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SPECIAL EVENT (LONDON, UK.) - RALLYING'S BIG GUNS TO THRILL CROWDS AT RACE RETRO

Top names from the world of rallying are visiting this year's Race Retro, the international historic motorsport show held at Stoneleigh Park from 14th to 16th March, to reminisce about the golden days of motorsport's most gruelling discipline.

Markku Alen, Bjorn Waldegard and Russell Brookes will be showing they've still got what it takes, with a series of demonstration runs during the event on the Live Classic Rally Stage. All three drivers have links with this year's featured marque, Ford.

Finnish hero Markku Alen is one of the most successful rally drivers of all time. His rallying career started in 1969, driving a Renault 8 Gordini. His first professional drive was with Ford in a Mk1 Escort, after which he joined Fiat in 1975, driving for them and Lancia until 1989. Alen piloted the first Group B Lancia, the 037, and won 20 rounds of the World Rally Championship (WRC), including six victories on Finland's Rally of 1000 Lakes, his home event. He also won the 1988 Lombard RAC Rally.

Bjorn Waldegard posted many international wins at the wheel of a Mk2 Escort RS1800. He began his rallying career in 1962; in 1967 and 1968, he won the Swedish Championship, and in 1969, at the wheel of a Porsche 911, he won the Monte Carlo Rally. After a stint with Lancia, Waldegard moved to Ford at the end of 1976, and between then and 1980 notched up wins on the Safari, Acropolis, RAC, Swedish and Ivory Coast rallies, driving RS1800s. His successful career continued with Toyota. Last year, aged 64, he won the car-breaking East African Safari Classic, with his son Mathias as co-driver.

Russell Brookes is one of the UK's most popular rally drivers and is forever associated with his Andrews Heat for Hire-sponsored cars. Brookes began competing in 1968, twice winning the British Rally Championship - in 1977 driving an Escort RS1800, and in 1985 at the wheel of an Opel Manta 400. In 1973, he signed with Ford and drove for the blue oval until the end of the 1979 season. He switched to Talbot for two years, then moved to Vauxhall/Opel, and in 1989 went back to Ford for the British Rally Championship. At the wheel of a Cosworth Sierra, he won the Manx Rally in 1989 and 1990.

These legendary drivers will be joined by some of Ford's rallying elite, the people who have and continue to guide the Ford Rally Team to victory: Malcolm Wilson, Mark Dean and Tony Mason.

Malcolm Wilson, a former WRC driver and British Rally Champion, is the principal of M-Sport who build and prepare the current Ford WRC cars, as well as running the works Ford Rally Team. He will be joined by Mark Dean, the newly-appointed Director of Ford TeamRS, Ford's motorsport division in Europe.

Ex-Ford Rally Manager Tony Mason, the winning navigator of the 1972 RAC Rally with legendary British driver Roger Clark in a Ford Escort Mk1, will complete the Ford line-up, which will come together for an informal interview and to share their rally experiences on the Race Retro show stage.

For more information on Europe's premier historic motorsport show and the latest updates, please visit http://www.raceretro.com