A father and son are celebrating after completing a challenging final round of a historic rally.
Peter Heatherington and his son, Chris, took on the demanding Fuchs RAC Historic Rally Asphalt Championship in his refurbished 1981 Sunbeam Lotus, which he has built up over the last three years.
The pair, from Morpeth, finished the rally in 41st place, which proved testing as the vehicle did not have power steering.
The former accountant said: “The weather was atrocious and we were fortunate to make it through to the end of the rally without damage.
"In so doing we were delighted to clinch the Historic Asphalt Rally Championship in our self-built car.”
The intense rally was fought over 120 competitive stage miles on closed public roads over two days and one night.
Peter said he took on the treacherous track with little knowledge of the road.
He competed against 81 drivers, including some driving world rally cars exceeding 300 horsepower.
However, with the help of Sunbeam Lotus expert Jim Little, who worked on the original factory works team, Peter’s pride and joy was able to power through to the end of the gruelling competition.
Experienced driver Peter has competed in Rally GB and Britain's Round of the World Rally Championship in 2000.
He took a break from rallying before returning to the tracks in 2017, with his refurbished Sunbeam Lotus.
Peter said: “This is very much a project of continuous improvement and the car is updated to meet the ever changing safety regulations of motorsport in the UK which is tightly controlled.
“While this is a very time consuming project, it is one which has given me a great deal of pleasure and kept me from under my wife's feet for a long period of time.”
He added: “I wanted an older car to compete in the increasingly popular historic category of motorsport.
"This also seemed appropriate as I am approaching a 'historic' age.”
