Features / Cars
The Bristol man bringing back car rallies of the past
Rewind to the 1970s and 1980s and rally car racing was one of the country’s most popular sports and one of the favourite rally car races was the Lombard RAC Rally.
“Bizarre as it may sound today, more people watched the rally over that weekend than watched every football league in the country put together,” says Tim Nash.
A former competitor and passionate rally fan, Tim has recreated the Lombard RAC Rally of the 1970s and 1980s. Lombard RAC rally was the final round of the World Rally Championship, which was itself considered the toughest rally in the world.
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Tim Nash with co-driver Chris Denham at the original Lombard Rally
It was considered an honour to be selected to be the host city and in 1976, 1980, 1983 and 1986 it was based in Bath.
“I took part three times,” says Tim. “The middle one of which was 1976, the only time that I finished. I should point out that unlike most competitors, I was fairly young, 21 in 1976 . Most were older!”
Tim has organised social reunion events for motorsport people for several years and kept hearing about demonstration events for rally cars taking place in mainland Europe. They were very popular, but nothing like it had been attempted in the UK.
A couple of years ago, Tim put on a similar event based in Bath: “I managed to get permission from the owners of the Lombard name to use it, although it has no connection to the event, to build up the past connection.”
Tim holds the event in Bath, but has roots in Bristol
The Lombard rally might take place in Bath but Tim Nash’s roots are firmly based in Bristol.
“I was born into a motorsport family in Bristol, with an elder brother who was hugely successful in rallying. The event is run from Bristol and I am assisted by another Bristol rally co-driver, Pauline Gullick, plus my daughter.”
There is a strong community in rally driving and motorsport, something that has helped the Lombard Rally in Bath become so popular in its new incarnation.
“To top and tail the event I organised social events at the Bath Spa Hotel and genuinely thought that we would get 30 to 40 entries from period rally cars. After three months, back in 2017, I had a bit of a panic as we had 100 entries and didn’t know how we would fit them all in. We eventually ran 123 cars.”
A successful event, Tim hopes to run more throughout the country
The Lombard Rally Bath has been so successful that Tim has made it into an annual event, with a second one, the Mintex Rally Yorkshire, based in York.
Looking ahead, Tim says: “Mintex also uses an old rally name to base itself upon and there are plans to look at other older rallies to base events upon in the future.”
The next Lombard Rally Bath will be run from October 18 to 20 2019, with entry list for drivers still open. Find out more at www.lombardrallybath.co.uk
All photos from the Lombard Rally Bath website.
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