A ROYAL flavour is added to an annual vintage vehicle rally this weekend.

The Earl of Strathmore, the Queen’s first cousin once removed, is a surprise entrant in the Beamish Run, on Sunday.

He will take part in the 39th test of reliability and endurance at the wheel of his 1953 Bentley R-type.

A favourite car of his great aunt, the late Queen Mother, it is only thanks to the expertise of specialist restorers in County Durham that the 18th Earl, Michael Fergus Bowes- Lyon, will be on Sunday’s starting line, back at the event’s traditional home at Beamish Museum after an 11- year absence.

Run organiser George Jolley, who has previously competed in rallies at the Strathmore family seat, Glamis Castle, in Scotland, said he received a surprise call from the Earl, expressing an interest in taking part in this year’s run, for pre-1956 vehicles.

He said: “He told me the car did not belong to the Queen Mother, but it was her favourite.”

The car was restored at the Carrosserie works in Barnard Castle to make it roadworthy, and Mr Jolley said the earl told him he could have probably bought a new Bentley for the cost of the restoration.

The earl will be among 145 owners of cars, motorcycles and light commercial vehicles competing in the rally, on 150 miles of mainly rural roads in County Durham and North Yorkshire.

It will start and finish at the open air museum, near Stanley, County Durham, thanks to the interest of Beamish’s new director, Richard Evans, who is taking part as a passenger in a 1930 Ford A, driven by David Knotts, of Ryton, near Gateshead.

The route will include ten checkpoints, with competitors tested at each on their knowledge of old and new rules of the road.

It will include a lunchtime stop on the village green at Bainbridge, North Yorkshire, which usually draws the crowds.

The first vehicles will leave Beamish at 8.30am on Sunday, with early finishers expected back from 3.30pm.

■ A full preview of the rally, including a map of the route, will appear in The Northern Echo tomorrow.