Round four: Mutiny Historic RallyJeremy Easson/Den Golding and Steven Smith/John Nichols scored the major victories in round four of the 2005 Armajaro MSA British Historic Rally Championship, the Mutiny Historic Rally on Saturday (4 June). As ever, the mid-Wales based event was a hit with the crews as they tackled stages used on Wales Rally GB as well as a truly challenging 17-mile opening stage in Radnor.Historic (category 1)Like all the crews, Smith/Nichols knew that the rally would be defined by that first stage in Radnor. Few of the BHRC contenders had tackled the stage in recent times. “I can’t remember I’ve ever been in Radnor,” said Smith, but that didn’t prevent him flying through the stage take an immediate 48s lead over Dessie Nutt/Geraldine McBride.Nutt, however, considered himself fortunate to emerge from Radnor, having slid into a ditch and come to a halt before managing to extract his Porsche 911 and continue.
Meanwhile, recent double historic category winners Patrick Watts and Elgan Davies dropped more than two and a half minutes to Smith in their Sunbeam Tiger through the slippery opening stage. Once ahead, Smith was able to extend his lead over the remaining five stages in the Epynt region and returned to Llandrindod Wells with a two-minute margin over Nutt. Watts/Davies worked up to third, but victory for Smith was an important result. “If Patrick had won here, the Porsches would have been in big trouble,” said Smith of the championship contest with the thundering Sunbeam Tiger.
Another superb performance from the Ford Cortina GT of Jonathan and Graham Gale not only netted them fourth overall and class B3 victory, it also put them ahead of all the class B4 cars. Gale had been third fastest through Radnor, beaten only by the two Porsches.
Class B4 was hotly contested as the Lotus Cortinas of Philip Atkinson/Gary Wood headed the similar car of Neil Calvert/Arlene Cookson by less than half a minute. Suspension problems sidelined the Volvo Amazon of Graham Waite/Julian Kirwan.Series returnees Graeme Godfrey/Alan Hudson romped to class B2 in their Mini Cooper S, charging to the class and seventh in the historic category with nearly four minutes in hand over their nearest class challengers. However, it might have been tougher for Godfrey had the Cooper S of Matthew and Dood Pearce not lost nearly 10 minutes right at the start of the Radnor stage with a broken rotor arm.Post-historic (category 2)Just as in the historic category, the 17-mile start in Radnor proved decisive in the post-historic division. This time, it was Easson/Golding who took an immediate lead of over a minute and despite a spirited chase from David Stokes/Ian Oakey, Easson was still 57s ahead at the finish.“I haven’t done Radnor since the 1970s,” reckoned Stokes before heading into the daunting opening stage. However, the advantage that Easson took determined the result in the battle of the Mk1 Escorts. For Golding, it was a second Mutiny win in a row.
Dominic Frattaroli/Wyn Thomas had been expected to challenge in their Datsun 240Z, but an off right at the finish of Radnor put them out of the event.
Stokes continued to attack over the shorter stages and trimmed 10 seconds from Easson’s lead, but Radnor had been the decider. Ray Bellm/Mark Solloway dropped three minutes with problems in Radnor and ended the day working back to fourth behind the similar Mk1 Escort of Graham Samuel/Tony Philips.
Ian Drummond/Tom Ward took their 2-litre Escort to class C3 victory, while Graham Wilson/Keith Fellowes clinched C4 spoils in their Porsche 911. In C3, the retirement of James and David Young with damaged steering opened the door for Drummond’s win.
However, the big class battle was once again in C2 as John Worthing/Bill Robertson fended off the similar Escort of Ken Forster/John Stanger-Leathes by 23s after another fine contest. The pace of the 1600cc class battle took them into sixth and seventh overall in post-historics, headed only by class C5 cars.
