Ross Motor Club member, Will Rogers, was re-united with Paul Griffiths for last weekend’s Salamandre Rally in Belgium, in the immaculate RACE backed Escort RS1800.

Griffiths is no stranger to the Belgian tarmac, although he prefers gravel. He is starting a four or five rally Belgian programme before a switch to back to gravel for the season ending RAC Rally in November.

Having previously rallied together some years ago, Rogers jumped at the chance to sit with the Northwich based car dealer to broaden his experience overseas.

Rallye Salamandre is one of the best clubman rallies in Belgium, and this year’s event was no exception. It also played host to a qualifying round of the Fuchs RAC Historic Asphalt series and, in all, attracted some 40 British crews amongst the 150 starters. Three loops of four stages were the order of the day.

A light overnight frost had left tyre choice a difficult one, but stages were generally dry and dusty with plenty of gravel pulled out after each loop of stages to catch the unwary.

The duo started steadily over the first loop building their confidence in the car, but were soon setting top ten stage times. They were holding on to a solid seventh overall at halfway and were third British historic crew behind the similar cars of Yorkshire duo, Darren Moon and Tim Pearcey.

The second half of the rally was fairly uneventful continuing to set consistent stage times. A cracked exhaust on the final test did see the duo lose power, and a place in the overall classification at the end, dropping to eighth overall and third British Historic crew home.

“We’re well pleased with that, we got the miles together in the car we needed, and our times improved over each loop,” said Rogers.

“It was a shame we lost a place on the last stage with the exhaust, but we were up against a very strong entry of Belgians, some of whom are local.”