... for best rally result yet
Tony Jardine and Bob McKenzie finish 17th overall in final of British Championship After rally lay-offs of nine months and three years respectively for ITV analyst Tony Jardine and Daily Express journalist Bob McKenzie, the pair were successfully reunited in a Sportinglife.com Peugeot 206 to take their best ever overall result together in the final round of the 2005 Kwik Fit Pirelli British Rally Championship. The two media mates who work together regularly on the Grand Prix circuit, battled through seventy miles of special stages set in Surrey forests and Hampshire military land.
The rally started Friday night and ended in Rushmoor Arena on Saturday evening, heralded by fireworks from surrounding bonfire parties. RallySchool UK run by Chris Moore of Innovation Motorsports supported the team by providing the Sportinglife.com Peugeot 206, a more powerful Group A car with a special six-speed gearbox for Jardine to drive, a very different proposition to his usual showroom class cars.
Jardine explained, “It had so much more power and seemingly a gear for each corner. I scared myself on Friday night flat out in sixth over the jumps of Ash Ranges - it just seemed so much quicker. I don’t think Bob noticed, he was too busy concentrating on calling the pace notes as we groped our way in the dark but he adapted back to rally navigation like a pro, three years out of the hot seat yet he never missed a beat, which is why I think we enjoyed our best ever result together!”
By day two Daily Express man McKenzie, a Scot from Ayr was laughing as the Sportinglife.com Peugeot jumped and bucked it’s way along a one and a quarter mile forest track straight pitted with mud holes and severe dips at near on 100 m.p.h. “I was trying to contain my laughter and deliver the essential route notes to Tony but the experience became akin to a fair ground ride as we lurched from one jump to the next mud hole at a series of crazy angles.
There were loads of spectators at the square right mud bath at the bottom of the straight but Tony just threw the car into a big slide all the way through, how many got spattered in our wake I don’t know but I hope they enjoyed the spectacle from the outside as much as we were having fun from the inside!“
Also enjoying the action was Daily Express competition winner Russell Lee from Cambridge who won a prize from the Tempest Rally organisers to watch the event with the Sportinglife.com team and in addition won a day’s rally driving tuition at Chris Moore’s RallySchool UK base just outside Leeds. “Russell really took to rallying after going out to watch some of the most dramatic stages. His only motorsport experience so far has been to watch the British GP. When we get him to RallySchool UK he is going to enjoy learning to drive a rally car himself and who knows he could take the sport up later, but he is certainly in for a thrill.”
Geordie firefighter Chris Moore runs his RallySchool UK and Innovation Motorsports preparation business between stints on fire duty. After the event on Saturday he drove straight back to the North East to be ready for the early watch on Sunday morning. “ I love both my jobs but I am fortunate in having great staff who run the businesses on a day to day basis.
I was also pleased Tony and Bob had a good finish, but I am especially happy they brought the car back in one piece.” The rally was dominated by fast stages. Some on military land were rough as well. The Pavillion Stage was peppered with craters, which had to be dodged at high speed or drivers risked wrecking their suspension. Former champion David Higgins smashed his rear differential and had to retire.
On the daunting Longmoor stage lined with concrete posts and stout trees, Rory Galligan lost the lead when he tried to tighten steering bolts with scissors as his navigator steered the works Mitsubishi round obstacles at full speed. Will Nichols and Nick Broom took advantage and won their first ever British Championship event in their Subaru. Just when the Sportinglife.com team thought they could relax and think about letting off their own fireworks, Kumho tyre officials came looking for help at the finish in Rushmoor Arena. Barry Clark had won the Production Cup category in the British Championship and he was about to be crowned but he had lost his Kumho victory hat, there were no more. Jardine reluctantly let him have his own. “I needed it for our own pictures because I wanted to say thank you to Kumho for some great tyres after my first experience with them- but a champion’s needs are greater!”
The rally boasted a high quality entry with international drivers from as far as Jamaica and Zimbabwe, but it remained a small field. The Kwik Fit Pirelli British Championship will change next year to exclude World Rally cars in an effort to boost entries and raise the standards higher, a bold initiative that could encourage more young drivers to climb the ladder. If the experience of old media mates McKenzie and Jardine is anything to go by, they will be back next year for another crack at trying to get near the young guns.
