Round 7 of the 2004  MSA British Historic Rally Championship saw crews heading across the Channel for the only European round, The Tour of Flanders , based in Roeselare in Belgium, on Saturday and Sunday 10/11th September.

Dry weather and 14 closed public road stages challenged the crews over two days ,with the long straights and dangerous ditches favouring the quicker cars and the braver drivers.

Peter Horsburgh and Anthony Preston , in the MiniSpares Cooper S' 277 BRX, followed their Class win on The Rally of The Lakes in Killarney earlier this year to win the class by nearly 3 minutes ahead of the Anglia of Phil Foster and Bubbles Wood , and Championship class leader Mike Barratt and Michelle Calvert in their “ Hot Wheels” Mini Cooper S.

Peter’s experience of the Belgian roads allowed a more aggressive style of using corner cutting to save time on the many 90 degree bends . Only brake fade on the first two stages and a noisy clutch bearing slowed their progress to fine class win and 5th overall behind 2 Porsches and 2 Lotus Cortinas, to be first Mini home. By finishing 3rd in class , Mike Barratt has extended his class lead to 29 points over Philip and Barbara Smith’s Cooper S which failed to finish after recovering from a major off into the ditches on Special stage 2, finally succumbing to an overheating engine.

Other British Mini crews had mixed fortunes with Gordon Cameron / Sheila Grimshaw in their 970 S breaking a rotor arm on the first stage and with no spare on board were forced into retirement, but Henry Hardiment and Ewan Adams finished 4th in class after a steady run in their very original Mk 2 Cooper S “653 ACE”.

The Belgian mini crew of Johan and Frederik Bonaventure, in their green Austin Mini Cooper (1275) were lying 2nd in class at the end of day one , but did not re-appear on day two. Author Peter Horsborough