Race Retro

Back to Stoneleigh for another packed weekend for what was the 9th International Historic Motorsport Show, aka RAC Retro. This year the featured marques were Porsche and Honda and we were especially pleased to see some fantastic endurance racing Porsche’s on display. Along with this was the usual live rally stage and a mixture of rally drivers from the famous to the keen enthusiasts, which has become a key feature of the show.

Rallye Sunseeker

Back down in Bournemouth for the BRC season opener and it was to be a 2WD only show in the BRC. With 4WD gone from the championship again no one really knew which would be the car to beat and as the rally progressed it became a battle between Citroën and Renault. With barely a few seconds between them it was a tight battle between Jarkko Nikara & Petri Nikara (DS3 R3T) and Mark Donnelly & Dai Roberts (Clio R3). It all was decided on the final stage when Nikara’s engine expired leaving Donnelly to win by almost two minutes. Behind him though Citroën regained some pride as Desi Henry & Niall Burns (DS3 R3T) took 2nd overall with fastest stage time on the final test. Elfyn Evans & Andrew Edwards (Fiesta R2) completed the podium.

Boucles de Spa

The Ardennes called once again as we made our third visit to the Boucles de Spa. Once again the field had grown with over 300 crews competing across the Legend and Classic rallies. Our focus, as always, was on the Legend field which contained most of the stars of the event. Early on the event suffered from it’s own success as the first stage had to be cancelled due to the number of spectators. A further 3 stages did not run for the full field either but the attrition rate was high, decimating the top 20 starters. In the end the victor did come from the top 20 as Jean-Pierre Van de Wauwer & Eric Marnette (Lancia Beta Monte Carlo) won by just over 44 points.

Wyedean Forest Rally

The 2012 BTRDA season kicked off in Chepstow with the Wyedean Forest Rally. The threat of snow hung over the event and in the end there was very little but the overnight low temperatures turned all the stages into sheets of ice, with running early on the road a distinct advantage.  In the main field Steve Perez & Paul Spooner (Focus WRC) had an early excursion and ultimately retired due to running out of spare tyres. This issue decided the fate of the event for Hugh Hunter & Andy Marchbank (Focus WRC) as they had been leading going into the penultimate stage but a total of 3 punctures and only 2 spares saw them retire from the event.

Eastwood Stages Rally

Our first stage rally of the year saw us take in the Eastwood Stages, at Mallory Park. With the event in jeopardy due to the snow the day and night before a slightly depleted field took to the stages for what would prove to be a very exciting rally. Almost every crew spun over the course of the first two stages, including eventual winners Robert Lowe & Sid Buckley. They used a variety of tyres to get the power down from their Metro 6R4 and once they had a decent margin they played it safe on the drying stages to take a comfortable victory.