THE first combined race meeting and rally stage at the Castle Combe circuit takes place this weekend (June 18-19, with £50m of competition cars and ex-Formula 1 stars mixing with the best local racing talent.

Tour Britannia has established itself as the country’s premier 'race tour' attracting top drivers and Pre 1981 classic cars from all over the world.

This year's tour, a combination of rally special stages, hillclimb, regularity runs and races is based predominantly in the West Country and Wales.

Castle Combe hosts one of the ‘stages’ and two of the races on Saturday, as part of its two-day race weekend.

One of the most successful of the 70-strong entry is 1985 Indianapolis 500 winner and ex-Tyrrell Formula 1 driver, Danny Sullivan, co-driving a Porsche RSR with billionaire industrialist Chip Connor from Hong Kong.

In a similar car, the former Williams Grand Prix driver Ian Ashley continues to demonstrate his versatility having driven every kind of racing machine from world championship sidecars to touring cars and Formula Ford in which he still competes.

Porsches are not the only exotic machinery on view to spectators.

A complement of 'DB' Aston Martins, Shelby Mustang, Jaguar XKs and 'E's and a line up of Ferraris will all be taking part.

Closer to home, Dave Smithies from Flax Bourton, a veteran of the London-Sydney Marathon, pairs up fellow Austin Healey racer Eric Woolley from Bristol in a BDA engined Mk1 Escort.

The Escort was a winning car at Castle Combe when the 'Tour of Britain' visited in the 1970s. Roger Clark, the overall winner of the 1974 event, won one of four races at the circuit in July of that year and Ari Vatanen did the same in 1976.

Bristolian Chris Clarkson, another Austin Healey racer, will be in the Fiat Twin Cam engined Morris Minor of ex hillclimb champion, David Grace, in the Targa section for more modern 'supercars'.

From Cheltenham, the Tandy brothers, Ian and Steve, have a Porsche 2.7 RS and lightweight Jaguar E Type respectively.

On Sunday, the circuit's own three championships for saloon cars, sports and GTs and Formula Ford take place.

Still holding off his more sophisticated opposition in the Castle Combe Formula Ford 1600 championship is Adam Higgins from Chippenham.

He has a nine-point overall lead with his ancient B class RF90 Van Diemen with another B class driver, Coventry's Nathan Ward in the locally-built Swift Cooper, heading a tightly-packed bunch of drivers all looking to depose him.

Within range are the Gloucester-based Kevin Mills Racing teammates, Steven Jensen from Saltford in the Spectrum 011 and Roger Orgee from Langford in the Van Diemen RF00.

Among those praying for rain will be 18 year old Luke Cooper, an integral part of the Swift Cooper team based at Yatton Keynell.

His fourth place in his SC92 at the last wet meeting puts him third in class behind Higgins and Ward and a useful 11 points clear of Bradford on Avon's David Vivian in the similar Wiltshire College run Swift.

Also doing a rain dance will be Trowbridge's Mark Funnell who shocked everyone with his race pace last time in the circuit's Saloon Car championship.

The reigning Sports and GT champion put his ability well beyond doubt, having take his relatively standard Mini Cooper to a dominant outright victory, leaving his A class rivals floundering in his wake.

Another potential giant killer is Hilmarton's Simon Norris who put his standard D class Honda Integra on pole, only to be denied a decent finish by an errant back-marker.

Deserving of his Driver of the Day award last time was Nick Clark in his tiny C class Suzuki Swift which started and finished third and now heads the overall points table jointly with the Nick Charles from Yate in the B class Peugeot 106.

Bristol's David Kift has his 106 close to Charles and is a big threat just one point behind, while Clark's nemesis is Weston Super Mare's Will Burns in the Fiesta.

If it's dry, the class A drivers to watch will be Tony Dolley from Bridgwater in the 206 and Bristol's Mark Wyatt in the Astra, whilst on the pace in all conditions is Calne's Tony Hutchings in the Audi TT.

Wrington's Darcy Smith took advantage of the treacherous conditions last time to take his first win in the Castle Combe Sports and GT championship.

He goes into this round seven points behind Trowbridge's Andrew Shanley in the Radical Prosport who struggled for grip throughout the last race but still finished third, as per his grid position. Smith's son Josh in the Invitation class Radical PR6 could also be a contender.

Bath drivers Guy Parr in the Nemesis RME98 and Des Andrews in the MegaHart 001 are both run by the Dursley based Wayne Poole Racing team.

Chippenham's Ian Hall should be the man to beat in class B for highly modified saloon and sports cars in his 5.3 litre Darrian Wildcat.

Also on the programme on Saturday is a round of the SuperPro VAG Trophy, a championship catering for two wheel drive machines from the Volkswagen, Audi, SEAT and Skoda stables. Frome's Malcolm Webster and Hanham's James Colbourne are both Mk2 Golf GTi equipped.

The Simon Lewis Transport Books Formula Free single seaters, the Norris Designs open saloon series and the Charles Saunders Food Services open GT series round off the weekend.

The first Tour Britannia car is on stage on Saturday morning at 9.08am and all cars will be throug by 10am.

Saturday's more conventional action starts with qualifying and testing at 10.40am. Racing gets underway from 2.10pm.

Sunday morning starts with qualifying at 9am, with the first race at 1pm.

Admission prices are on Saturday, £10 for Adults, £5.00 for OAPs, Paddock Transfer free and on Sunday, £15 for Adults, £7.50 for OAPs, £2.50 for Paddock Transfer, while accompanied U16 s are admitted free on both days.

For further information, see castlecombecircuit.co.uk.

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