Severn Valley Historic ChallengeSteven Smith and John Nichols won round four of the 2006 Armajaro MSA British Historic Rally Championship, the Severn Valley Historic Challenge on Saturday (3 June).
While punctures on the dry and dusty stages affected other crews, the XS Racing Porsche 911RS won convincingly to give the defending champions an eight-point lead in the BHRC.
Patrick Watts/Elgan Davies blitzed to victory in the historic category in their Sunbeam Tiger.Historic (category 1)
Running first on the road gave Watts/Davies a clear run on the dusty stages of Crychan, Halfway and Brechfa. The early challenge came from Stuart Rolt's Porsche 911, but when the BRDC chairman went off the road in Brechfa, Watts knew he was safe. "After that it was a matter of enjoying the classic sweeping Welsh stages, although the dust in the car threatened to asphyxiate us," said Watts. Rolt did get going again, but elected not to run in the dust of slower cars.
Second in the historics was the scene of a major battle and a personal triumph for Neil Calvert, who has been trying to beat Dessie Nutt for a long time. Partnered by daughter Michelle, Calvert really attacked in his Lotus Cortina and beat the Nutt/Geraldine McBride Porsche 911 by 13 seconds. However, with Nutt feeling under the weather, he has pledged revenge on the next event!The Calverts also bagged class B4, a task that was eased when the fast-starting Lotus Cortina of Philip Atkinson/Simon Coates went out on SS2 with broken steering. Instead, Chris and Hilary Green ran second in B4 and fourth overall in their Lotus Cortina.
Another B2 victory went to the hard-charging Mini Cooper S of Clive King/Bob Ward. However, it had taken a late change of head-gasket before the rally to get the Mini ready for another victory.
Despite tipping their Mini onto its side in Halfway, Mike Barratt/Jody Watson battled back to second in B2. "We went into the last stage eleventh, and came out eighth having taken a minute and three-quarters off the car in front, so it wasn't a bad result considering the roll," said Barratt.
From the Saabs in class B1, Nick Pinkett and new co-driver Mike Gamlin claimed the class, while John Parker/Robert Harrison put their 96 off in Brechfa, and Jim Valentine/Julian Stocks took second in class despite rolling their Saab in Halfway in true Eric Carlsson style.Post-historic (category 2)
Although a throttle problem that left only four throttle positions available didn’t help their progress, Smith/Nichols had the best run in the post-historics to give their Porsche 911RS victory on its debut gravel event. "We had a messy spin in Halfway and had to preserve tyres through the long Brechfa stage," said Smith, but with their major rivals hitting problems, they won by over a minute in the end.
The major rival was Mark Solloway, but he dropped a couple of minutes when the Escort Mk1 clipped a bank in Halfway and took a tyre off the rim. Solloway and Mark Crisp changed the wheel and then spent the rest of the rally chasing back into contention.
However, Solloway/Crisp missed out on second place by just over six seconds and ended the rally fourth after a typically committed charge back into contention. Instead, second went to Ernie Graham/Robin Kellard by six seconds from series returnees Jeremy Easson/Den Golding. Just two-fifths of a second put Easson/Golding third from Solloway/Crisp after a tense final stage when Graham/Kellard pushed hard to defend their position.
But all of the Escorts were nearly headed by another Porsche 911 following the best rally to date for Sean Lockyear/Chris Wood. Having been fastest overall in Halfway, Lockyear picked up a puncture on the final stage in Crychan and dropped 1m20s driving out. Without that problem, they would have been second overall rather than fifth
Another giant-killing drive from Vincent Bristow/Dean Mitchell put their 1600cc Escort Mk1 into a dominant class C2 victory and seventh overall. Chasing the flying Mitchell were the Escorts of Robin Shuttleworth/Mark Midgley, while regular front-runners John Worthing/Bill Robertson and Ken Forster/John Stanger-Leathes both suffered delays. Worthing punctured and then lost time in Crychan on rooted tyres, while Forster/Stanger-Leathes hit a log pile on the opening stage and were fortunate to be able to continue.
