Ilkley Jubilee Historic Rally and Run

The Ilkley Jubilee Historic Rally first ran in 1991. Originally called the Jubilee Classic (a name later changed to avoid confusion with the Club's Classic Trial), it was conceived by the same team that had successfully run the 'Olicana' Road Rally in the 1980's.
There was no event in 1992, but a new organising team lead by Henry Carr, ran the event in 1993, with Henry taking over as Clerk of Course from 1994 onwards. The 1993 event attracted just 20 entries, starting from the Leeds Centenary Festival of Motoring at Temple Newsham and finishing, as it still does, at the Club headquarters at Pool, near Otley. As well as various Autotest-style tests along the route, the lunch halt included five simple, grass Production Car Trial sections, which brought a mixed reaction from competitors.
1994 saw the event gain championship status, with its inclusion in the Association of North Western Car Clubs Historic Championship, bringing an increase in entries to 26. Harry Ramsden's provided an excellent start venue and lunch was taken at the picturesque Coniston Hall near Skipton. The PCT sections from 1993 were replaced by a grass Autotest, but the popular 'thrash' around farm roads at Hutton Conyers, near Ripon was retained.
For 1995 the event was also a round of the inaugural HRCR Speedsport Design Clubman's Rally Championship. Very well promoted, this tapped a vast 'novice' market of competitors and took them around the country on mainly daylight events. Hence we boasted an entry of 62. The Harry Ramsden's to Coniston to Pool format was retained, with eight special tests along the route. These proved to be decisive, as the top three crews were all dropped just four minutes on the regularity sections, their overall finishing positions, as a result of their test times, were just 40 seconds apart.
The closeness of the top crews in 1995 brought a need for a change to the regularity sections and in 1996 all sections were timed to the second. This decision was not taken lightly, for with sixty competitors, the extra work this made for the results team was a daunting prospect! The special tests would play a larger part in the results too, with the acquisition of Esholt Sewerage Works, previously an RAC Rally Stage, as a new venue. An entry of 50 tackled over a mile of tests at Esholt, complete with stage arrowing and straw bales! These, it appeared, were the type of tests the majority of crews wanted to see. Unfortunately, the use of Esholt was lost in the weeks leading up to the event, but this was made up for by the inclusion of another ex-stage rally venue, Scargill Reservoir. Also new for '97 was a sponsor for the event, in the shape of Hoyles Cleaning Services of Skipton. Proprietor James Hoyles was the winning driver of the first Jubilee back in 1991 and his contribution enabled us to keep the cost to the competitors down as our test venues were now more valuable to us and it was worth us paying that bit more for their use!
The Jubilee Run was introduced in 2002 as an introduction for crews into Historic Road Rallying or for those not wishing to tackle the Plot and Bash navigation, while the main event has followed this successful format of basic navigation and mostly tarmac tests with the minimum of reversing with the route taking you in and around the scenic Yorkshire Dales.

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