The thirtieth Cumbria Classic Weekend, organised by Wigton Motor Club, proved to be a huge success.
The weekend’s events started on Saturday with the Rose and Thistle Challenge Tour which started in Cockermouth and headed through the western Lakes for lunch at the Lakeland Motor Museum where enthusiasts were able to view the many and varied exhibits. The route then headed north via the east of the Lake District to finish just south of Penrith.
There was some overnight rain and the rather dire weather forecast causes some car owners and spectators to stay at home by at the superb Dalemain parkland near Penrith it proved to be warm and dry day for the event which had some 880 entries and some 38 owners’ clubs. No doubt due to the weather there were about a hundred cars that did not turn up.
There was a wonderful display of cars of all ages, covering over a hundred years of motoring! It was nice to see a tractor entered as well while the many rally cars drew the crowds, with the Toyota Rally display winning the best club award. As it was 50 years of the Escort, it was great that the car of the Show was won by an Escort Mexico.
The ever popular autotests were watched by hundreds of spectators and there was the opportunity to take part or have passenger rides with one of the WMC experts. The host club had a wonderful display of race, rally and speed event cars as well as some rare classics.
This year the featured classes were Ford Escort, Land Rover, Citroen 2CV and Austin Healey Sprite and they attracted a top-class entry.
The class winners were brought into the arena at three o’clock and the owners then voted for the Car of the Show award which this year went to the 1974 Ford Escort Mexico of Alan Bell which was appropriate given that we were celebrating fifty years of the Escort.