2012 Tour of Flanders, Roeselare ,Belgium  7-8 September  Report and images from Steven Vandeputte

Local rally hero Paul Lietaer added another Tour of Flanders victory to his record, making it his sixth historic win in Roeselare. Veteran Lietaer started as the obvious favourite with another veteran and multiple Belgian rally champion Robert Droogmans as his main rival, both equipped with the same weapon (Ford Escort MkII).

The enthusiastic spectators were prepared for a battle between these old rivals, but it wasn’t Droogmans who gave Lietaer a hard time, instead Conxion BRC Historic championship leader Glenn Janssens was pushing himself and his Porsche 911 very hard to keep the pressure on Lietaer. Something he was managing to do very well until he lost it at KP 10 Oekene-Ledegem and planted his Porsche in a field; although able to continue Janssens had lost more than 2 minutes and dropped to third place. More than 30 seconds behind his championship rival Dirk Deveux, also running a Tuthill Porsche 911, with only 3 stages left Janssens did not relent and picked up the pace, and at the end of a very hot Tour of Flanders was able to reclaim second place by just 0.2 seconds. He extends his lead in the championship over Deveux and the unfortunate Decock and Dekens, both having to retire their Porsches with engine problems. Meanwhile, Lietaer found himself no longer challenged and concentrated on pleasing the sunbathing crowds with some spectacular driving.

The Tour of Flanders is also the penultimate round of the MSA British Historic Rally Championship. Many MSA BHRC rally crews made the trip to Roeselare, making up almost a third of the starting field. After a strong performance David Stokes (Ford Escort RS1600) almost made it onto the podium with an overall fourth place but took home maximum championship points, promoting him to 3rd place with one rally left on the calendar. His fellow BHRC competitors also managed to keep their cars out of the feared ditches and suffered few mechanical problems resulting in six top-ten spots for British crews. Something their local counterparts did not manage quite so well; out of 60 entries only 28 finished, 16 of them being British.