Race Retro – Rally Stage

The best entry yet for the live rally stage, at Race Retro. There was a wide range of cars, from across the history of rallying. The revised format of sending out the cars in batches rather than the usual free-for-all worked extremely well. Ari Vatanen delighted the crowds with some spirited driving which rubbed off on some of the other drivers. Ryan Champion needed no excuse though and pushed his Impreza sideways at every opportunity. Another great day in Warwickshire with the feel of the old Sunday stages from the RAC Rally.

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Race Retro – The Show

Now in its 15th year we made the early season trip to Race Retro, at Stoneleigh. Once again there were the usual displays throughout the 3 main halls with circuit racing and rallying well represented. The auto jumble and rally car parce ferme take up hall 4 with the separate auction area packed full of exotic road cars and an interesting spectrum of competition cars. The main stand out feature this year was the legends paddock with superb F1 cars from Jim Clark, James Hunt and Keke Rosberg and the stunning Le Mans winning Bentley of 2003.

Red Kite Stages

A damp and dreary Epynt Military Ranges saw Dylan Davies & Llion Williams (Impreza) take victory by 24 seconds on the Red Kite Stages. Four fastest stage times and one joint fastest stage time during the six stages was more than enough for Davies. Martyn & Dawn England (Fiesta R5+) were 2nd overall but had a tight battle with Richard Hill & Steffan Evans (Evo IX), with just one second separating them before the last stage. England went fastest by a single second from Hill to double his advantage.

Cambrian Rally

The 2017 Cambrian Rally will be remembered for snow and ice. The event was cancelled on the advice of the MSA Safety Delegate because of adverse weather conditions in Aberhirnant (SS2 and SS4) and Llangower (SS3 and SS5). The conditions in Alwen (SS1 and SS6) weren’t much better either with the 2nd half of the field unable to start the stage and those that did were mostly passengers and not in control of their cars. For the record David Bogie & Kevin Rae (Fabia R5) were fastest from David Wright & Steve Pugh (Focus WRC) by 13 seconds. We, however, saw nothing as we were in Aberhirnant.

Cotswold Clouds

Another weekend and another trial seems to be the way 2017 is going. We returned to the Cotswold Clouds for the 3rd time and took in Crooked Mustard and Badger’s Wood. Dean Partington (DP Wasp) made up for his disappointment on the Clee Hills by taking victory, with a score of just 11 points, (only losing marks on 2 hills). Aaron Haizelden was 2nd overall in his class 5 Reliant Scimitar SS. Joint 3rd overall were Duncan Stephens (class 7) and Craig Allen (class 4).