Gower storms to Yorkshire victory

Yorkshire forests see win for historic Escort Mk1

Richard Gower and Dorian Evans took a fine victory in round eight of the Armajaro MSA British Historic Rally Championship. Their Escort Mk1 out-paced a strong field in the fast Yorkshire forests of the Trackrod Historic Cup as David Stokes/Den Golding returned to the championship to score a strong second in their Escort.
In the historic category, Dessie Nutt/Geraldine McBride maintained their unbeaten run with another victory in their Porsche 911, but the Sunbeam Tiger of Patrick Watts/Elgan Davies chased hard.

Historic (category 1)

Nutt/McBride took an early lead as the older cars headed the rally into the Cropton and Gale Rigg stages and it was a lead that they would hold all day. About their only problem was a quick spin in Gale Rigg where the stages goes from gravel onto tarmac. "The tarmac had less grip than the gravel," joked Dessie. "Having won the title, he's off the leash," added McBride. "Patrick certainly kept us honest today," added Nutt.

Back after several months re-fettling the Tiger, Watts gave bold chase to Nutt. "All credit to Dessie for keeping his cool," said Watts, who was only half a minute down on the Porsche at the finish after his first taste of the Yorkshire forests. "The car is geared for 115mph and I think that's quite enough!"

Into an excellent class-winning third went the Lotus Cortina of Chris and Hilary Green. A broken strut slowed them in the morning, but they were soon back up to speed to win class B4 convincingly from Paul Mankin/Des Bell.
Also taking a class win were Ronnie Roughead/Ian Canavan in their Cortina GT, despite running on second-hand tyres and finding the GT running out of puff on the long Yorkshire straights.

Despite damaging a front wing against a tree, Mike Barratt/Michelle Calvert clinched the B2 class title with another class win in their Mini Cooper S while John Parker/Robert Harrison took B12 spoils in their Saab 96. Only a scare over an oiled plug on their way to the start interrupted their day.

Post-historic (category 2)

Gower stamped his authority on the post-historics as soon as the cars entered the forests. After the opening two stages in Cropton and Gale Rigg, he was 20 seconds clear and would end the day with a winning margin of well over a minute. "There was no championship pressure so we attacked right away," said Gower. "I really like it up here and we had no problems at all, really," he added after a successful first event with Evans co-driving.

Stokes/Golding, back after their huge accident on the Isle of Man, took a sensible approach to bedding their way back in, but dropped some time with a wrong tyre choice for the three stages in the Dalby complex. However, second overall was a good result for the new car, which ran faultlessly. In trouble, however, were Ray Bellm and Mark Solloway (Escort Mk1). They caught one of the historics in Givendale and took to the ditch to overtake. The jolt took the fan belt off and that then fouled the cam belt, putting them out of the rally.

Into a class-winning third went the Datsun 240Z of Dominic Frattaroli/Wyn Thomas, but it could have been even better had they not dropped nearly a minute in Gale Rigg 1. The 240Z clipped a tree stump on an apex and flicked up almost onto its side at high speed. Somehow Frattaroli got it back onto its wheels but it ran into one ditch before bouncing across the stage into the opposite ditch. Still going at considerable speed it then ran down the ditch for 100 yards before hopping back out onto the stage. "Wyn said keep on driving down the ditch and turn right," explained Frattaroli after the escape of the season. However, bent steering cost them time on the stage.

Chris Browne/Liz Jordan (Escort Mk1) had another strong run on the driver's first experience of the Yorkshire stages. "I should have woken up a bit earlier," he admitted, but they finished just ahead of class C3 winners Steve Smith/John Nichols (Escort RS2000). A sold performance clinched the co-drivers' title in post-historics for Nichols. Second in C3 went to Richard Walker/Graham Henshaw (Escort Mk1) on Walker's return to rallying.

A tremendous battle raged for class C2 and eventually it went to Dave Dyer/Graham Wride (Escort Mexico) by just five seconds from the similar car of John Worthing/Bill Robertson. "It couldn't have gone better," said a delighted Dyer.

The BHRC now returns to Wales for the final round of 2004, the Bulldog Rally on 23 October.

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