Cambrian Rally

It was a dramatic conclusion to the 2012 BTRDA rally series with three crews going into the final round with a shot at the title. The equation was simple for Hugh Hunter & Andy Marchbank (Focus WRC) along with Roger Chilman & Bryan Thomas (Impreza WRC), win the rally and they were champions, Shaun Gardener & Ben Innes (Evo 5.9) needed the calculators out if either Chilman or Hunter finished behind them. Stage one provided the first twist in this drama. Chilman was just over halfway through Clocaenog Main 1 when he made a dramatic exit at high speed. The car was totaled and blocked the stage, but the crew were okay. All Hunter had to do was finish, effectively, as Gardener was well off the pace. Coming out of 2nd service Hunter held almost a minutes advantage overall but on stage 5, Clocaenog East 2, everything went wrong. As he approached our position his car was out of sorts and as he left the car was struggling to engage any drive at all. Hunter did not make the start of the penultimate stage, so Gardener & Innes were 2012 champions irrespective of where they finished. They came in 5th overall.

Mini Britannia

The first running of Mini Britannia was based out of Silverstone and with the event almost running past the front door, it would have been rude not to attend. The event was split into Regularity and Competition, (which itself had a sub-category for Targa – modern cars). The Competition section gets all the headlines and it was Phil Hindley & Chris Williams (Porsche 911) who took victory by just over half a minute. Behind them only 0.4 seconds separated 2nd and 3rd places as Mark Freeman & Andre Genillard (AC Cobra) edged out Philip Walker & Howard Redhouse (Jaguar E-Type). The story hadn’t been quite that clear cut though as the top three had been close all event with Hindley’s stellar mid event race proving to be decisive.

Colin McRae Forest Stages

Ahead of the final round of the BHRC it was all still to play for with any of three drivers up for the championship. Julian Reynolds & Patrick Walsh (Escort MkI) had the lead in the championship but they also had the greatest threat from fellow category 2 contenders on this event. Nick Elliott & Dave Price (Escort MkII) looked good in category 3 and would be there to pick up the pieces if Reynolds failed to deliver. Then there was Dessie Nutt & Geraldine McBride (911) who needed Reynolds to finish 3rd or worse and Elliott to finish 2nd or worse in their respective categories, whilst they won category 1. Elliott stormed into an early lead and with Nutt behind Rikki Proffitt & Phill Harrison (911), it was now a two way fight for the title.