Bulldog Rally

The Bulldog more than lived up to its billing with great battles at the front. For us this was primarily a historic rally which saw Nick Elliott & Dave Price dominate the field, with only Julian Reynolds & Ian Oakey able to keep them honest. The next nearest contenders were over a minute and a half back with Seamus O’Connell & Dai Roberts making it an Escort MkII 1-2-3. 

In the Post Historics David Higgins & Ieuan Thomas took victory from Rupert Lomax & David Alcock by fifteen seconds. Behind the two Escort MkI’s and beating the Porsches was Jeremy Easson & Alun Cook in the Ford Capri. In the Historics the top three were Ford free, with Jonathan & Graham Gale taking their recently acquired Sunbeam Tiger to 1st place, with Stuart Rolt & Richard Pomfret second in their Porsche 911. Graham Waite & Gill Cotton completed the podium in their Volvo Amazon.

Border Counties Rally

A glorious day greeted the National Gravel and Scottish Championship crews in the borders. Overall honours looked very much like one from the top and so it proved to be, as they locked out the podium positions. It was Marcus Dodd & Andrew Bargery who took their ageing Accent WRC to victory over the Focus WRC pairing of Steve Perez and Paul Bird, (co-driven by Paul Spooner and Ian Windress respectively). Perez took the lead on the Friday night stages, but both Dodd and Bird continually gained ground on the Saturday, with Dodd taking victory by just under 6 seconds from Perez with Bird a further 18 seconds back in third.

Race Retro

A short hop over to Stoneleigh this weekend for Race Retro, the show on Friday and then the rally stage on Saturday. Two main marques were celebrated at the show with the Aston Martin DBR1 which won Le Mans in 1959 taking pride of place. This was supplemented by the GT1 class winning DBR9 from the 2008 Le Mans race, along with a host of other racing (and rallying) Aston’s from the years inbetween.

The other car which was celebrated, and dominated the show in terms of sheer numbers, was the Mini. With the iconic car celebrating it’s 50th anniversary this year there was a show of force with the past Monte Carlo Rally winners, rallycross and autocross versions alongside the various Mini’s which competed in circuit racing from the British Touring Car races of the 60’s to current single make formulas.

Malcolm Wilson Rally

Up to the Lake District for round 2 of the BTRDA championship. The normally rough stages were even rougher following adverse weather conditions plus Greystoke was not in a fit state following several days of testing from the M-Sport WRC team. With the rate of attrition understandably high it was Steve Perez & Kevin Rae who took victory in their latest Focus WRC.

Second and top Gold Star points scorer was Will Nicholls and Nick Broom in their Impreza WRC, following the demise of early leader Hugh Hunter in Grizedale.  David Wright & Michael Wilkinson completed the podium in their B13 class Evo IX. Top 2WD honours went to Phil Burton & Mal Capstick who just held off Mick Jones  & Dale Furniss by four seconds in the Escort MkII battle, (Jones took his second maximum score in the Silver Star though). Graham Middleton & Ella Flynn won the 1400’s in their Ignis with Charlie Taylor & Steve Bielby using their Escort MkII to be the only finishers in the Historic section.