NORTHALLERTON enduro rider Robbie Wallace competed in the Manx Two-Day Enduro event last week on board his Motoconnection and Putoline-backed Husqvarna 125 and it proved to be a fruitful trip.

The event, round four of the North East Enduro Championship, was held over two days on the Isle of Man, where day one consisted of a southern loop and day two saw a loop of the whole island.

Among a strong entry of 90 riders, Wallace set off on day one straight into a special test at the Southern MCC clubhouse on the windy but dry moors near Carnagrie. Setting off with a fast time on the first test, there was then a tight timed section to the second special test. In the clubman class, only eight riders managed to stay on time, one of those being Wallace.

The next special test was through a pine wood which was about six miles long. Wallace recorded another good time and ended the day in second place in the Clubman E1 class.

Sunday brought a warmer day, with two full loops of the island and two special tests, one the same as day one and the other on the mountain at Tholt Y Will Plantation, which was a slippery test after the overnight rain. With another tightly timed section on the route, only a few riders kept on time and avoided penalties.

Wallace was again second on the day to RAF rider Jonny White, a result which moved Wallace into the championship lead.

THE sixth annual Croft Nostalgia Festival revved into life last weekend with a heady high-octane blend of classic cars, retro racing, militaria, breathtaking aerobatics and an atmosphere invoking memories of yesteryear.

The BARC and HSCC-run festival is firmly established as one of the highlights on the North-East sporting and social calendar. Blessed with summer sunshine and building on past successes, this year's event was by far the biggest and best yet, with thousands of visitors savouring some spectacular racing on the track as well as a feast of evocative displays from bygone eras.

Clive Butler thrilled the crowds with a spellbinding feat of aerobatics in a specialist Cessna, while an equally exhilarating display on Sunday from a Russian Yak-52 served as a generous appetiser for the appearance of the mighty Avro Vulcan bomber XH558.

With Falklands veteran Martin Withers at the controls of the only example of this remarkable aircraft still flying today, crowds were treated to slow speed manoeuvres scarcely believable for a plane of its size.

There was plenty of action on track, with the agile Lotus Seven S4 of John Pringle the weekend’s first winner in the Historic Road Sports/1970s Road Sports class for road-legal cars.

Then came the first of the classic open-wheelers with the Historic Formula 3. These spritely machines were not far off the design and construction of Formula 1 machines of their time, and certainly looked the part. David Methley, a surprise entry in his own orange Merlyn, took the chequered flag first, even after a penultimate-lap spin made a game of it. Peter Thompson, in his Brabham, couldn't quite make Methley pay for his mistake.

In the Formula Juniors, Jonathan Hughes' Brabham BT6 finished well ahead of the pack after getting the better of the opening-lap squabble. His fastest lap was an astonishing four seconds ahead of the nearest competition. Sunday's return race saw Hughes slip to second, 25 seconds behind winner James Murray.

British Formula Ford entries from the 1960s and 1970s strutted their stuff in the Historic Formula Ford Championship, producing some thrilling racing with dicing in a close pack. The top two were separated by just a second and the top five by under eight, as Rob Wainwright got the better of Callum Grant to win after four changes of lead between the first four cars early on in the race.

Warren Briggs, in combination with his stunning red Mustang, proved too much for the chasing pack to handle as chaos ensued behind between Hillman Imps, Minis and Lotus Cortinas in the Historic Touring Car Championship. But on Sunday the Cortina of Tim Davies took an impressive victory.

Midway through a glorious Saturday afternoon came the turn of the Formula Ford 2000s after qualifying narrowed down a burgeoning 27-car entry. It was very much a battle between the top two as Andrew Park and Nelson Rowe traded blows, though the former eventually pulled out to keep Rowe at arm's length.

In the Classic Clubmans Championship, John Harrison romped home a minute-and-a-half ahead of the pack in his Mallock Mk21, which offered a slight power advantage over the rest of the field. Harrison took race two for the series in similarly comfortable fashion.

Circuit manager Mike Cantelo hailed the weekend as an unbounded success, and said: "This was by far the biggest and best Croft Nostalgia Festival that we've ever put together. What a fantastic weekend and the flypast of the Avro Vulcan was just the icing on the cake."

LAST year’s winner Stephen Petch is one of the latest to enter this year’s Tour of Hamsterley Rally, which is scheduled to take place on Saturday, September 12, and features a different format to that used over previous years.

The start, service area and finish will be held at Streatlam, near Barnard Castle, and the event will consist of two loops of stages, both incorporating stages in Hamsterley Forest and Raby Castle. The first loop will feature two stages in Hamsterley at 7.2 miles and 8.1 miles, followed by a run through Raby at about 2.9 miles.

After a service halt, the route will be repeated, but with two further runs at the Raby stage to round off 40 miles of competition. Regulations are available at tourofhamsterley.co.uk.

REDCAR Bears were without injured number one Lasse Bjerre, captain Stuart Robson and Adam Roynon, who recently suffered a broken collarbone, for their home match against Glasgow Tigers last week. It was always going to be a tough match as the Tigers team included ex-Bears captain Aaron Summers and former riders Richard Lawson and Richard Hall.

Heat one looked like it was going to be 5-1 for the Bears, with guest ex-Bear Kevin Doolan winning and Jan Graversen, back from injury, holding a comfortable second place when his chain came off and he cruised to a standstill, resulting in a split score of 3-3. Graversen made up for it by winning heat two as the points were split, as they were in heats three, four and five, with two wins for acting captain Matej Kus and one for Jonas B Andersen.

Heat six was won by Lawson, with Hall second, and heat seven was a repeat score for the Tigers, with Summers winning and Lawson second. Heat eight gave Kus his third win of the meeting, with another ex-Bear, Robert Brandford, in third. Heat nine saw a win for Lawson, with Kus a close second, and heat 10 saw a repeat with a win for Summers and Doolan in second.

The Tigers now led by 10 points going into heat 11, in which Andersen rode in the tactical black/white helmet colours to score six points for his win. This reduced the Tigers lead to seven points, but heat 12 saw another win for Summers, with Kus second. Heat 13 turned into a fierce battle, with Lawson beating Anderson and Doolan third. Points were split again in heat 14, with another win for Summers. Lawson won heat 15 to make the final score Bears 42 Tigers 51.