PRESSING THE START BUTTON ON THE HISTORIC SEASON

Plans are being drawn up. Cars are being prepared, and season’s racing is zooming into ever larger focus. And now the Race Retro extravaganza at Stoneleigh has been put in the books for this year, the focus is on the on-track activity.

Race Retro provides a chance for competitors to show off their latest acquisitions, and it gives fans a chance to get a close-up look at some mouth-watering machines.

The wraps are truly off, and the sense of anticipation has | been heightened. Paul Lawrence went to soak up the pre-season fever and he selected some head-turning moments.

1 STAR QUALITY

Star driver at this year’s Race Retro was DidierAuriol, who became the first Frenchman to win the World Rally Championship when he took the 1994 title in his Toyota Celica. He did a couple of laps of the demonstration rally stage in a Ford Sierra Cosworth running in the colours of his first WRC victory on the 1988 Tour de Corse.

“It was a very nice event with a lot of people and a lot of fun,”