Tour Britannia victory for XS Racing

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Chesterfield-based XS Racing scored an emphatic victory on Tour Britannia (2-4 September, 2008), the unique race and rally tour for classic sports and GT cars.
 
The XS Racing-tended Porsche 911RS of Sean Lockyear and Roy Stephenson won the event outright with a victory margin of over two minutes and became the first Porsche to win the event in its four-year history. Meanwhile, to complete a great event for the team, the 911S of Peter Egerton and John Cropper finished tenth overall and third in class.
 
Tour Britannia combines races and rally special stages in a three-day format with crews and has previously been won by a Ford GT40 and a Chevron B16. But this time, competing on the event for the first time, Lockyear proved unstoppable having taken the lead in the opening race at Snetterton. He shared the driving with Stephenson and the car ran superbly, with only a minor overheating scare when the fan belt came off during the race on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit.
 
"Roy drove the car brilliantly and XS Racing did a great job looking after the car. We tried very hard and we didn't hit anything. But it’s a challenging event," said Lockyear after they finished over two minutes ahead of the AC Cobra of Chris Chiles. "It's been a fantastic event and it’s my first overall win for about 25 years. I've always had class wins, never overall, so this is very special."
 
Running just as strongly was the 911S of Egerton, who was also contesting races for the first time in a career that started 28 years ago. Having done all his motor sport in rallies, Egerton turned in a fine performance and had to learn the race circuits during brief practice sessions.
 
"It was great fun, but very different," said Egerton after his first race at Snetterton. "I'd done a track day at Silverstone before, but all the other tracks were new. We had no problems at all with the car."
 
Having co-driven Egerton to tenth overall, XS Racing team boss Cropper was delighted with the team's result on the challenging event. "It was great fun co-driving for Peter and I'm really pleased for Sean to take the overall win."
 
This weekend, XS Racing turns its attention to Belgium for the Tour of Flanders, round seven of the Dunlop/Gambia MSA British Historic Rally Championship. The team will field five cars on the asphalt event, with Porsche 911s for Steven Smith and James Sutherland and Ford Escorts for Egerton, Peter Smith and Andrew Siddall.
 
XS Racing specialises in all types of historic rally preparation and parts supply across a wide range of cars. XS Racing can be contacted on 01246 233777.

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