RAC Rally

Wow, is all we can really say about the 2012 Roger Albert Clark Rally. Martin McCormack & Phil Clarke (Escort MkII) started out as car 1 and took their first victory on this endurance event, but the story was not as simple as that as they spent most of the event behind Steve Bannister & Kevin Rae (Escort MkII). Bannister made his mark on the opening night opening up a 28 second lead on the Dalby stages he knows so well, but Saturday saw him gain no more time as McCormack set two stunning times through Pundershaw to leave the gap unchanged. With half the rally left on Sunday McCormack attacked and the battle was on. Craik proved critical setting up McCormack who went into the penultimate stage 5 seconds back and came out 2 seconds up. The last stage was the sting in the tail, Kershope at just over 17 miles and the longest of the event. Bannister was first on the road and pushed hard but a spin near the end cost him dear as McCormack set fastest time by 15 seconds to take an emotional victory.

Premier Rally

After a clash with the Dukeries back in June the Premier ill prove to be our only visit to Sherwood in 2012. It proved to be a packed day and full of entertainment where we saw 2011 winners Rob Swann & Darren Garrod (Impreza) take back to back wins on the event. Fastest times on the first 4 stages saw them take a 26 second lead and a joint fastest time on stage 5 before dropping two seconds on the final stage made no difference to the result. In 2nd place were asphalt regulars Andrew Fenwick & Andrew Roughead (Accent WRC) who were using the event as a shake down for the car ahead of the 2013 season and they held off John Lloyd & Adrian Cavenagh (Impreza WRC) by just over half a minute.

Rally of the Tests

A very different day and event for us as we made our first appearance on the Rally of the Tests. The 2012 event started in Torquay and ended in Chester but we caught the action on the middle day of this 3 day event, where they ran from Bristol to Llandrindod Wells. We caught a test in the Forest of Dean before heading to the Welsh Showground in Builth Wells. It was interesting to see a wide variety of cars with Alfa Romeo making up the largest marque, in terms of entries. With the oldest car dating from the late 40’s up to most modern car from 1979, the event had something for everyone.

Tempest Rally

After several years of following the same schedule we mixed it up on the Tempest this year. Okay so it was the same old stages but in a different order and we got to see the most of this rally which provided a tight battle in both the Tempest 2 & Tempest 4. In the Tempest 4 Dan O’Brien & Mark Glennerster (Focus WRC) came out on top by 20 seconds after spending the first half of the rally behind Jason Pritchard & Dale Furniss (Focus WRC). It had been a good battle all day long as Pritchard looked set for a great debut result in a WR car but in the end he just held onto 2nd with Rob Swann & Darren Garrod (Impreza) only 4 seconds back.