RAC Rally

A truly epic 7th instalment of the Roger Albert Clark Rally saw Stefaan Stouf & Joris Erard (Escort MkI) take a well earned victory, after a superb measured drive all event long. 2nd place was only decided on the 4th day of the event as Gwyndaf Evans & John Millington (Escort MkII)) eased past Andrew Haddon & Mark Crisp (Escort MkII) on the penultimate stage to finish 2nd, just over a minute behind the winners. 4th place was also sorted out on the final day in the favour of Paul Griffiths & Sam Collis (Escort MkII). Lying 5th overnight Griffiths decided to attack on the final two stages and managed to overhaul Phil Collins & Nicky Grist (Ascona 400) to secure 4th place. The main heroes of the event though were not the competitors as the rally even running was a miracle and full credit must go to Colin Heppenstall and his team for making changes on an almost hourly basis to keep the event going.

Malvern Showground Stages

Our first visit to the Three Counties Showground for the first running of the rally since the early 80’s, was nothing other than a pleasure and a total success. A great venue and a great rally, well organised and well run. In an effort to level the playing field the 4WD crews were given a 2 second per mile penalty but the slippery conditions did not stop Roger Chilman Jr & Andrew Sankey from taking their Impreza to victory by almost two minutes. Behind them Sean Crowley & Marc Mayes (Nova) were the best of rest and just over 50 seconds clear of 3rd place. The battle for 3rd was a real fight with less than 30 seconds covering 3rd to 9th overall, but it was event sponsor Jay Stanley & James Young (Escort MkII) who took the final podium spot after a day of entertaining driving.

Wales Rally GB

With the World Rally Championship decided, Wales Rally GB was an out and out fight for victory on what would be the last WRC event for the current breed of WR cars. After early promise from Jari-Matti Latvala & Mikka Antilla (Focus WRC) on day one the rally would all be about Citroën. The fans were treated to a fantastic fight between the works car of World Champion Sébastien Loeb & Daniel Elena and the privateer car of Petter Solberg & Chris Patterson, as the pair exchanged times all event. Eventually the works car of Loeb won out but Solberg had enthralled his fans and gained several new ones. The podium was completed by Ford with Latvala moving ahead of his team mate Mikko Hirvonen on the final day, to secure 2nd place overall in the championship ahead of Solberg.

Tempest Rally

Another enjoyable days rallying down South for the Tempest Rally. Once again we moved around taking in 3 different stages catching the finale of the 4WD rally last. Jason Pritchard & David Roberts (Impreza) shot out of the blocks and took an early lead against the WRC cars, in their group N car. A 15 second lead at 1st service became just 2 seconds at 2nd service and lo and behold John Lloyd & Adrian Cavenagh (Focus WRC) caught up on SS8 and then moved ahaed over the final two stages to win by 8 seconds. JLT team mates Andrew Barnes & Guy Simmons (Focus WRC) completed the podium 14 seconds behind Pritchard.