Round three: Matador International Welsh Historic RallyStephen Hall and Aggie Foster were commanding winners on round three of the 2005 HRCR Classic Stage Rally Challenge, the Matador International Welsh Rally on Saturday/Sunday (30 April/1 May).
With around 120 miles over the daunting Epynt ranges, the rally was a real test of crew and machine and Hall/Foster turned in a superbly paced performance in Hall’s Triumph TR7V8 to give the car its first HRCR Classic victory. It was also the first time that anything other than an Escort had won a round of the Classic Challenge.
Championship leaders Gareth Lloyd and Ryland James reverted to their gravel specification Escort Mk2 for the rally after the tarmac car had problems on the rolling road in the build up to the event. “We dragged the gravel car out and lowered it down,” explained Lloyd. However, their luck deserted them on the opening 15-mile stage when the engine failed a couple of miles from the finish of the Dears 1 stage.
Instead, the leading Classic overnight was the Triumph TR7V8 of Hall/Foster, which had a great first day to set some excellent stage times on a venue that Hall knows well. The pace of the rumbling V8 took them 1m20s clear of the Escort Mk2 of Martin Freestone/Chris Heyes.
On the dozen, shorter stages on Sunday, Hall/Foster were unstoppable as they fully exploited the TR’s prowess of asphalt. They traded times with the quickest of the post-historic cars and ran out commanding victors by two and a half minutes after a tremendous performance.
Freestone and Heyes, competing on the second of a run of three rallies in three weeks, settled into a secure second, which also clinched class D5 for the Isle of Man-based crew. Also claiming class victory in the third of the Classics were Mark and Brett Clifford. This was their first experience of Epynt, but they approached it with good sense and came away with class D3 victory in their 2-litre Escort.
“We’ve never been here before,” also said Ralph Abel, who was again partnered by Spaniard Samuel Armida in his Escort Mk2. “We translated Patterson’s pace notes into Spanish and Samuel then calls them in Spanish,” explained Abel. Fortunately, as a resident of Spain, Abel managed to follow them fairly well as they kept out of trouble and finished fifth in the Classics! The final class, D2, fell to the Sunbeam of John Williams and David Griggs.
