Jonathan Turner, chief executive of Bramham-based Bayford & Co, is satisfying his thirst for adventure by joining around 200 other participants in the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. He will be navigating the Gobi desert and Asian steppes as he embarks on a month long 12,000 mile rally across three continents in a car built 100 years ago.
 
Turner and his driving partner an old school-friend and fellow Yorkshireman Adam Hartley, are aiming to complete the course in a 1907 Itala - the same model of car that undertook the original rally.

This year is the centenary of the infamous 1907 Peking to Paris race which was triggered by an appeal by the French newspaper Le Matin that year "will anyone agree to go, this summer, from Peking to Paris by motor car?". It became the first ever trans-continental motor rally and proved beyond doubt that the car was a serious alternative form of transport to the train and the horse and cart. Five cars left Peking and four made it to Paris with the Italian Prince Borghese the victor after suffering collapsed wheels, Mongolian bridges, Siberian highwaymen alongside lack of water food and a bed other than underneath the Itala.

Turner, a well known calculated risk taker, will begin the journey on Sunday 27th May in Beijing, travelling across China and then for eight days through the Gobi desert, before crossing Outer Mongolia and the Asian Steppes. The race then continues through Siberia and the inhospitable Eastern Russia, before entering Moscow and then into the Baltic states and Poland and finishing with a parade and much-deserved celebration in Paris on Sunday June 30th.

The 41-year old boss, who has a keen interest in vintage cars and completed a similar challenge a decade ago, is currently training for at least five hours a week to prepare his body for the endurance. The fact that his vehicle has no windscreen, doors or roof has not discouraged him. One of his fellow competitors in the 1997 rally had to be flown home after contracting frostbite.

Turner commented: "Undertaking this rally is one of my most-gruelling missions yet. We have made only slight modifications to our car as we're trying to recreate the experience of the original adventurers in 1907"

"Our back-up consists of spare wooden spokes in case of wheel damage (the car has wooden wheels) a few springs made in Castleford strapped to the back end and a wealth of medical equipment. The route has changed since a similar trip ten years ago to avoid countries like Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, but we still expect to confront potential dangers. Our main focus will be to stay as close to the rest of the cars as is possible in our century-old banger. If we have to get a tow then so be it!"

So how can he take so much time away from the business he has built and loves so much?

"I have such a fantastic team and we all complement each other so well. When I mentioned I might be away for five weeks they suggested I go away for at least ten. They tell me things will be quieter without me and they don't like the chaos as much as I thought they did! The hard bit will be leaving my wife and young children but they also love adventure and we all know life is far too short not to take the opportunity whilst you can. As Steve McQueen used to say: 'If you ain't living life on the edge you ain't living'. I really encourage all my employees the live their dreams and most do."

When leaded petrol was banned in 2000, Turner's love of old cars prompted him to lobby the government to allow small volumes of the fuel to continue to be made available for the use of all classic vehicle owners. Bayford then gained the only nationwide licence to distribute the fuel, which is still available at around 100 sites today.  The company's efforts have been recognised by awards from Classic and Sportscat magazine amongst others.