Bulldog Rally

This year the Bulldog rally was all about the Historics for us. We managed to see half of the stages they competed on and once again it was a battle between the Classic Escort MkII’s of Nick Elliott and Julian Reynolds, (co-driven by Dave Price and Ian Oakey respectively). Elliott set fastest time on the first 4 stages to take over a half a minutes advantage into the final two stages. Reynolds was fastest on both but only managed to carve just under ten seconds off Elliott’s lead. The battle for third looked to be going the way Richard Hill & Patrick Cooper (Escort MkII), that was until the final stage when a massive push from Phil Collins & Derek Brannigan (Ascona) saw them take third place by just over 3 seconds.

Tour of Epynt

The MSA Apshalt Rally Championship got underway with the traditional visit to the Epynt military ranges for the Tour of Epynt. Whilst the route may have alarmed spectators it proved to be really good for the competitors as they got their teeth into 6 decent length stages without any short sprints. Peter Lloyd & Graham Handley (Impreza WRC S12) were out of the blocks faster than anyone else and took a 7 second lead on stage 1 and then gradually built that margin through to the lunch break. On stage 4 John Dalton & Gwynfor Jones (Darrian T90 GTR) retired wth clutch issues, leaving Lloyd with a half minute advantage over Steve Simpson & Mark Booth (Impreza WRC S12).

Race Retro

Our annual visit to Stoneleigh saw us take in the 7th International Historic motorsport show. This year the show was celebrating the 100th anniversary of Alfa Romeo, 60 years of racing for Norton and the 30th anniversary of the Audi Quattro. Once again the show bustled with all kinds of Historic cars through Speed Street and the rest of the show, with a very distinct Italian flavour. As for the rally stage it had changed location and now provided excellent all round views for the spectators and a new feature, a jump for the more adventurous crews.

Malcolm Wilson Rally

Treacherous conditions greeted the crews on the opening stages of the Malcolm Wilson rally. They caught out Steve Perez & Paul Spooner (Focus WRC) on stage 2, dropping a minute to their main rivals Paul Bird & Kirsty Riddick (Focus WRC). After slowly clawing back time the advantage had reduced to 41 seconds before Bird suffered a double puncture on the penultimate stage, leading to his retirement. Perez took an unlikely victory by 17 seconds from Jonathan Greer & Jonny Hart in an older Focus WRC which they were using for the first time. Over a minute further back were Roger Chilman & Andrew Sankey (Impreza) took the final place on the podium beating Paul Benn & Richard Cooke (Focus WRC) on a count back.