Round eight: Trackrod Historic CupWhile Peter Slights and Joyce Champion won the event, Gareth Lloyd and Ryland James clinched the title on round eight of the HRCR Classic Stage Rally Challenge, the Trackrod Historic Cup (8 October). The penultimate event of the season took crews into the challenging Yorkshire forests and the conditions got even tougher when rain arrived for the final leg of stages through the Langdale complex.
Rallying an Escort in his native Yorkshire for the first time in 20 years, Slights was always going to be tough to beat and he duly took the Classic lead on the opening forest stage. From then on, the car ran faultlessly and Slights/Champion emerged from the final loop of stages to score a 34s victory. "A cracking event; we thoroughly enjoyed it," reported Slights back at the finish in Pickering.
Things were not so simple for Lloyd/James, however, as they chased their second Classic title in three years. Heading through the 16-mile Givendale stage, Lloyd recognised a worrying noise from the Escort's gearbox and the team elected to change it at second service. A fantastic effort by 'Eric' Ball, aided by Frank Cunningham's crew, had the gearbox changed in under 12 minutes so that Lloyd/James could complete the final leg and finish second in Classics, which was easily enough to clinch the title. "The guys did a fantastic job changing the 'box. It was critical that we got it changed. They won the championship for us," said Lloyd.
Third place, a minute down on Lloyd/James, were Martin Freestone/Joanne Lockwood (Escort RS1800). However, they were just happy to get to the finish after some quirky handling for much of the rally. A strut problem in testing may have been the cause of the problem. "The car was wandering on the straights," reported Freestone, which was the last thing he needed on the long Yorkshire straights.
Only 20s adrift of the Freestone car were Ian Rix and Daniel Stone (Escort Mk2) after chasing hard all day. Easing off perhaps just too much in the rain cost them a shot at third, but this had been one of their best Classic outings to date.
Inevitably out of breath on the long straights compared to the BDG cars was the Pinto-powered Escort Mk2 of Mark and Brett Clifford, but they took a resounding win in class D3. A starter motor problem caused some worries, but that was sorted out and Clifford pushed on in the wet afternoon stages to storm the class.
Leading the chase of the Cliffords in D3 were Paul Morris and Simon Rogers, tackling the Yorkshire stages for the first time in their Escort Mk2. The Welsh crew reported a fantastic event and pledged to return to the area. Richard Perry/Clive Townend won class D2 in their Talbot Sunbeam, while Ralph Abel/Samuel Armida (Escort Mk2) were just happy to finish in the car rebuilt from its roll on the Mutiny.
The only significant non-finishers were Dick Slaughter/Geoff Dearing after an alternator bracket failed on their Escort on the second loop of stages.
