Hamsterley next for WWRS R.A.C. Championship

The challenging Co Durham stages of the Tour of Hamsterley will be the setting for round three of the West Wales Rally Spares R.A.C. Rally Championship (Saturday 26 April).Another superb line-up of cars will gather for the first northern round of the R.A.C. Rally Championship with an impressive 65 championship contenders on the entry list. The event will mark the opening event in the championship’s three-round Northern Challenge as well as the next round of the highly successful Kumho Clubmans Challenge for crews competing on a maximum of six tyres for the event.Once again, there is a tremendous line-up of pre ’68 cars in the Walker Diecastings Category 1, which includes contenders in the Aldon Automotive Mini and Imp Cup. Heading the field away is the incredibly quick Mini Cooper S of Ray Cunningham/Gary McElhinney, which has taken victory on each of the first two rounds. This will be new territory for the Galway asphalt ace, but the fact that there is some asphalt included in the non-spectator Raby Castle stage suggests he will again be tough to beat. In the second car from the Galway Mini Centre will be brothers Ross and Arron Forde and it will be very interesting to see how Ross compares to the team boss.Top of the Lotus Cortina pack are the cars of Simon Wallis/Graham Wride and Bob Bean/Malcolm Smithson and either could prove to be the biggest rival to Cunningham. However, that also applies to the Volvo Amazon of Graham Waite/Gill Cotton and the Porsche 911 of Paul Mankin/Peter Scott. In class B3, the Ford Anglia of Peter Stimson/Mark Butler makes the long journey from Devon while class B1 should be a straight battle between the Singer Chamois of Chris and Jo Tooze and the Saab 96 of Stephen Higgins/Don Bramfoot.In the Capital Construction Category 2, David Stokes and Guy Weaver head the field in their Ford Escort Mk1 as they prepare for their debut on this event. Rivals in class C5 include the similar cars of Warren Philliskirk/Nigel Hutchinson and Chris Browne/Ali Cornwell-Browne. Meanwhile, the contest for class C3 promises to be even more intense as Peter Smith and Patrick Walsh lead the pack away in their Open Ascona A. Right in contention will be Terry Cree/Richard Shores (BMW 2002Ti), Steve Magson/Darren Smith (Ford Escort Mk1) and David Kirby/tba (Ford Escort Mk1).A pair of Datsun 240Zs will make a fine spectacle in class C4 as Jeremy Easson/Mike Reynolds line up against welcome championship addition Duncan Pearcey in his Z Farm entry.The 1600cc cars in class C2 run alongside the Category 1 cars at the head of the field and it is the Escort Mk1 of Robin Shuttleworth/Ronnie Roughead that leads them away. Local crew Paul and Daniel May will chase Shuttleworth, while Tony Ginns and Mark Ellis make a welcome return to competition with their similar car.Nick Elliott and Dave Price head another superb entry for the Rob Smith Rallying Category 3 in their Ford Escort Mk2. However, Hamsterley a year ago was not kind to them after they went off very early on the opening stage and the Mid Wales winners will be looking for a rather different experience this time around.Elliott has a gaggle of challengers, headed by Matthew Robinson/Sam Collis and Richard Hill/Steffan Evans. Robinson crashed out of the 2013 event, but has been going superbly so far this season, while Hill will be aiming to be right back at the head of the action after a modest Mid Wales result compared to his usual high standard.Welsh crew Meirion Evans and Iwan Jones will be making the driver’s first visit to these stages and will be right in the hunt while Owen Murphy/James O’Brien will surely take the fight to the Escort Mk2s with their Sunbeam Lotus. Also running in the incredibly competitive top 12 are Matt Edwards/tba and Terry Brown/Den Golding, while crews like Tim Freeman/Paul Wakely, Gareth Lloyd/Dorian Evans, Richard Lane/Frank Richer, James Potter/Bob Duck, Jerry Bailey/Graham Lacey and Phil and Mick Squires add tremendous quality in depth to the D5 field.The Holton Homes Category K for FIA specification cars is getting stronger and stronger as the season develops and four front-running Ford Escort Mk2s will be in the hunt for both the category and overall success. Jason Pritchard has 2013 Hamsterley winning co-driver Phil Clarke alongside, while Tomas Davies/Carl Williamson, Darren Moon/Tim Pearcey and Tim Pearcey/Alan Walker are all very strong contenders.Class D3 for the Pinto-powered Ford Escort Mk2s has drawn a fabulous eight-strong entry and it is Welsh crews Gareth Lewis/Dan Holley and Adrian Young/Gwynfor Jones who head the pack. Meanwhile, in class D2 at the head of the rally will be the Sunbeams Talbots of Pip Coulson/John McNichol and David Hopkins/Tony Vart as well as the Hillman Avenger of local crew Keith Davison/Henry Richardson.Running alongside the historics are the cars in R.A.C. Category O for open two-wheel drive cars and it is the Ford Escort Mk2 of Dave Hemingway/Simon Ashton that heads the category away within the event’s modern section. Barry Stevenson-Wheeler/John Pickavance (Escort Mk2), Geraint Davies/Chris Williams (Peugeot 205 GTi), Will Midgley/Jonathan Driver (Toyota Corolla) and Robert Cholmondeley/Dave Evans (Ford Escort Mk2) will all be chasing Hemingway.The rally will be based at the National Railway Museum at Shildon. The first historic car will start at 8.45am and return to the finish shortly before 3pm. The Tour of Hamsterley is supported by SG Petch.The Tour of Hamsterley is organised by the Stockton and District Motor Club in association with Teesside Motor Sport Group. For more details about the event please visit www.tourofhamsterley.co.uk.


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