Philip Young died a year ago and on 9 March the ceremony to remember him will take place in Brooklands, the temple of English engine. The track - the first in the world created to be permanent for racing - was built in 1907, in the same year of the epic Peking-Paris. And the name of Young will remain forever linked to this event that he was able to reproduce for the first time in 1997, convincing the Chinese authorities to let one hundred old Western cars to cross its territory. For these cars, they opened for the first time the border withTibet, and it was the occasion to restore, through the Gate of Freedom, the access to Nepal, barred for twenty years. Successes that reflected his extraordinary diplomatic skills, together with that of organizer formidable (gruff, authoritarian, even cynical, but good and it is testimony by at least 70 rallies in all continents). He trivially died falling from a motorcycle to the Burmese border: he was going back and forth between the various buildings of the border with Thailand, to facilitate customs procedures for the first rally in history that would come into Myanmar. Philip was just like that: he liked the daring challenges. How to launch the centenary edition of the Beijing-Paris, which would cross for a week in the nothing of Mongolia, with a subtitle enlightening: "Driving the impossible." We started in 130, and he appreciated our choose of an Alfa Romeo Giulietta first series, the smaller displacement at the start. He, moreover, had attended the first London-Sydney with a Morris Minor ... and was able to knock down 24-hours a record all-British, Cape Town -London: he left in the winter of 2013, and arrived ten days and a half after. Taking turns with co-driver every three hours, an average of a thousand miles a day. You know what car he used? An old Fiat Panda Twin air of 875 ccs an Italian car. As the pre-war Lancia Aprilia with whom he came to win his category at the Liege-Rome. "Hey, Philip - we told him on arrival - how come when you face a difficult challenge you always choose an Italian car?". He smiled: "Because us British know how to drive them".
P.s.: Invitation only, if you would like to attend, please email nikki@endurorally.com and she will post you an invitation.