Preview, round five: Mid Wales Historic Stages
The Armajaro MSA British Historic Rally Championship reaches its halfway point with the Rally Marketing Mid Wales Historic Stages over the weekend of 25/26 June.
A field of more than 50 cars will tackle the historic event, which centres on gravel stages in the Hafren and Sweet Lamb region. The popular event is the fifth event in the nine-round calendar.Historic (category 1)Victory on round four, the Mutiny Stages, was an important result for Steven Smith/John Nichols in their Porsche 911. In the first straight fight over Welsh forest stages of the season, they headed the mighty Sunbeam Tiger of Patrick Watts/Elgan Davies. Smith says that was an important result, and gives the Porsches hope of beating the Tiger to the championship title.
The pace of Smith/Nichols should continue on the Mid Wales, which is another new event for Watts as he learns about the Welsh stages. Making it a cracking three-way battle will be Dessie Nutt and Geraldine McBride in their Porsche 911 and anyone of the trio could win category one in mid-Wales.Not far from the pace of the class B5 cars will be the leading B4 runners, including the Lotus Cortinas of Chris and Hilary Green and Neil Calvert/Arlene Cookson. Taking the fight to the Cortinas will be the ever-spectacular Volvo Amazon of Graham Waite/Mike Reynolds.
The Ford Cortina GT of Tim Beall/Pete Dalton will head class B3, while class B2 could be one of the most hotly contested. Matthew and Dood Pearce are having a brilliant season in their Mini Cooper and currently have the measure of the similar car of Mike Barratt/Michelle Calvert. However, back in the pack will be the MG Midget of James Stait/Stewart Lawson, which has the potential to see off the Minis if Stait can end a run of disastrous first stage retirements. Also back for Mid Wales is the Mini Cooper of Dave Foster/Terry March.
Class B1 is home to the wonderful two-stroke Saab 96s of John Parker/Robert Harrison and Nick Pinkett/Julian Lucking.Post-historic (category 2)Now leading the overall BHRC title race by four points are David Stokes and Ian Oakey in their post-historic Escort Mk1. They have been right on the pace in all four events so far and will be going for win number three on the Mid Wales.
However, the opposition is fierce, including Mutiny winners Jeremy Easson/Den Golding in their similar car. Battle rejoins in Hafren and the pace will be tough. Aiming to put a run of misfortune behind them will be Ray Bellm/Mark Solloway in their Escort, while Graham Samuel/Tony Phillips are chasing another podium result in class C5.
The biggest threat to the Escorts comes from Dominic Frattaroli/Wyn Thomas in their Datsun 240Z from class C4. First stage retirements on the last two events have hurt their title bid, but if all is running smoothly the Datsun is a real contender for overall victory. Frattaroli knows that he needs a good points haul on the Mid Wales to get his title challenge back on track.
Chasing the 240Z in C4 will be a gaggle of Porsches, including those of Andrew Street/Jez Mason and Graham Wilson/Keith Fellowes. In the 2-litre class, C3, it is hard to see anyone matching the pace of brothers James and David Young in their Escort Mk1, but Paul Pesticcio and John Cadwallader could be dark horses in their Escort.
Another superbly competitive class is C2 for the 1600cc cars. The awesome pace of Ken Forster/John Stanger-Leathes has put their Escort Mexico into fourth place overall in the BHRC points, but John Worthing/Bill Robertson are chasing hard in their Escort. The Mid Wales Historic Stages is organised by Newtown and District Automobile Club Ltd. For more details about the event, please visit the website at: newtown-mc.co.ukThe historic rally starts from Newtown at 4pm on Saturday, 25 June and resumes at 8am on Sunday morning.
