Two Bradford area rally drivers are back on the road again 50 years after their first competition together.

Cleckheaton-based Bob Bean and Ilkley’s Don Griffiths are competing in the four-day Roger Albert Clark Rally in Carlisle in a Ford Lotus Cortina.

Bean has been taking part in national and international events throughout the last few decades.

He will be navigated by Griffiths, who had not sat in a rally car for 15 years until this month’s Malton Stages event, with the duo using the 45-mile track as a dry run for this weekend’s rally.

The pair, whose combined age is 189, gained the award for best crew in their first international race in the 1965 Welsh Rally driving a Cortina GT, despite losing their windscreen on the first night.

Both took part in the 1966 RAC Rally and are now looking forward to the same event 44 years on.

The two drivers are members of the prestigious Ecurie Cod Fillet rally team and while Griffiths will be using the competition as his swansong, Bean is determined to carry on into his nineties.

He said: “It’s something that gets into your blood and you can’t get rid of it. I absolutely adore the sport and as long as I’m fit, competitive and enjoying it, I’ll carry on.”

The rally, which recreates previous races from the 1960s and 70s, has been running for seven years. It starts tomorrow and runs until Monday.