THEY’RE under starters orders ready for the annual mid-summer motoring pageant uphill and down dale in the North Pennines.

Sunday’s 47th Beamish Run, a re-creation of the tests of motor reliability and highway knowledge from the inter-war years, will see the usual cavalcade of lovingly maintained and restored veterans of the road tackling 150-miles of mainly rural roads in County Durham and North Yorkshire.

The entry field, a slightly curtailed list of 135 starters, features an array of classic and vintage vehicles from across the North, and further afield, including competitors making a long journey just to take part, from Surrey, Wiltshire, and East Sussex.

Organiser George Jolley said spectators can savour some rarely seen sights on the modern road network, including a 1938 BMW Frazer Nash, a highly regarded sports car with chain gear box, driven by Darryl Pollard of Old Penshaw on Wearside, and a 1953 Austin Healey BN4 Prototype, hand-made with Austin parts, being guided round the course by owner Michael Leatherland, of Stanhope in Weardale.

The vintage motorcycle contingent features a former winner, Ian Bean, from Shotley Bridge, County Durham, a member of the Friends of Beamish Museum, on his 1927 AJS 350cc machine, plus the first female finisher on two wheels, Dr Rachael Houchin, of Durham, on a 1955 Ariel NH 350, and John Kippin, from Gosforth, Newcastle, on a 1950 BMW R 51/2 500.

All will undergo the usual starting line test, as well as further questions on their knowledge of the rules of the road, at nine staffed checkpoints round the course, including the grand backdrop of Bowes Museum, near Barnard Castle, and at the traditional mandatory one-hour lunch stop on the village green in Bainbridge, North Yorkshire.

Results from those tests, combined with finishing times, will help decide the prize winners.

As has been the case in most years, the start is from the events field at Beamish Museum, with cars going off at one-minute intervals and motorcycles every 30 seconds, from 8.15am onwards.

Fastest finishers usually get back to the open air museum either side of 4pm, but several stragglers may be chugging over the line some hours later.

The team of 120 marshalls and auxiliary helpers, features for the first time a motorcycle breakdown unit, with trailer, operated by a crew from the Vintage Motorcycle Club, overseen by ex-Naval officer Malcolm Byrne.

Mr Jolley believes they, and their car recovery crew equivalent, will be in for a potentially busy day, given the forecast conditions.

“It’s going to be hot, so we’re going to have a few breakdowns, apart from the usual catastrophic casualties, so we’ll just be advising participants to make sure they’ve got spare water and oil.”