Round six: Conister Trust Manx Historic RallySteven Smith and John Nichols scored a remarkable victory on round six of the Armajaro MSA British Historic Rally Championship when they won the Conister Trust Manx Historic Rally (28-30 July). Not only did their Porsche 911 claim the historic category, it also won the Manx Historic Rally outright, beating the newer post-historic and classic cars in the process. David Stokes/Ian Oakey emerged on top in a might battle of the Mk1 Escorts with Graham Samuel/Tony Phillips to claim post-historic spoils.Historic (category 1)The Manx was its usual ferocious challenge, with two and a half days of closed-road rallying, and dreadful weather conditions on Thursday evening and again during Friday that simply added to the test.In five stages of the rain of Thursday evening, Dessie Nutt and Geraldine McBride set a cracking pace in their Porsche 911 to lead overnight from Smith/Nichols. “It’s absolutely superb being in a dust up with the old fox,” said Smith with a smile as crews completed the first leg.On Friday morning, Smith attacked immediately and pulled ahead on the opening stage of Little London. Throughout the long day of stages, Smith/Nichols went further ahead and, to their surprise, held their overall historic rally lead. “Steve’s eaten us up today,” admitted Nutt. Then, an uncharacteristic timing error by McBride cost them four minutes of road penalties at the end of the day.
Smith/Nichols maintained their strong pace during Saturday to complete a fine result, with a late shock absorber change at final service being their only concern. “The car has run like clockwork,” said Smith of the XS Racing Porsche. “I’m completely confounded by the result,” he added of their overall victory. What is certain is that for the second year running, a fabulous performance in truly testing conditions had won them the rally.For Nutt/McBride, just reaching the finish in second place in the historics was an achievement. A steering problem that had troubled them through Friday worsened over the final loop of stages and Dessie struggled to keep the car on the road. “There is something very wrong at the front end of the car,” he admitted as his stopped at the finish of the final stage.Next finishers among the historic category were non-BHRC runners Alan Courtney/Peter Martin (Lotus Cortina), Mervyn Johnston/Richard Hyland (Mini Cooper) and Glenn Leece/John Tarrant (Mini Cooper). Taking maximum points in class B4 were Chris and Hilary Green (Lotus Cortina), despite a troubled rally. “We’ve had a nightmare with the clutch and I hate the rain,” reckoned Chris.
The only BHRC runners in B3 were Jonathan and Graham Gale in their Ford Cortina GT, but they retired early on Friday morning. Maximum B2 points went to Matt and Dood Pearce (Mini Cooper), with Matt having a strong run on his first Manx from the driver’s seat. Mike Barratt/Michelle Calvert were second in B2 in their Mini Cooper after a mighty effort to rebuild the engine on Friday night after it’s head-gasket blew on the road section back to service.Post-historic (category 2)The contest for the post-historic category ultimately came down to a straight fight between Stokes/Oakey and Samuel/Phillips. However, a big attack from Stokes on Saturday turned a 25s deficit at the start of the day to a 45s victory by the time the survivors completed the 13-mile Barclay Classic stage back into the heart of Douglas.With Dominic Frattaroli/Wyn Thomas out on the opening stage of Friday when the Datsun 240Z clouted a bank, Stokes spent the day attacking Samuel’s lead. A mighty performance in the fog on the Cronk-ny-Mona stage on Friday night had catapulted Samuel/Phillips into the lead and they held the advantage all through Friday.However, Stokes/Oakey had two delays on Friday; one when they lost time behind Frattaroli’s accident and another when they overshot through an open gate into a field on Round Table. That cost another 30 seconds, leaving Stokes with plenty to do on Saturday. However, he rose to the challenge and overhauled Samuel by mid-day to secure victory. Even then it was not plain sailing, as Stokes’ temperature gauge was off the clock by the end of the final stage.Samuel/Phillips completed a great performance with second place, comfortably clear of Jeremy Easson/Den Golding (Escort Mk1). Concern about a gearbox oil leak troubled them for much of the rally and Easson was simple relieved to see the finish. “The oil light’s on again,” he said at the end of the final stage.Another excellent performance claimed class C4 for Peter Lythell/Gill Cotton (Porsche 911). On only his second Manx event, Lythell was quick and consistent throughout to score his best BHRC result to date. For much of the Manx they battled with the Escort Mk1 of Craig Salter/Preston Ayres, who claimed a top 10 overall finish.Class C3 was hotly contested as Bob Gibbons/Neil Cook (Escort RS2000) and Ian Drummond/Tom Ward (Escort) were never too far apart. However, while Drummond – making his Manx debut - hit some brake dramas, Gibbons was able to stretch clear to take the class.
Paul Drinkall/Roy Brown took their Porsche 911 to second in class C4, but had a big scare on Ballavale 2 when they met a local resident coming towards them! Class C2 lost its two main contenders to head gasket failure as the Escorts of both John Worthing/Bill Robertson and Ken Forster/John Stanger-Leathes were early casualties. Instead, the battle was between the Escorts of Derek Belbin/Michael Davison and Robin Shuttleworth/Mark Midgeley, with the class going to Belbin after a storming drive.
