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Mid Summer Endurance Rally 2005

Sponsored by EACS

Chelmsford Motor Club

18th-19th June 2005

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Chelmsford MC's inaugural Endurance Road Rally was run in mid-June in glorious summer weather. The club has a reputation for producing high quality, well organised events, such as the East Anglian Classic and the legendary Preston Road Rally, indeed experience from these two events would shape the Mid-Summer Endurance.

Forty-eight cars, just two short of the capacity entry, took the start at Bury St Edmunds at Saturday lunchtime. There was a short run out to the first test venue, the Wild Tracks go kart and rallycross circuit; four selectifs were tackled here. Two slightly longer tests followed at a new venue Waterbeach Airfield, before the final four selectifs of the daylight section were undertaken at the Oakington Barracks. Crews then had a supper break at the High Lodge Visitor Centre in Thetford Forest, before the 200 mile night section started at 22:30. There were two more selectifs during the night, these were using farm tracks at Fransham and the disused airfield at Knettishall.

As with all other endurance road rallies run to date, only Colway Road Plus tyres were allowed. The aim was to keep costs down and give a level playing field for car performance.

The short length of the afternoon tests meant that the leading crews were separated by just a few seconds. John Cotton/Gill Cotton took fastest time on the first run through Wild Tracks. Consistent runs through the following selectifs saw them hold on to the lead until they put in a time on the last Oakington test that was outside the top 25 and they slipped to third at the supper halt. Two fastest times at Oakington saw Chelmsford MC club members Mark Banham/Paul Haylock take over at the front at the end of the daylight sections.

As expected the Turner brothers were also in the running: Jamie, with Graham Dance navigating, was in second place at the supper halt, while Owen, who as usual had Andrew Dadswell on the maps, was in fourth. They were closely followed by Mike Biss/Cath Woodman and the first time pairing of Matt Fowle/Iain Tullie, these two crews were in fifth and sixth places respectively.

Iain Freestone/Nick Kennedy had held third place after two selectifs but then were forced out when a spark plug broke up in their Peugeot 205's engine. Ian Mepham/Bob Blows were also struggling, oil was leaking onto their Peugeot 106's clutch but they were in ninth at High Lodge. Rob Reynolds/John Stringer had shared the lead with the Cottons after Wild Tracks but two missed cones at Waterbeach dropped them down the order.

The first night section, Methwold Warren, was cleaned by most crews, so the leading positions remained the same until the next section Soigne Wood. Cotton/Cotton got back to the front taking fastest time over the section but they then dropped a minute at TC12, which all the other leaders cleaned, and they fell to seventh, they eventually finished eleventh.

Owen Turner/Andrew Dadswell were almost a minute faster than anyone else through Grimston, this moved them from fourth to first. Jamie Turner/Graham Dance were now in second place, 25 seconds behind, with Biss/Woodman 12 seconds further back in third. These three crews were over a minute ahead of the field. Matt Fowle/Iain Tullie had been in fifth prior to the section, but they picked up a puncture and had the car fall off the jack while they tried to change it. Eventually, with help from Jamie Turner and Graham Dance, they got the wheel changed, but by then they'd dropped over four minutes. They were to finish in tenth place.

The Fransham selectif passed off without incident but the following road section, Cockley Cley, was full of drama. At the front Turner/Dadswell took fastest, but Biss/Woodman were ten seconds faster than Turner/Dance and drew level to share second place. Further back there was a mass wrong slot when four crews missed a difficult to spot track - Jane Edington/Gary Edington, Pat Tierney/Ed Scott, Mark Appleton/Anthony Preston and Peter Scott/Graham Raeburn dropped between three and six minutes in the process. Scott/Raeburn had been as high as fifth place at Waterbeach but brake and shock absorber problems then slowed them, the wrong slot added to their misery and they finished in fifteenth place.

The weather had been very sunny and dry during the day and the night was equally pleasant however a legacy of the previous week's rain raised its head on Cockley Cley, this was in the form of a large mud puddle. Appleton/Preston and David Leadbetter/Dan Spittlehouse both had problems after hitting the quagmire, the mud clogged up the radiators and in Leadbetter's case bent the fan; both crews had to endure overheating problems for the rest of the rally. Leadbetter/Spittlehouse survived to take the diesel class win. The puddle did see the downfall of Roy Gravestock/Tim Ball, they had the clutch fail on their Nova as they waited in the middle of the water for a queue to clear, they got no further.

Turner/Dadswell extended their lead after almost cleaning Santon. Biss/Woodman took more time out of Turner/Dance to move into a clear second place.

Then disaster struck the leaders, an engine mounting broke on the Fire Tower section, they struggled out of the test having dropped 58 seconds, Biss/Woodman cleaned it to take the lead by just one second. Owen Turner wasn't carrying a spare mounting but brother Jamie was, the part was offered up and was replaced in a neutral.

A selectif at the disused Knettishall airfield was next and, with only the easily cleanable Euston road section to follow, it was going to decide the rally. Biss/Woodman had a disaster, they dropped a minute more than the fastest crews and fell to third. Turner/Dadswell, with the new engine mounting fitted, were quickest, with Turner/Dance four seconds behind. This gave Owen the win, with Jamie in the runner up spot. Kevin Wilson/Paul Caunt had held fourth place since Grimston having prior to that struggled with a sticking carb that kept the their Citroen AX revving over 5000 rpm at all times. Peter and Michael Valentine took fifth place, spending most of the event getting used to their Rover 25 having campaigned a Mini for so long.

Rob Reynolds/John Stringer had recovered from their problems at Waterbeach to finish in seventh place and take the 1300cc Class in the process, this was despite having to ease off for the final sections after they discovered that their Peugeot 106 was leaking gearbox oil out through a drive shaft seal. Clive Baty/CROW finished ninth and were the clear winners of the 1000cc class.

Forty of the forty-eight starters made it to the Finish, amongst those that didn't were Matt Endean/Tom Ward who severely damaged their newly built Fiat Uno in a high speed accident on the night section.

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OVERALL RESULTS

	Pos	Driver	Navigator	Car	Penalty
	1	Owen Turner	Andrew Dadswell	Rover Metro	32m 43s
	2	Jamie Turner	Graham Dance	Rover Metro GTi	33m 05s
	3	Mike Biss	Cath Woodman	Holden Barina SRi	33m 48s
	4	Kevin Wilson	Paul Caunt	Citroen AX GT	35m 17s
	5	Peter Valentine	Michael Valentine	Rover 214 Si	35m 26s
	6	Geoff Lobb	Chris Holliday	Vauxhall Corsa	37m 13s
	7	Rob Reynolds	John Stringer	Peugeot 106 Rallye	37m 23s
	8	James Hoyles	Richard Chalmers	Peugeot 106 Rallye	37m 44s
	9	Clive Baty	CROW	Toyota Yaris	38m 20s
	10	Matt Fowle	Iain Tullie	Peugeot 106 Rallye	38m 53s
	11	John Cotton	Gill Cotton	Citroen AX	39m 30s
	12	Mark Banham	Paul Haylock	Suzuki Ignis	41m 21s
	13	Dave Smith	Pete Johnson	Vauxhall Corsa	42m 18s
	14	Andy Rowe	Cat Lund	Peugeot 205 Rallye	42m 21s
	15	Peter Scott	Graham Raeburn	Citroen AX GTi	42m 57s
	16	Ian Mepham	Bob Blows	Peugeot 106 Rallye	44m 17s
	17	Paul Heal	Matt Heal	MG ZR	46m 47s
	18	Edward Robinson	Adrian Robinson	Peugeot 106 Rallye	46m 53s
	19	David Leadbetter	Dan Spittlehouse	Citroen ZX Diesel	47m 24s
	20	Ted Howels	Scott Main	MG ZR	51m 16s
	21	Pat Tierney	Ed Scott	Peugeot 106 Rallye	52m 37s
	22	Clive Chapman	Chris Glen-Smith	Rover 214 SLi	57m 13s
	23	Pete Jagger	David Wilkinson	Peugeot 205 Rallye	57m 30s
	24	Jane Edington	Gary Edgington	Citroen AX	58m 19s
	25	James Campbell	Thomas Campbell	Proton Compact GLi	59m 13s
	26	Paul Rees	Elizabeth Rees	Suzuki Swift GTi	1h 00m 09s
	27	Stephen Cooper	James Hobden	VW Polo	1h 01m 24s
	28	Ann Weir	Brian Weir	Skoda Felicia	1h 04m 00s
	29	Simon Weir	Alicia Miles	Skoda Felicia	1h 09m 52s
	30	James Parman	John Parman	Skoda Felicia	1h 22m 39s
	31	James Edwards	Alexander Demp	Rover 200i	1h 27m 53s
	32	Trevor Skinner	Laura Skinner	Nissan Micra	1h 34m 11s
	33	Abe Shenker	Melvyn Cox	Rover Metro GTi	1h 38m 49s
	34	Fiona Duncan	Mike Turner	Rover Mini	1h 45m 03s
	35	Mike Knott	Alex Levgi	Suzuki Ignis	1h 45m 55s
	36	Eddie Grayson	John Ball	Austin Metro	1h 49m 08s
	37	Ian Langridge	Jim Haywood	Rover 214Si	1h 57m 18s
	38	Jeremy Hunter	Peter Moss	Citroen AX	2h 01m 06s
	39	Cliff Porter	Neil Burgess	Rover Mini Cooper	2h 35m 01s
	40	John Pearce	Trevor Gibbons	Peugeot 309 Style	2h 48m 37s

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