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Classic Lanes Rally 1996

Sponsored by Cambrian Autoparts

Welsh Border Car Club

27th/28th July 1996

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After a two year break Welsh Border Car Club once again ran the club's only road rally of the season, the Cambrian Autoparts Classic Lanes. Of the 120 mile route, eight crews cleaned all but one section, the remaining five mile tie breaker was the only plot and bash segment of the night and saw the Renault 11 Turbo of John Jones/Chris Rowlands fastest.

The rally was split into nine standard sections, the eighth had an ITC timed to the second as a tie breaker. The whole route, other than the five mile sector leading up to the ITC, was issued at MC1 and 45 minutes was given to travel the short distance to TC1, this allowed most crews to plot the whole route prior to the start of the competitive sections. All Time Controls and most of the Passage Controls were manned. Unmanned Passage Controls were marked by a code board; competitors had to note down the code board on their time card and get it signed for at the next manned control. There were no code boards at manned controls.

With top seeds Kevin Parry/Gareth Price non-starting, the pre-event favourites were Cyril Crook/Chris Ware in their Sunbeam. Unfortunately their rally ended after less than ten miles when they slid off on a tightening right hander. Cyril suffered a sprained wrist as his hand was caught by the steering wheel as it hit the fence. The car sustained similar damage to that which was inflicted on it by an off on the Pacemaker earlier in the year. A number of other crews reported moments at the same corner, most notably Dave James/Sarah Preece, they did a 'wall of death' around the outer bank but survived to finish the rally. Dave James had in fact broken a bone in his hand in the incident, although he didn't find this out until after he'd finished third on the Suzanne Crowley Memorial Rally the following weekend.

With the pre-plotted route and comparatively fast sections in the Oswestry area, most of the top twenty found it easy to remain free of any penalties. As the first half unfolded it was mechanical problems that were sorting the competitors out rather than any difficulty with the route. The engine in the Chevette of John Walsh/Chris James cried enough on the second section, while the clutch broke on Phil Turner/Pete Hughes' Opel Kadet just before Petrol. They were joined in retirement at the halfway halt by Alyson Acreman/Byron Jones - the headgasket on their Astra failed. All three crews were clean of penalties when they retired. Phil Harding/Paul Middleton had survived in their Chevette, but had dropped time, firstly when they lost all their lights and then on another section when the coil failed.

With eight crews still clean the event was to be decided on the five mile plot 'n bash section which took in a number of whites around Pontfadog, in the north-western corner of Map 126. An impressive run saw Jones/Rowlands' Renault fastest by 39 seconds, thus giving them their first rally win. It had been a problem free event for them, other than having to change the distributor cap at Petrol to cure a misfire. Nigel Thomas/Phil Stocking followed them home in what was their best ever result.

The Classic Lanes was a round of the well support Welsh Border CC Championship, the leaders before the event being the pairing of Richard Roe/Dave Sillars. They completed the rally and seemed to have put in a good performance but then found they'd been excluded for failing to stop at a secret check. Kevin Ikin/Dave Pitchford suffered a similar fate, also after looking in line for a high placing. With his rally victory John Jones now leads the WBCC Championship. The navigator's table is led by Owen Dodd, who finished 8th on the Classic Lanes after the Maestro he shared with Paul Hughes was delayed on the tie break section when they caught another car.

With Roe/Sillars' demise the semi-expert class went to Andrew Morris/Ralph Harvey-Robson, who took 6th overall, almost seven minutes clear of their nearest class rival. None of the small novice entry managed to finish fail free, but Ken and Adrian Whittal took the class award with just one fail.

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OVERALL RESULTS

	Pos	Driver	Navigator	Car	Penalty
	1	John Jones	Chris Rowlands	Renault 11 Turbo	2m 30s
	2	Nigel Thomas	Phil Stocking	Ford Escort	3m 09s
	3	Graham Evans	Ian Mills	Opel Manta	3m 40s
	4	Anthony Smith	Paul Green	Toyota Corolla	4m 00s
	5	Steve Bishop	Sean Caddick	Ford Escort	4m 00s
	6	Andrew Morris	Ralph Harvey-Robson	Ford Escort	4m 30s
	7	Ian Lloyd	Paul Dolby	Ford Escort	4m 36s
	8	Paul Hughes	Owen Dodd	MG Maestro	5m 11s
	9	Nick Onions	Steve Quine	Talbot Sunbeam	6m 38s
	10	Phil Harding	Paul Middleton	Vauxhall Chevette	7m 15s
	11	S Kukula	Graham Ford	Peugeot	7m 53s
	12	Sean Rowlands	Mike East	Peugeot 205 GTi	8m 06s
	13	Adrian Hodgson	Alan Lovett	Renault Fuego	10m 20s
	14	Rob Williams	Dave Howell	Vauxhall Chevette	11m 07s
	15	Brian Spurr	Jim Clarke	Ford Escort	12m 35s
	16	R Jones	Paul Jones	Ford Escort	16m 39s
	17	A Edwards	H Lewis	Renault	26m 30s
	18	A Griffiths	TBA	Peugeot	30m 30s
	19	Tony Watkins	Medwyn Evans	Mini 1275GT	31m 03s
	20	Paul Pritchard	Jon Stobbs	Ford EScort	1F 7m 00s
	21	Dave James	Sarah Preece	Ford Escort	1F 8m 35s
	22	K Whittall	A Whittall	Vauxhall Nova	1F 27m 12s
	23	Kath Rumney	Paul Owen	Ford Escort	4F 40m 52s
	24	Kevin Roberts	Mike Daska	Ford Capri	3F 18m 00s
	25	David Williamson	Martyn Allen	Ford Fiesta XR2	3F 39m 50s
	26	Brian Jones	Craig Parry	Ford Escort	4F 19m 20s

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