ENTRIES are motoring in for the annual test of reliability and endurance for lovingly preserved knights of the road, of both four and two-wheeled varieties.

But as the limit of 150 vintage and classic cars and motorcycles nears, Beamish Run organisers are urging regular entrants, who have so far failed to do so, to register their interest in taking part as soon as possible.

The 47th staging of the annual run is fast approaching, on the longest Sunday of daylight in the year, June 18.

A recreation of the safety and reliability trials staged by pioneers of the road in the inter-war years, it follows a now familiar 150-mile route along mainly rural highways and byways in County Durham and the northern fringe of North Yorkshire.

Not only are entrants tested by the undulating tracks of the North Pennines, but on their knowledge of the rules of the road, at ten checkpoint stops along the way.

Starting and finishing on the events field at Beamish Museum, near Stanley, it includes the popular lunch-time stop on the village green, at Bainbridge, North Yorkshire, where participants must spend an hour before embarking on the second-half of the course.

Cars taking part must be registered in years pre-dating or including 1956, while the cut-off date for motorcycles is 1960.

Among the potential eye-catching entrants so far is a 1927 Trojan A saloon, with distinctive solid compressed rubber tyres and no real suspension, which will be driven by Andrew Robertson, of Gainford, near Darlington, plus a number of racing Bentley’s, big sports cars, dubbed, “the fastest lorries in the world”, including a 1924 three-litre version, belonging to Brian Gore, of Ulverston in Cumbria.

Honorary run secretary George Jolley said there is also a “good smattering” of prized Sydney Allard cars, produced in south-west London in the post-war years, one of which, driven by the company founder, won the Monte Carlo Rally of 1952, and two Lea-Francis, one coming from as far afield as Camberley, in Surrey, and the other, a 1933-P type, to be driven by Michael Gilbertson, of Kendal, in Cumbria.

Back among the biking brigade is Rachael Houchin, from Durham, who hopes to repeat her successful run last year, as the first ever female motorcycle finisher, on her 1955 Ariel 350cc machine.

Mr Jolley said 120-plus entries have so far been lodged, and time is running out for “waverers”.

“We have a healthy contingent, so far, but we can only go up to 150, partly due to the lack of space round the green at Bainbridge, which just can’t take more than it does.”

Entry forms are available from Mr Jolley, at 12 Celtic Crescent, Cleadon Village, Tyne and Wear, SR6 7RZ, with further information available on 0191-536-0929.