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Classic Marathon

HERO-ERA

14th-19th September 2025


Classic Marathon 2025
Winners: Paul Bloxidge/Ian Canavan (VW Golf GTi)
Photograph: © HERO-ERA

Organiser: HERO ERA

Date: 14th-19th September 2025

Clerk of the Course: Guy Woodcock

Deputy Clerk of the Course: Will Rutherford

Route: 2,163 Kms (24 Regs, 7 Tests)

Start: Geneva

Finish: Biarritz

Starters: 55


The Classic Marathon moved to France for its 31st edition, starting near the Swiss border at Divonne-les-Bains and finishing, six days later, at Biarritz. Thirty-seven regularities and seven tests were planned, taking in some of the most demanding roads in the Alps, Pyrenes and other parts of the French countryside.

The 55 starters were led away from the start by defending Marathon Champion Mark Godfrey, the MG B pilot was being navigated by the highly experienced Bart den Hartog, who surprisingly was competing on his first Marathon.

The first regularity, not many kilometres from the start, had to be cut short as road works closed a road on the latter part of the section; this left just one timing point and ten crews hit that exactly on time.

There then followed the first test of the event; this was at the Circuit Jura Sud. David Coxon/Peter Hawkins (Austin Healey Mk3) were the only team to match a zero on Reg 1/1 with fastest class on the test, meaning that they arrived at the first coffee halt with clean sheet and the lead.

Fastest time on the test was shared by Thomas Koerner/Udo Schauss (Porsche 911) and Julian Adams/Grant Edwards (Porsche 911 SC). Koerner was to go on to take best time on all but one of the remaining tests and won the Test Pilot Award at the finish by a large margin.

Two more regs were completed before the lunch halt, which was taken on the banks of the Rhone at Lavours. By this point it was the other Austin Healey Mk3, that of Richard Bowser/James Bowser, that topped the leader board. At this point, they led Godfrey/den Hartog by two seconds.

The major topic of conversation at the halt was the final control on Reg 1/3, which needed close reading of the instructions to locate. Ten crews missed to find the timing point and many more picked up the maximum one minute penalty at the check. Paul Bloxidge/Ian Canavan (VW Golf GTi) were almost three minutes late at the control; although they found the timing point without problems, it had been the misreading of an instruction earlier on that caused their difficulties. They were saved by the Joker, which was being used on the event and reduced their penalty to 15 seconds.

Valence was the venue of the first overnight halt, before which two more regularities were tackled. All 55 cars made to the end of the day. A succession of early penalties on the fifth regularity, saw Bowser/Bowser drop from first to a shared third place. Godfrey/den Hartog now led by four seconds, with Dick Baines/Harry Baines (Porsche 911) now in second, while Malcolm Dunderdale/Anita Wickins (Triumph TR8) shared third with the Austin Healey.

Classic Marathon 2025
Second Placed: Mark Godfrey/Bart den Hartog (MG B)
Photograph: © HERO-ERA

Baines/Baines were in difficulty on the first reg of Day Two when they suffered a puncture, losing 25 seconds at the next timing point and dropping them to seventh place. While the Dunderdale/Wickins were delayed by a recurrence of the fuel vaporisation problems that have afflicted the TR8 previously.

Problems that were to hamper the event for the rest of its duration emerged on Reg 5/2. Local residents took exception to the speed of some of the cars and blocked the road. All the cars got through, but some were severely delayed, meaning that both Regs 2/2 and 2/3 were cancelled.

The morning saw the first retirement of the event when the Jaguar Mk2 of Anders Hendriksen/Lise Hendriksen succumbed to an engine failure. The Porsche 911 of Adams/Edwards was not amongst the cars leaving the start MTC as the car refused to fire up. They sourced a new module and rejoined the Marathon for the final day.

At the lunch halt Godfrey/den Hartog held a ten second lead over Bowser/Bowser, who had bounced back up to second. Despite their time loss on Day One, Bloxidge/Canavan were now in third, 13 seconds off the lead.

Things fell apart for the leading MG on the first regularity after Lunch, the navigator omitted to record the time at the self-start control on his time card; this error added a minute to their penalties, dropping them to seventh place.

Two afternoon regs were run, but the earlier problems had drawn the attention of the authorities to the event and they forced the cancellation of the final regularity of the day. Local car clubs reported that they had become accustomed to police disapproval when they run motoring events, especially those aimed at older cars.

The day ended with a test at the Millau Kart Centre, near to the overnight halt. Once again, Koerner/Schauss were fastest, although the major incident on the test was the Austin Healey Sprite sheering the wheel nuts on one wheel, which promptly fell off.

At Millau Bloxidge/Canavan found themselves in the lead, with Baines/Baines ten seconds behind in second place, while Vincent Hayes/Peter Rushforth, in their amazing Renault 4, were in third.

Classic Marathon 2025
Third Placed: Dick Baines/Harry Baines (Porsche 911E)
Photograph: © HERO-ERA

Despite the Marathon having been sanctioned by the French Motoring Federation, there were concerns about the police having stopped several competitors for taking part in an illegal event. It was therefore decided that Day Three would be run as a non-competitive tour, apart from the two tests planned for the day. Even those these were being run on private land, the second one at the Belmont-sur-Rance Aerodrome was stopped by the police.

This meant that as crews made their way from Millau to Carcassonne, there was just one test, a revisit to the Millau Kart track, to include in the results. Again, Koerner/Schauss were quickest, cementing their fourth place position, although there were no changes to the top ten after the test.

Competition resumed on Day Four, although some timing points were cancelled, average speeds were reduced and two regs were scrubbed. In the event continued without Irvine Laidlaw/Annabel Jones (Porsche 911RS), who had been in the top ten, but had to withdraw as the driver was unwell.

The best performance of the morning, which included a test, was put in by Godfrey/den Hartog, this pushed them back up to third place at the lunch halt at Saint-Paul-de-Jarrat. Traffic had delayed Bloxidge/Canavan, but they still held a lead of seven seconds over Baines/Baines.

Godfrey/den Hartog continued their progress up to the day end, which saw the event cross briefly into Spain for the overnight halt at Vielha. The MG pair put in the best performance of the day, 20 seconds better than the leaders. While the top positions remained the same, only three seconds separated first and second.

There was a further retirement on the climb into the Pyrenes, as the Austin Healey of Moore/Moore broke another wheel.

Classic Marathon 2025
Fourth Placed: Vincent Hayes/Peter Rushforth (Renault 4)
Photograph: © HERO-ERA

Day 5 was an east-west trail across the Pyrenes, taking in many of range's most famous cols, including the Tourmalet.

There was a change of leaders during the morning as Bloxidge/Canavan made an error in their timing on Reg 5/3 and the 24 seconds dropped on the section allowed Baines/Baines to sneak into a 22 second lead as they put in the best performance of the pre-lunch tests. This was matched by Dunderdale/Wickins, who were now back up to fourth place.

Two more regularities and two tests at the Berdery Circuit on the outskirts of Pau, the venue of the overnight halt, completed the day's competition.

Bloxidge/Canavan were back in front by Pau, as Baines/Baines lost time at the final timing point of the day, they were now 21 second behind the leaders, while, once again, Godfrey/den Hartog had put in the best performance of the day and were now only two seconds behind Baines/Baines.

The Danish crew of Soren Dybdal/Lebe Dybdal had the fuel pump fail on their Porsche 911; it was changed, but they had to miss the final reg, but did complete the two tests.

The final day took the route through the foothills of the Pyrenes to finish at Biarritz; with 16 seconds covering the top three places there were five regularities to decide the top places.

Godfrey/den Hartog passed Baines/Baines for second place on the third regularity and the MG pair closed in on first place. The briefly took the lead at the start of the final regularity, after the Golf was delayed by an ambulance, but then were three seconds late at the final timing point, while Bloxidge/Canavan were just one late. This gave the win to the Golf crew by the narrowest of margins, one second. Baines/Baines completed the podium, but by now were 29 seconds off the win.

Dunderdale/Wickins had a nightmare day, losing time to traffic and having to struggle with a broken bush on the TR8's rear suspension; they fell to 13th place at the end. Less fortunate still were David Bundy/Debbie Bundy, their Triumph 2.5Pi retired with a broken fuel metering unit on the final morning.

Bart den Hartog won the Clockwatcher Award for the best performance over the event's regularities by 26 seconds and was left ruing missing out on an comfortable win due to missing to fill in that self start time on Day Two.

The Porsche 911 team had led the Marques Team competition for most of the event, however on the last day David Roberts/Melanie Roberts, who had been in eighth place overall, went off the road and had to be towed out by a helpful local farmer and his tractor. This meant that they fell to 31st place and allowed Team MG, Godfrey/den Hartog, Dave Maryon/Henry Carr and Ken Dobbs/Peter Opie, to claim the Marques Award.


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