Motor racing and motoring events often take a break from pure competition in an aim to give something back to a wider community, and this was true for the 20th and final Regis Classic Tour, sponsored by William Frosts of Frosts Ltd – www.frosts4cars.co.uk. An amazing total of 60 cars took part in the event (above, Steve Carpenter photo) on the first weekend of April. For the past 20 years the ladies of the Bognor Regis Motor Club have held an annual tour to raise funds for two charities, Against Breast Cancer and Orchid — Fighting Male Cancer. The total raised for cancer charities in the past 19 years has smashed the half-million-pound figure, now totalling £523,639!
The route for the last edition of the non-competitive, very social event was not in the UK, but in Holland — the venue of the 10th Anniversary tour, with registration and documentation taking place on Friday evening at Hotel ARA in Zwijndrecht. The tour started on Saturday morning with a visit to Schoonhoven’s Silver Museum plus coffee and apple cake at Hotel Belvedere. From there, Kasteel de Haar near Utrecht hosted a visit to the parkland surrounding the Kasteel and lunch in the Koetshuis. The afternoon visit was to Leerdam, the glass capital of Holland with coffee and Bossche Bol at Oude Posthuys before returning to Hotel ARA for a final Gala Dinner and further fundraising that reached record heights from previous tours!
The sun shone on the Sunday morning restart, leaving a little later than Saturday and returning to the beautiful market town of Gouda where crews sampled local delicacies before proceeding to the famous Louwman Museum at Den Haag. As the majority of the tour cars were more than 40 years old, Louwman invited them to park outside the front of the building to be the star attraction for other visitors on Sunday afternoon in brilliant sunshine. Each crew left with a gift of Gouda Cheese and syrup waffles as a souvenir of their visit to Holland.
For those staying over beyond Sunday there was a private visit and lunch at the wonderful Healey Museum near Utrecht on Monday morning. The invitation was taken up by 48 people and thoroughly enjoyed by everyone with wonderful hospitality from Hans van der Kerkhof and his volunteer team. The museum is a little gem and a real homage to Donald Healey and the cars he created — a must for the enthusiast. It is complete with a ten-seat cinema and amazing archives.
The main aim for this celebration anniversary event was purely for the fun, fundraising and friendship that have been the watchwords of previous tours over the past 20 years. The amount raised this year is looking well over £35,000, edging the grand total to very near the £600,000 mark.
The ladies took time to thank all the generous companies and individuals who have donated prizes for the auction and raffle: Richard Andrew, Richard and Nadzieja Askew, Edward and Lesley Behrendt, Mick Briggs, Andy Doherty, Jill Collings, Donington Historic Festival, Flywheel Festival, Ian Glass from Country Lane Tours, Peter and Mary Hall, John and Sarah Harmer, Terry Jackie Kerr, Peter and Glynis Lansdale, Nicholas and Kerry Parton, Valk Hotels, Mick and June Wildgoose and the European team at Vintage Racecar/Vintage Roadcar.
Sadly this was the final tour as, like a lot of Motor Clubs, there are few younger members joining Bognor Regis Motor Club and this event requires a huge commitment of time and effort from the organizing team. Over the years they’ve had fabulous fun, but felt it better to finish on a massive high with everyone wanting more than to fade into obscurity, which probably would have happened had it continued much longer. A final note of thanks goes to Carla van Bregt in Holland — she and her husband Henri de Potter assisted with the 2007 event and Carla lost Henri in 2014 to cancer, so as a tribute to him she helped again in 2017.
To learn more about the tour please call Ali Green +44 (0) 1243 542674 or email theregisclassictour@btinternet.com or visit www.theregisclassictour.co.uk
