06 June 2025
Peking to Paris Week Three
Halfway to Paris!
Now in its third week, the 2025 Peking to Paris Motor Challenge has become more intense, pushing endurance levels as teams from 15 countries battle with harsh desert terrain. Contestants are fighting through strong winds and low temperatures with complex, misleading tracks. Drivers and navigators are under constant pressure to stay focused. The rally has already crossed Kazakhstan, the world’s ninth-largest country, and is currently heading toward Baku, where it is expected to arrive on Sunday.
Following week two updates, our team were quick to respond and flew one of our many skilled technicians to Almaty for a 24hour solution. With the support of great connections, Bentley Almaty generously provided their workshop as a space for our technician to work into the night. With the request to source a welder, Bentley Almaty were fast on their feet! They trekked to the edge of Almaty and found a welder from a biker club that welcomed them like “long-lost cousins”. They talked travel, Peking to Paris routes, and before they knew it, the Bentley was perfectly re-welded.
All the team at Bentley Almaty were so welcoming and excited to be a part of this journey. With a great collaborative effort, we managed to repair the chassis failure, replace the offside magneto, retime the nearside magneto and service the car. By 7am the next day, JT and Nick were back on the rally route to Paris and our technician flew back to Heathrow – all within 24 hours. Thanks to Bentley Almaty for being so supportive in getting car no.10 back on the road to Paris.
This week JT and Nick have continued the rally to Kyzylorda. The route would enter the vacuous Kazakh Steppe, which is the largest in the world, and over the next few days will cross it entirely. At this point, the rally officially hit the halfway mark to Paris and passed the Baikonur Cosmodrome, out into a part of Kazakh that is so remote we have not had updates for a few days. There is still 530km of Kazakhstan to cross, and one last STC before heading into Baku. With the second half of the rally well under way, continuing to Baku, Istanbul and Salzburg, we are counting down the days to celebrating all competitors as they cross the finish line in Paris.
To close off this week’s update on a humorous note, in the words of JT and Nick “we were, predictably, last to supper again. JT and I have made it something of an art form—being fashionably, unreasonably late. But when your dinner excuse involves border crossings, ‘biker’ gangs, and reviving a car that predates World War II, people tend to forgive you.”
Thanks to Hero-Era for keeping us updated from 3,000 miles away and Ian Skelton for capturing imagery.
