A CAR-destroying roll in the event a year ago has done little to lessen the insatiable appetite for speed of octogenarian Bob Bean as he bids to clinch another national title at this weekend’s Trackrod Rally Yorkshire.

Legend is an overused and often under-earned word but Bean, from Cleckheaton, has almost done it all in an amazing career that has spanned six decades.

The 80-year old retired farmer first sat in a rally car in 1960 and rose to the heights of being fully supported by manufacturers Ford in an Escort Mexico in his 1972 campaign.

He has competed right across Europe and Africa, and returns to the North York Moors Forests on Friday in a 1962 Lotus Cortina, bidding to clinch both the BHRC2 section of the Fuchs Lubricants British Historic Rally Championship which is for drivers of pre-1968 and other historic cars below 1600cc.

Last year, he barely got past the spectator area at the Woodyard in Dalby Forest on the opening night stage when he and then co-driver Malcolm Smithson tipped an ageing Ford Escort onto it’s roof and out of the rally.

“We wanted to carry on but the roof was bent and the windscreen was broken so they wouldn’t let us,” insisted the only man believed to have done all – or nearly all – of the Trackrod rallies which have been running continuously bar one year due to foot and mouth since 1977.

“My first international was in a Cortina in the mid-sixties and we smashed the windscreen on Friday night then too,” says the veteran driver, who has done more RAC Rallies –now Rally GB – than anyone in history.

“We had no windscreen but carried on all the way through to the finish on Sunday and it never stopped raining. We got soaked again and again, yet still finished 19th overall!”

Bean and Smithson bounced back to win their class on the Roger Albert Clark Rally last November but Bean has teamed up with a new navigator this season in Miles Cartwright from Scarborough.

“It was nothing to do with the accident,” says Bean. “Malcolm decided it was time to bow out and thought it was best to do it on a high.”

The BHRC2 title race has become a winner-takes-all affair, with Bean locked in battle with a Ford Anglia driven by Welshmen Malcolm Rich and Arwel Blainey. Whoever finishes highest takes the trophy.

Bean added: “My aim was to get 80 and then take a look at things, but on my 80th birthday I went out on the North Wales Rally and won our car’s category outright, and so I’ve carried on.

“If we have a good weekend coming up, we can still win the title. The last round – the Rally Isle of Man (on closed public roads) – was cancelled, which was a shame as I don’t go too badly on tarmac, so everything comes down to the Trackrod.”

Bean and Smithson will re-unite to do the ‘national’ support event to this year's Rally GB – Britain’s round of the World Championship – which begins just five days after the Trackrod finishes.

Before that he will again be one of the centres of attention when the crews line up along Filey Beach Road from around 6pm prior to Friday's start and opening stage, again in total darkness, in Dalby – passing the scene of last year’s terminal accident.

All the Trackrod Historic Cup cars and drivers, plus a handful of army Land Rovers, will be available to talk and pose for photographs before the first competitor crosses the start ramp an hour later.

The following morning the Trackrod Forest Stages Rally contestants, many of them chasing points in the Jordan Road Surfacing BTRDA Championship, as well as various other national and regional title races, will join in for the other five stages.

Both the start and finish, from mid-afternoon on Saturday, are free to onlookers, who are encouraged to use the special spectator areas in Dalby (Woodyard and Housedale (Saturday only) and Cropton (Spiers House, also Saturday) to catch the action.

These areas have full facilities, including refreshments and toilets, with Dalby Woodyard also carrying informed commentary, more details of which are on the rally website (www.rallyyorkshire.co.uk).