Round two: Astra Stages Historic RallySteven Smith/John Nichols and David Stokes/Ian Oakey were the big winners on round two of the 2005 Armajaro MSA British Historic Rally Championship, the Astra Stages Historic Rally on Saturday (9 April). Despite strong opposition, both crews claimed category victories after a tough day of rallying in the slippery North Wales forests.Historic (category 1)"It was pleasantly boring," reckoned Smith after clinching the historic category in his Porsche 911. The XS Racing car ran faultlessly, so Smith/Nichols could concentrate on fending off a determined challenge from Dessie Nutt/Geraldine McBride. After 60 tough stage miles, the margin of victory was less than half a minute.
"No problems at all," continued Smith. "But we had the car a bit low and we were running on the sump guard through the last three stages." Those stages were repeats of the tests in the Clocaenog complex and many crews found themselves battling some tough conditions."We've had an absolutely brilliant day," reckoned Nutt. "The car has never gone better and we've had more fun finishing second than on some of the events we've won!" Geoff Crabtree/Liz Jordan made it a Porsche one-two-three in category 1, but were hindered by an engine problem that left them unable to rev beyond 5000rpm.
Also in trouble was the 911 of Stuart Rolt/Richard Pomfret, which stopped three times on the stages with a distributor problem. When it ran cleanly, the car was bang on the pace and Rolt ended his day with fastest on the final Clocaenog East stage but finished well down the order.A fantastic fourth overall in historics went to the class-winning Ford Cortina GT of Jonathan and Graham Gale. Their pace put them ahead of the more powerful Lotus Cortinas on a day when their biggest drama was damaging the car dropping down from the start ramp!
Class B4, including the Lotus Cortinas, fell to Philip Atkinson/Gary Wood from the similar car of Neil Calvert/Arlene Cookson. However, third place in B4 was scant reward for Swedish visitors Nils Berquist/Karl-Eric Magnusson in their Volvo PV544S. They led the class initially, but three punctures cost them class success after travelling for more than two days to get to the rally.
Matthew Pearce/Dood Pearce claimed class B2 for the second time running in their Mini Cooper but had a scary finish to the rally when they slid off and then lost the brakes on the final stage. However, they still had time in hand over Mike Barratt/Michelle Calvert (Mini Cooper) after Barratt lost too much time in the opening stages.
In claiming class B1, John Parker/Robert Harrison had spectators to thank for hauling their Saab 96 out of a ditch!Post-historic (category 2)Banishing thoughts of his first stage retirement on the 2004 Astra, Stokes hit the ground running to take a 19-second lead over the first two stages in his Escort Mk1. Their only scare came before the start when the car refused to fire up and had to be bump-started away from the hotel on Saturday morning. "Other than that, the car was spot on," he said. However, concern over the starter motor stayed with them until the end of the rally.
Taking the fight to Stokes were Jeremy Easson and Den Golding, in Easson's MK1 Escort freshly rebuilt after its accident on the Robin Hood Stages. Making a steady start as he settled back in, Easson then upped his pace over the rest of the day to share stage wins four each with Stokes. By the end of the rally, the gap between them was still 17s. "That made up for the Robin Hood," said Easson. "The car has been beautiful!"After the drama of having to foil a bid to steal their Datsun 240Z in the early hours of the morning, Dominic Frattaroli and Wyn Thomas were relieved to claim a class-winning third, while Graham Samuel/Tony Phillips had an excellent day to finish fourth in the post-historics. "It ran like clockwork," said Samuel of his Mk1 Escort.
Excellent class victories went to James Young/David Young and Ken Forster/John Stanger-Leathes in 2000cc and 1600cc Escorts respectively. However, it nearly all went wrong for Forster when a wheel bearing failed on the run in to the finish and they only just got the car to the final control. Before that, their pace had taken the Escort well up amongst the more powerful cars.
Out of luck were Ray Bellm and Mark Solloway after halfshaft failure hit their Escort Mk1 in Clocaenog Mid.
