Saab celebration for RAC

The 50th anniversary of Saab’s first victory on the RAC Rally will be celebrated in November when a team of five historic rally cars tackle the Roger Albert Clark event.

The 1960 RAC Rally marked the first of a hat-trick of wins for Erik Carlsson in his two-stroke Saab 96 and it is hoped he and his co-driver Stuart Turner will be present to flag the team away from Pickering on Friday November 26.

First run in 2004, the Roger Albert Clark Rally re-creates the RAC Rallies of the 1960s and ’70s, with four days of competition in the forests of Yorkshire, Scotland and Northumberland. The event is primarily for historic cars and the five-strong Saab team will include a pair of two-stroke 96s as well as three later V4 models.

The project is the idea of Saab enthusiast Jim Valentine, who is a regular competitor on the event in his two-stroke 96. “Getting five Saabs entered on a UK rally is a very rare thing,” said Valentine. “This is likely to be the last time that you will see a pair of two-stroke Saabs on a UK rally.”

The current confirmed line up is Valentine and Andy Harris along with Nick Pinkett and Mark Casey in two-stroke cars, while three later V4s are entered for Colin Hope/Nick Patrick, Richard Simpson/Debby Myers and John Tatlow/Julie Westwood.

To complete the Saab theme, most of the entries have Saab management cars and Saab owners are being encouraged to go out on the event and support the team.