A winning margin of just one second over some of the finest gravel stages in Britain got the Dunlop/WONAGO MSA British Historic Rally Championship off to a superb start on the Rally Marketing Mid Wales Historic Stages (Sunday 6 March.
While Julian Reynolds and Ian Oakey (pictured above) pipped Nick Elliott and Chris Brooks in category three with a last stage charge, other category wins went to David Stokes/Guy Weaver and Simon Wallis/Graham Wride after a fabulous day of competition.
Category 1:
An encouraging entry for category one delivered an absorbing contest and put down a clear marker that 2011 is going to be an excellent season for the pre ’68 cars.
Dessie Nutt and Geraldine McBride proved that they were wide awake when the rally opened with 12 miles in Hafren, taking an immediate lead in their Porsche 911. They maintained a cracking pace, despite some strong challenges, until the Porsche broke on the climb of Pike’s Peak and their rally was over.
With Paul Mankin and Peter Scott (Lotus Cortina) out with two burnt spark plugs, the lead battle was now a three-way affair as Wallis/Wride battled with the Volvo Amazon of Graham Waite/Gill Cotton and the Porsche 911 of Rikki Proffitt/John Stanger-Leathes. The Volvo was consuming oil at a prodigious rate and the Porsche was battling a misfire at high revs, but it was all close until Wallis stormed the final Myherin stage to cement a fine victory.
“Those last two stages are the best in the country,” said Wallis of Pike’s Peak and Myherin. Waite was just relieved to make the finish after pouring a litre of oil in before the final two stages, while Proffitt had enjoyed his run. “It’s been wonderful,” he reported.
Fourth overall was a good result for the Volvo Amazon of Dave Reynolds/Cliff Doe, while Geoff Taylor/Steve Greenhill (Sunbeam Imp Sport) bagged class B1 despite a detached plug lead as the Imp suffered over the recently re-graded section of Hafren.
Category 2:
The stage was set for a big contest in category two, but David Stokes and Guy Weaver had other ideas and attacked from the very start to take control in their Escort Mk1.Incredily, category two had a 100% finishing record.
Stokes was very quick out of the blocks and was 15s up on Rupert Lomax/Dave Alcock by the end of the first stage. Lomax sneaked a stage win on Pike’s Peak, but Stokes ended the day quickest on Myherin to underline his victory.
“I enjoyed that, a lot,” he said at the finish back in Newtown. With no recent gravel experience, Lomax was pleased with second place after a strong run, while third in category two was a good result for Chris Browne and Liz Jordan. “We’ve had a fabulous day,” said Browne, who finished the rally just three seconds up on Stefaan Stouf and Joris Erard. The flying Belgians were new to these forests and admitted to being on a steep learning curve. “It was not too easy to go really quick, but the stages were very, very good,” said Stouf.
Sole runner in class C4 was the Porsche 911 of Peter McDowell/Derek Davies, while a cracking class C3 entry was topped by Tim Jones and Don James (Escort Mk1), competing for the first time since Tim injured his hand on the Mid Wales in June 2010. Despite admitting to being rusty, he edged clear of Dick Slaughter and Geoff Dearing on the first rally in the Escort Mk1 previously campaigned by Dick’s son James. “You’ve got to be more gentle with this car,” said Slaughter senior. Into third, resplendent in a new livery, came the Escort Mk1 of Andrew Siddall and Captain Thompson.
The C2 entry was equally good and it delivered a close finish among the 1600cc Escorts as Matt Fowle/Jane Edgington just fended off Rex Ireland/Vince Bristow. “I last co-drove in about 1981,” said Bristow. Fowle was plagued by a misfire and reckoned that he had to push even harder downhill to make up for a lack of pace on the uphill sections.
Category 3:
The pace at the head of category three was sensational as Elliott and Reynolds renewed their friendly rivalry. Elliott took the immediate advantage in Hafren and when Reynolds had a spin at the top of Sweet Lamb the gap went out to 10s. But Reynolds was not about to give up without a fight and clawed back some time to be four seconds down going into 10 miles of Myherin. Incredibly, Reynolds and Oakey went five seconds faster to win by just a second.
“We pushed on a bit,” admitted Reynolds. “Fair play to Julian, the pace was intense,” said Elliott after a memorable contest. The rest of category three gave chase, but Reynolds and Elliott were able to break clear from the start. In third should have been Paul Griffiths and Paul Williams in their Escort Mk2 but they slid off and were unable to get the undamaged car back on the road. Instead, Will Onions/David Williams took third from Alan Walker/Jez Rogers, who turned in an impressive performance in such competitive company.
Tim Pearcey and Neil Shanks had been in the battle for third until a scary brake failure in Myherin forced them to back right off and they slipped to fifth.
Class D4 lost the Vauxhall Chevette of Rob Smith and Opel Asconas of Steve Magson and Paul Kynaston, so it was a win for the Volvo 244 of Bill Douglas and Steve Hancock.
Victory in class D3 went to the non-BHRC registered crew of Guy Woodcock and Hu Kent (Escort Mk2), so top points were taken by Stuart Clarke/Andy Ballantyne, while Peter Smith/Russ Langthorne claimed third after a clear run in their Opel Kadett.
Finally, sole runner in class D2 was the Sunbeam Talbot of Guy Anderson and Kim Baker. Despite losing the exhaust, they stormed around in the car borrowed from Guy’s father Pat.
– Credit: Issued by Paul Lawrence (tel 01952 510382 or e-mail press@hrcr.co.uk) on behalf of the Historic Rally Car Register (www.hrcr.co.uk). The Dunlop/WONAGO MSA British Historic Rally Championship is managed by the HRCR. – www.RallyBuzz.com