2026 Pommeau Scenic Rally Tour
25-28 September 2026 – St Valery-en-Caux, France
In April 2023 Simon Rossiter hosted his penultimate rally under Classic Rally Tours supported by Scenic Car Tours from the same hotel used for this event. A number of the competitors from 2023 were back for this new event organised by Scenic Rally Tours.
Scrutineering took place in the car park opposite the hotel at the end of the harbour on Friday afternoon in the glorious sunshire before the Competitor briefing.
Saturday morning saw the 22 crews taking part in the competitive rally, plus the one crew taking part in the Tour, congregate at the first MTC and Regularity start with drizzle in the air.
The day involved four regularity sections totalling around 105 miles in the area south and west of St Valery-en-Caux. A road closure identified on the Friday resulted in an amendment being provided and a change in Timing Point on Reg A. A second road closure identified by the Marshals at the second Timing Point on Reg B meant the reg was cut a little short and the final Timing Point cancelled.
At the end of Day 1, Car 1 (Malcolm and Nik Rimington in the Ford Cortina) were tied with Car 6 (Dick & Harry Baines in the Porsche) on 10 seconds but as Car 1 dropped 1second on the first timing point, Car 6 were technically in the lead. In third place were Nikki Daniels and Jaqueline Boast in the bright yellow Fiat Barchetta.
Sunday morning was fresh with clouds that soon burnt off and it warmed up, in more ways than one. All cars were still running at the start of the day, although the clutch on the Cortina of Malcolm and Nik was being nursed along, and they headed south of St Valery-en-Caux for four more regularities covering 117 miles.
Into the last Regularity the top two were still tied on 14 seconds of penalties. Car 6 dropped a second on the third and fourth timing points, Car 1 took a wrong turn passing a no entry sign just half a mile before TP3 and as consequence incurred 60 seconds of penalties. They weren’t the only crews to fail to follow the priority road that bent to the left and continued straight past the bus stop and the no entry sign!
So, after 215 miles of regularity sections, 29 Timing Points, Dick & Harry had an advantage of 26 seconds over Nikki & Jacqui who, after a consistent performance all weekend, inherited second place overall.
The navigation was via tulip or descriptive text with a few curveballs thrown in to keep the navigators on their toes.
So the results….
Overall Winners
Dick & Harry Baines
First in Historic Class
Malcolm & Nik Rimington
First in Post Historic Class
Robert Smith & Matthew Bright
First in Classic Class
Christine Pearson & Mark Lillington
First in Young Timer/ Modern
Nikki Daniels & Jacqui Boast
Thank you to Lasers Are Us for the wonderful event trophies and awards.
Well done to everyone that took part, especially well done to those that were taking part in their first Regularity event.
Special awards were given to:
Audas Vipars & Brian Redfern – Car 2 – “Hopefully next time award” – after failing to leave the UK before the Champagne Rally and then not being able to start on Saturday due to Brians back. Fingers crossed for the Beaujolais
Chris & Nicky White – Car 20 – for persevering in the face of adversity on their first regularity event.
Phil & Jackie Walker – Car 11 – “Making the most evening trips to Dieppe to charge the EV” having been unable to bring the MGB GT the best EV charging point was identified in Dieppe to charge the Hyundai on Friday and Saturday nights!
Mike & Liz Dixon – Car 32 – For being best placed newcomers to Classic Rally Tours/ Scenic Rally Tours events.
Peter & Helen Morris - Car 9 – For celebrating their 50th Wedding Anniversary with scrutineering, signing on and the competitors briefing on Friday.
The 2026 Scenic Rally Tour Championship for Drivers and Navigators is all to play for on the final event with the advantage being with Malcolm & Nik Rimington who are tied in joint first places whereas the others are not entered.
Best wishes
Jon, Kieran and the Team