Round 7
Category victories for Will Onions/David Williams, David Stokes/Guy Weaver and Dessie Nutt/Geraldine McBride were the headlines from the Historic Tour of Flanders (10/11 September), the penultimate round of the Dunlop/WONAGO.com MSA British Historic Rally Championship.
As ever, the Belgian event was a challenge and with the bulk of the competitive motoring crammed into one long day on Saturday, it was a tough event with a string of retirements.
In championship terms, Jonathan Gale and James Whitaker still head the points despite a non-finish in Belgium, but Stokes and Weaver are now in a strong position to clinch the crown if they can win again on the final round.Category 1A steady run on Friday evening put Nutt/McBride on the back foot going into Saturday, but they soon had the Porsche 911 buzzing along and moved ahead of the Sunbeam Tiger of Gale/Whitaker in another nip and tuck contest. The Porsche was 12s ahead when Gale's rally came to an end on Zilverburg 2 after the Tiger slid through a fence into a field. "The marshal wouldn't let us go out through the gate and we did the damage trying to get back out," said Gale after hitting a culvert and damaging the radiator.
"It's never over 'til it's over," said Nutt with four stages to run, but he could now measure his pace into Saturday evening and they duly returned to Roeselare as resounding winners in category one.
It took a superhuman effort from Rikki Proffitt and Bob Duck to take second in the category after electrical gremlins threatened to put their Porsche 911 out on Saturday morning. Luckily, another crew offered a spare coil just before the Porsche went OTL and they fought on at an impressive pace, trading times with Nutt on some stages.Into third for their eighth Flanders finish in nine events went Alan Honess and Tim Sayer in their Ford Cortina GT, but the smaller-engined category one cars were out of luck. Mike Barratt and Jody Watson should have heeded the signs when their recce car broke down an hour from home, and their fortunes did not improve when the Sunbeam Stiletto overheated into retirement on Saturday morning. Meanwhile, a failing head gasket prevented Peter Horsburgh and Graham Carter from re-starting their Mini Cooper on Saturday morning.Category 2The drama in category two started early on Friday when Jeremy Easson and Alun Cook crashed heavily in their Escort Mk1 and Easson was left in hospital with a back injury. On the lapped Beveren stage they caught the misfiring Escort Mk1 of Frank Cunningham/Ryland James and when trying to pass, Easson's car nosed into a hidden culvert and flipped end over end.
Up front, Stokes/Weaver were on the pace immediately, knowing that nothing less than category victory would do in their pursuit of the title. However, the late arrival of a Mk1 Escort for Steven Smith and Phil Spurge gave Stokes another issue to contend with in his quest for points.
Saturday proved to be a perfect day for Stokes and Weaver as car and crew ran like clockwork to extend their lead as Smith/Spurge battled hard for second with Chris Browne and Liz Jordan. With two stages to run, Stokes had over a minute in hand and duly swept home for a resounding win. "We did what we came here to do," said Stokes after a tremendous performance.
Browne was a worthy second for his best result of the season despite a major last stage scare when he lost the spotlights. But Smith could not take advantage as he finished the rally with a brake pedal that had gone to the floor.
Class C3 victory with some top six stage times was a fine result for Andrew Siddall and Captain Thompson, but it nearly went wrong for them when they put the Escort Mk1 into a ditch on the opening stage. However, with the stage cancelled for Easson's accident, spectators got Siddall's car out of the ditch with only cosmetic damage. They romped through Saturday for an excellent finish as historic newcomer Guy Anderson, partnered by Kim Baker, took second in C3 in the XS Racing Escort Mk1.
Class C4 victory was a worthy result for the Can-Am Firenza of Mick Strafford and Graham Henshaw on its first major event. Strafford was elated just to finish the tough event with the spectacular car.
Vince Bristow and Jane Edgington teamed up to win C2 in Bristow's Escort Mk1, but only after a catalogue of brake problems that kept the service crew constantly busy. David Kirby and Sean Kennedy chased until a Flanders ditch snared their Escort Mk1. Category 3Onions and Williams were on it from the start and led after the two stages on Friday evening. Having cured a distributor problem that had started on the Ulster Rally and got a pair of glasses for the driver, their pace was first class and the lead margin extended through Saturday as Onions proved that he has now mastered asphalt rallying.
However, it so nearly went horribly wrong on the final stage when the gearbox stuck in first gear for around five miles. They battled out, concerned that they had lost overall victory to Stokes, but Onions still had half a minute in hand over the category two car and was four minutes clear of the nearest category three rival.
"That was hard work," said Onions. "It seemed to take forever in first gear and then I wasn't listening and stuck it off into a fence!" However, the job was done and Onions and Williams were able to celebrate a fine victory.
Just getting to the finish, let alone winning D4 from second in category three, was a great achievement for Rob Smith and Shaun O'Gorman in their Vauxhall Chevette. On Rob's first experience of Flanders they had massive brake problems and had to bleed the brakes after every stage.
Behind Onions and Smith, a fine battle raged for third in the category as the Escorts of Tomas Davies and Gwynfor Jones and Phil and Mick Squires battled all the way. The Welsh crew finally got the nod as Thomas tackled Flanders for the first time.
Adrian Kermode and Maurice Beckett took second in D4 in their Porsche 911, while a fine class D3 victory went to Richard Lane and Frank Richer against a spirited chase from the similar Escort Mk2 of Chris Shooter/Bev LeGood. "That's the best run we've ever had in Belgium," said Shooter after keeping in touch with the flying Lane.
Finally, Pat Anderson and Tom Mansfield clinched class D2 in their Talbot Sunbeam.
