Chris Browne and Ali Cornwell claimed victory in round seven of the Armajaro MSA British Historic Rally Championship. With a masterful display in the post-historic category, Browne scored his first BHRC victory by winning the Historic Tour of Flanders over the weekend (11/12 September) in his Escort RS1600. In the historic category, Dessie Nutt/Geraldine McBride moved closer to the overall BHRC title with another victory in their Porsche 911.Historic (category 1)With some experience of the style of Belgian stages, Nutt/McBride were always likely to set the pace in the historic category and a typically neat and tidy performance secured another victory for the Irish doctor.After 19 special stages over two days, they were just under a minute clear of Francis Tuthill/Pauline Gullick in another Porsche 911.
Third in the historic category, and winners of class B4 were Chris and Hilary Green after another strong run in their Lotus Cortina, although they could never relax too much as Neil Calvert and Arlene Cookson were always chasing in their Lotus Cortina.
A tremendous fight-back from Jonathan and Graham Gale was rewarded with class B3 victory for their Ford Cortina GT. Having slid off the road on the opening day, they mounted a major recovery and grabbed the class lead back in the closing stages of the rally from Alan Honess/Tim Sayer (Cortina GT).Class B2 went to Peter Horsburgh/Anthony Preston who got their Mini Cooper S to the finish with three minutes in hand over the similar car of Mike Barratt/Michelle Calvert, while class B1 went to the Saab 96 of John Parker/Robert Harrison.Post-historic (category 2)The post-historic result was in doubt until the very end of the rally as a mighty battle for the top slot raged through Sunday's stages. Overnight, Browne and Cornwell led by 49s, but Stuart Rolt/Preston Ayres were on a charge in their Porsche 911.
On Sunday's first stage, Rolt clawed back 13s and that progress continued until they finally took the lead on SS21, the penultimate stage of the rally. Rolt/Ayres then headed into the last stage leading by 4s, only to hit mechanical dramas and be forced to pull over. It was a crushing end to a superb performance. Instead, birthday boy Browne swept back into the lead to win on his fifth attempt at the rally.
Second in the post-historics was another fine result for Steve Smith and substitute co-driver Chris Flavell in their Escort RS2000; it was also a class C3 victory by a substantial margin.
The late retirement for Rolt left the way open for Peter Lythell/Gill Cotton to score a cracking class C4 victory in only their third event in a Porsche 911. Back after a long-break from rallying, Lythell was delighted with such a strong result in the ex-Tuthill car. They were just 11s ahead of the similar car of James Sutherland/Howard Pridmore, while Graham Wilson/Steve Dear also had a strong run to third in class and second BHRC points as Sutherland/Pridmore were not registered for the championship.Second in class C5 was the best result to date for Neil and Chris Parsons in their Escort a
s regular front-runners Ray Bellm/Mark Solloway and Richard Gower/Carl Williamson both hit troubles.Gower was a ditch visitor on the opening stage and dropped a massive eight minutes. He then started a big recovery drive and clambered back up to third in class with some pacesetting stages. Bellm/Solloway, meanwhile, had a troubled event including gearbox dramas, and finally retired with overheating problems.Finally, Chris Gravestock and Mark Harmer claimed class C2 in their Escort, but had Derek Belbin/Michael Davison less than a minute adrift.The BHRC now heads to Yorkshire for round eight, the Trackrod Rally on 2 October.
