Another milestone on the Peking to Paris was surpassed on Thursday 12 June because the teams are heading into the final 10-day slog across Europe to Paris.
The first full day in Turkey also ripped up the leaderboard when longtime leaders Jorge and Cristobal Perez Companc ground to a halt when one of its carburettors shot fuel all over the hot engine of the Chevrolet Fangio Coupe.
Fittingly it was the Porsche of TomTom founder Harold Goddijn and Corinne Vigreaux who inherited a comfortable lead – only to miss the start of the next stage and give a sniff of the front to Brian Palmer and David Bell in their Peugeot 504. Less than three minutes split them.
Goddijn and Vigreaux may well take comfort in the fact that a flurry of errors has mixed up the field, as tiredness truly takes hold.
With the top five all in the Classic category, an invitational entry to the event, the overall leader is the sixth-placed Ford Coupe 91A of Tony Rowe and Mark Delling of Class 3 Vintageant, for cars built between January 1931 and December 1947. They’re just a minute ahead of Tony Sutton and Andrew Lawson in the first of the Fangios, while the Compancs are third overall following their 30-minute penalty.
Bicester Motion director Michael Power remains 18th overall, while HERO-ERA boss Tomas de Vargas Machuca has climbed a place to 15th. He’s driving solo in the ‘Bicester Bentley’, pioneering the solo class for the next running of the event.
Visit hero-era.com for full updates.
