historic Motorsport Show, on Saturday 24th March 2007 – and will then drive her famous 1985 Pikes Peak Hillclimb-winning 500bhp Audi S1 Sport Quattro on the rally demonstration stage.

Audi Team legend Michele Mouton is among the many stars of rallying, racing and motorcycling who will be meeting visitors, signing autographs – and in some cases even taking part in the Live Events at the Show. Other stars include:

Friday 23rd March 2007: The Show will be opened by three heroes of the motorcycle world – Jim Redman, Phil Read and Frank Perris, who were in fierce competition in the 250cc World Championship throughout the 1960s. Jim Redman, riding for Honda, secured the 1963 250 World Championship. Phil Read, riding for Yamaha, took the 250 World Title the following year, and again in 1965 and 1968. Meanwhile, the Suzuki works team was led by Frank Perris who, despite the fact that Suzuki’s 250 was not as well-developed as the rival Honda and Yamaha machines, kept the pressure on the dominant Read/Redman duo throughout that golden era. Race Retro will see the three team leaders reunited: both with each other, and with the motorcycles they rode in their heyday.

Saturday 24th March 2007: Opening the Show on Saturday is one of the best female rally drivers of all time, and certainly a match for her illustrious Audi team-mates Hannu Mikkola, Walter Rohrl, and Stig Blomqvist. Highlights of Michele Mouton’s career include the 1981 Sanremo Rally when, with co-driver Fabrizia Pons, she took the first outright WRC win for the Audi Team, for the Quattro, for a 4WD car, and for a female driver! In 1982, Mouton achieved outright WRC wins in Portugal, The Acropolis, and the Rally of Brazil. At Pikes Peak in 1985, Mouton took the works Audi S1 to victory, ascending the hillclimb’s 19.96km, 157-bend gravel road in just 11min 25.39sec. Now, 22 years after that momentous day, she will be re-united with her 500bhp Audi S1 on the Race Retro live rally stage.

Sunday 25th March 2007: Opening the Show on Sunday are Richard Attwood and Vic Elford, two legends of motor racing who were actually team-mates at Le Mans in 1969, sharing a Porsche 917 in the car’s first 24-hour race. Elford and Attwood led for much of that memorable event before they were forced to retire. “I wouldn’t have been driving if Vic hadn’t put my name forward,” Attwood once said, “something I only discovered a few years ago. I’ll never forgive him!” Attwood went on to take Porsche’s first ever outright Le Mans win the following year, while Elford’s career saw him win the 1968 Monte Carlo Rally, the Daytona 24 Hours, Targa Florio and Nurburgring 1000Km.

For more information on Race Retro, see historicmotorsportshow.com. Advance one-day tickets cost £18.00 (and two-day tickets £32.00) via the the website or ticket hotline (08701 262121).