Dunlop/WONAGO.com MSA British Historic Rally Championship Report, round three: Severn Valley Historic Rally
Nick Elliott and Dave Price returned to the winners' circle for the second time this year, as the Dunlop/WONAGO.com MSA British Rally Championship returned to Wales on Saturday (5 June) for round three, the Severn Valley Historic Rally.
Elliott’s Escort Mk2 led for most of the day, but briefly lost out to Ryan Barrett/Barry Ferris’s similar car after the second stage. In category two David Stokes and Guy Weaver (Escort Mk1) regained a lead lost earlier in the day when Tim Mason and Graham Wild (Porsche 911) was delayed on the last stage. Defending champions Dessie Nutt and Geraldine McBride were victorious in category one after a mighty performance in their Porsche 911.Category 1It was evident from the first stage in Cefn that dust would play a major part in the day's rallying. Graham Waite/Gil Cotton (Volvo Amazon) topped the times on the opener, but the glory didn’t last long. “The first one was a stormer, but we lost the brakes early into stage two, so we decided to stop and lost a lot of time,” said Waite.
Nutt/ McBride had been just under a second up on Jonathan Gale/James Whittaker (Sunbeam Tiger), but on the longer Crychan it was down to 0.4s. Gale halved his deficit again through Halfway but it was back to two seconds as they arrived in service. “I couldn’t work out where I was slower, or was it just that Dessie was so fast?” said Gale. “I did have to be scalded by Geraldine a few times though, “Nutt reported.After Waite’s delay, Terry Cree/Richard Shores settled in third, but their Mini had used both spare tyres they carried by the time they reached service. Geoff Taylor/Val Thompson (Sunbeam Imp Sport) hit trouble on the third stage after a promising start and Dave Reynolds/Paul Heath were soon in trouble too with their Volvo Amazon. "It started to misfire on stage two, so we stopped and found a loose plug lead. We continued to struggle and then found it was the fuel pump,” said Reynolds.
But Reynolds still arrived at serviced in fourth, as Mike Barratt/Joanne Watson had been struggling with their Sunbeam Stiletto. “We overheated on stage one, then got stuck behind Dave Reynolds on stage two, so overheated again and came into service with a misfire,” Barratt explained. The Saab 96 of Nick Pinkett/Caroline Lodge was still in the running after early brake problems and, despite his stage two maximum, Waite was also still running.
Nutt put his win beyond doubt through Radnor, by adding another 45s to his advantage. “The dust was even worse, but I tried my absolute hardest to make sure,” he said after a tremendous attack. “We had a good run but had an overshoot and it wasn’t enough,” Gale added. Reynolds claimed third after Cree retired with a broken crankshaft. “We had problems ourselves, but others had worse,” said the class B4 winner. Pinkett was fourth and won class B1, from Barratt. “It wasn’t pulling at the end, but we made it,” said Pinkett. “The fan belt came off, the misfire continued and we couldn’t switch the engine off, but we finished our first rally for a year,” said Barratt.
Waite collected a second maximum after demolishing a chicane in Radnor. He made it back to the finish however to be classified sixth and claim valuable championship points.Category 2Stokes and Weaver celebrated their first finish of the season with category two victory in their Escort Mk1. Having led Mason/ Wild by over six seconds on the first stage in Cefn, Stokes had a costly off in Crychan. “I think we lost 20 or 30 seconds before we got back on,” he explained.Mason became the new leader with a nine-second cushion over Jeremy Easson/Alun Cook (Escort Mk1), with Tim Jones/Don James heading the recovering Stokes and leading class C3 in their Escort Mk1.
Mason was also struggling with tyre wear though and by the time he reached service his lead was reduced to 6.7s. “It was brilliant on the first two stages, but our tyres were nearly bald by the time we completed Halfway,” he explained. “We are hanging in there and it’s getting tight,” Easson replied, as Stokes had recovered all but 1.7secs of his deficit to the second man.
Jones managed to consolidate fourth over Andrew Siddall/Colin Thompson (Escort Mk1), with the similar car of James Slaughter/Mark Casey in sixth after Philip Wylie/Howard Pridmore hit trouble. “We started well then overheated and got a puncture on stage two. So we stopped, but didn’t fasten the bonnet and it flew off. The starter motor failed and we had another puncture on stage four,” explained Wylie on his seasonal debut.“My car was fine, it was just the driver overheating,” said Jones. “We just had a bit of oil leak and some vaporisation in the inlet manifold,” Slaughter added.
The 15-miles through Radnor became the deciding factor however, when both Easson and Mason were delayed after cars rejoined in the front of them. Stokes, however, had a clear run to emerge a comfortable winner. “We really went for it in there,” he said. “Disappointed with second again,” said Easson. "We were going for it until Darren Moon came back on in front us,” he added.
Mason already had one hand on the victory champagne, but it wasn’t to be. “We had nine miles to go and Terry Brown came back on in front of us. We tried but went off and got a rear puncture,” he explained.
Jones headed home class C3 rival Siddall for third overall and Chris Browne and Liz Jordan flew through Radnor to gain three places in their Escort Mk1 for fifth. “Fantastic,” said Browne. “It wasn’t my favourite stage but it was a good run,” said Jones. Mason had to be content with the class C4 win and sixth overall, while Slaughter completed the top three in C3. “We struggled a bit at the end with a puncture,” he said.
In class C2 Vince Bristow and Tim Sayer (Escort Mk1) headed Gary and Jane Edgington’s Hillman Avenger all day. The Edgingtons had problems in Radnor after the pedal box broke on the way to service. Nigel Godden and Ian Orford were third in C2 despite completing the last stage with no rear brakes on their Escort Mk1.Category 3Elliott and Price collected a second win from three rallies after a dominant but controlled drive. “Anywhere in the top three would have done today after the Kielder off,” said Elliott.Only 1.5secs separated Elliott’s Escort Mk2 from the similar car Ryan Barrett/Barry Ferris on the first stage. But Barrett upped his pace in Crychan to take an early advantage. His lead was short-lived, however, as he then spun in Halfway, “we lost it at the Hairpin and got stuck,” said the Irishman.
Elliott was back in front with over 15 seconds in hand over round two winners Will Onions/Dave Williams, with Barrett recovering in fourth behind Darren Moon/Chris Parsons. With one stage left before service Elliott added another nine seconds to his lead. “We were a bit steady, as it was hot, dusty and slippery,” said Elliott. “We got through the tyres with the on and off pace, as we kept catching Phil Collins, “said Onions. Barrett was back into third at service, while Moon picked up a late puncture but still managed to hold onto fourth by a fraction from Connor Corkill/Rob Fagg. ”We were nearly off in Crychan fifth gear at 100mph, very scary,” said the Manxman.Phil Collins/Stephen O’Neill (Opel Ascona) completed the top six after Rob Smith/Shaun O’Gorman (Vauxhall Chevette) spun and stalled in Crychan.
Elliott came through the final Radnor 15 miler unscathed to claim his second win of the year. “I did try a bit harder on that one, but the car has been spot on,” he said. Onions had been set for second, but was delayed after Graham Waite rejoined the stage ahead of him. “We had no chance, we just couldn’t see,” said Onions after dropping back to third behind Barrett.
“We had an overshoot and had to reverse out,” said Corkill after securing fourth when Moon had to stop to replace a rear puncture with two miles left. Collins headed class D4 rival Smith in fifth overall. “We had a really good day. I was using a new system of notes so I hadn’t quite got the confidence in them. It was my first time in Radnor since 1981 too,” said Collins. “We had a half spin but I can’t complain,” Smith added.
Richard Lane/Frank Richer (Escort Mk2) retained a day-long advantage in D3 despite the gear selection gate breaking early on. James Belton/Paul Wakely and Adrian Young/Gwynfor Jones both had spells chasing class leader Lane, but Stephen Richards/Ian Withecombe finally claimed the position. Pat Anderson/Andy Greenland (Talbot Sunbeam Ti) were alone in class D2 but failed to make it back to the finish.
