Tour of Hamsterley

Our 2nd visit to the Tour of Hamsterley saw a superb win by Matt Edwards & Kim Baker (Escort MkII). Seeded at car 11 they set a first stage time outside of the top ten but after that they set the fastest time on 7 of the remaining 8 stages. They did not have it easy and only took the lead by a few seconds after the 3rd stage. Edwards then blitzed the two Raby Castle tests in the middle of the event. Matthew Robinson & Sam Collis (Escort MkII) were just 12 seconds behind after stage 5 but they did not come out Hamsterley forest as they retired on stage 8 with alternator failure. So it was now up to Nick Elliott & Dave Price to take up the chase, who had set fastest time on the first stage in their Escort MkII.

Tour of Hamsterley

Our first trip to Hamsterley and apart from being liberally sprayed by showers throughout the day, the Tour of Hamsterley provided a full days motorsport action. The overall winner came from the modern field but as this was round 2 of the West Wales RAC Championship our initial focus will be there. Martin McCormack & Phil Clarke (Escort MkII) stamped their authority on the event from stage 1, setting fastest stage times on 5 of the 7 stages. Ultimately they won by 45 seconds from Steve Bannister & Louise Sutherland (Escort MkII). What perhaps was the larger shock was that Bannister only clinched 2nd place on the final stage when a puncture for Ryan Barrett & Barry Ferris (Escort MkII) saw them slip down to 5th Historic crew.