Mike Kirk first became involved in Motorsport in the mid 1960’s (when he were ‘nobbut a lad), with Kirkby Lonsdale Motor Club.
This combined with a love of maps and a GCE in Geography, led to a 30 year career in the Ordnance Survey, Britain’s national mapping agency. From 1968 to 1999 Mike surveyed the roads (and other features) of the North of England until he accepted ‘an offer he couldn’t refuse’ (redundancy/early retirement).
Having bought his first Classic Car in 1996 (the Alpine) and organised several runs and rallies* for KLMC it wasn’t a difficult decision to make a career change and form a partnership in a Classic Touring business in 2000.
In 2007 he decided to go it alone and form Classic Car Tours (MK), concentrating on the areas he knew so well from his surveying and rallying days in the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales, Northumberland and Scotland, including the Isle of Mull where he had competed for 25 consecutive years. With experience of competing in Europe also, the Calendar soon included at least one foray into onto the continent each year, culminating in a real classic tour of the French Alps in 2019.
CCT(MK) now has a ‘hard core’ of regular customers, some of whom have taken part in every tour in the Calendar on more than one occasion.
Mike still competes in his Alpine and Escort RS whenever time permits.