Harry Flatters Rally

Wet and windy conditions dominated the day on this years Harry Flatters which saw Damian Cole & Jack Morton take their Fiesta WRC to a maiden victory. At the lunch break they were second overall after an understandably tentative start in the new car which saw an inspired Mark Jones & Terry Martin (BMW M3) take the lead by 18 seconds. A string of 3 further fastest stage times saw Cole win by 49 seconds with Jones a superb 2nd overall. A broken windscreen wiper saw Eian Pritchard & Steve McPhee (Focus WRC) drop a whole heap of time on the opening stage but with that fault fixed they came back through the field to finish 3rd overall.

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Chateau Impney Hill Climb

The re-birth of an event from the past saw a packed day of action at Chateau Impney. With cars from Victorian times right through to the 1960’s there was plenty on offer amongst a near 200 car field. It was no surprise that it was the single seaters that battled for the win and it turned out to be a quartet of Lotus’s which dominated the top of the standings. Jack Woodhouse took the overall honours in his Lotus 20/22 just over half a second ahead of Martin Walford in his Lotus 22FJ. Completing the podium just over a quarter of a second back was David Gidden in his Lotus 23B just four hundredths of a second ahead of Paul Matty in his Lotus 35 F2.

Nicky Grist Stages

After what felt like a long time away we were back to UK rallying for the Nicky Grist Stages and a great field had been assembled. Stephen Petch & Ian Windress (Fiesta R5+) and Charlie Payne & Carl Williamson (Fiesta) were joint fastest through the first stage, with Jamie Anderson & Jon Scott (Lancer WRC) fastest on stage 2, leaving a different look to the top of the standings. A blistering pair of times through stages 3 & 4 saw Paul Bird & Aled Davies (Focus WRC) take the lead which he never let slip. Euan Thorburn & Richard Cooke (Focus WRC) and David Weston & Kirsty Riddick (Impreza WRC) were locked in a close battle for 2nd place. Stage 6 would see Thorburn lose ground despite 2 fastest stage times in the final 4, so it was Weston who took 2nd overall from his fellow Scotsman.

Southern 100

The diamond jubilee meeting for the Southern 100 saw Guy Martin make it a hat trick of victories in the senior race, on his Tyco BMW. He edged out Dan Kneen (Padgetts Honda) by 0.7s  after nine laps with Ivan Lintin (RC Express Kawasaki) a distant 3rd, in a race of attrition. Martin became only the 2nd rider to do a senior hat trick following in the footsteps of Joey Dunlop who did it from 1976-8. Another excellent few days of racing from the friendly races.

Tour de France

For a second year in succession we made the visit to Le Tour for the opening 3 stages. The 2015 start was in Utrecht where it was really hot and packed full of enthusiastic Dutch fans. The cheers that erupted for every Dutch rider and the home team Lotto Jumbo were something to experience but it was BMC’s Rohan Dennis who took the opening maillot jaune. Day two saw the riders head out to Zeeland and echelons were the name of the day but it was the heavy downpour near the end that blew the field apart.