HERO Challenge Two 2026 - Preview
*Bomber County to Host Second Round of HERO Challenge Championship
The second round of the HERO Challenge Championship will take place this coming weekend, as 72 hopeful crews descend upon Louth, in Lincolnshire for a day of fast paced rally action, on the HERO Challenge 2 event.
HC2 will offer up 8 tests and 6 regularities on a 150-mile route, based out of Kenwick Park, with the regularities taking place on the open roads of the sprawling Wolds and tests on a number of airfield locations, of which there are no shortage in Bomber County.
This is the mid-point of the three round mini championship, which has seen a revitalised entry since the abolition of the master’s category, and has competitors that include current and former HERO Cup and Golden Roamer Champions, as well as many that are no strangers to the podium. HC2 is no exception, and almost all of the main protagonists from round one are in attendance again, including HC1 winners Stephen and Alex Chick, the father and son taking victory on the narrow lanes of the west country last time out, in April.
Lincolnshire will provide quite the contrast to rallying between the hedges around Taunton, but one pair who will be hoping the home advantage will give them an edge will be Dick and Harry Baines, who finished second to the Chicks at the first round. The father and son crew are from just down the road and are also riding high after winning the recent London to Lisbon rally.
Both aforementioned father and son pairings will have to go some though to win in a field that is packed with capability, including last year’s Rally of the Tests winner John King, paired again with the precocious Miles Fieldhouse. If Miles represents a new wave of rallying talent, then there are perhaps some entered that might now be considered the old guard, though perhaps it is more correct to describe them as having experience and pedigree. Paul Crosby and Pete Johnson are just such a crew, and they have won more rallies than some of the younger competitors have had birthdays, a fact that would be well remembered. They are entered together in Paul’s Cooper S, one of a number of Mini’s that will contest an intriguing Class 2, that as well as the Baines includes Darell Staniforth and Henry Carr, and Paul Mills and Nick Cooper.
Mini’s aside, there is plenty of fight throughout the classes, and strong competition for both class honours and wins will come from the likes of Ken and Sarah Binstead campaigning a Healey, Mark’s Lillington and Bramall in an MG B and Dave Maryon and Andy Ballantyne also in an MG B. The MG Bs are, as always, well represented, with a total of 15 in Class 5. Anyone in that class wishing to do well overall will not just have to ace the regularities but also beat the stiff competition on the tests to minimise penalties there. The quickest MG B crew around the cones in HC1 were Dave Smith and Suzanne Barker, topping 7 of the 8 tests, could a better performance on the regs see them with an outside chance of an overall result?
Elsewhere Noel Kelly is entered in his Amazon alongside Phil Savage, and Malcolm Dunderdale and Anita Wickins are present in the beautiful Renault 8 Gordini. The Gordini is competing in the popular Class 6, that amongst its 15 entrants includes Nick Bloxham in his yellow Escort Mexico, with the 2025 Challenge Championship winning navigator Mike Cochrane in the maps seat. The pairing should be a combination that is more than capable of fighting for victory overall and will almost certainly be the car to beat on the tests, with Nick taking the Test Pilot Award at the previous round.
This is but a smattering of the names that could well be top of the time sheets come the finish, and there promises to be a good tussle over the days 14 competitive sections, shoehorned into the 150-mile route. Of those sections, 6 will be regularities that will skirt some of the famous RAF bases of the area such as Coningsby and Cranwell, with the midpoint of the day on the outskirts of the City of Lincoln. The roads between offer plenty of navigational challenges, as the regularities trace a path through the seemingly never-ending farmland. A wrong slot amongst the fields could very well take a while to realise and perhaps longer to rectify, so the navigators will need to be on their guard.
Between the regs there are three different test locations, and whilst they are all at historic airfields, each offers something different, from circuit-based action to the broken tarmac of facilities that were once busy air force mainstays.
The day’s action will reach its conclusion at a final pair of tests, as the rally finishes with a bang before the short run to the finish, ensuring a stiff fight to the end on what promises to be another thrilling and immensely popular HERO Challenge rally.