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West Midland Showground Stages 2001

Telford Auto Club

29th December 2001

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Telford AC ran their third rally of the year at the West Midland Showground at Shrewsbury, the first time the venue had seen competitive rallying. The event offered 12 stages giving a total of 35 stage miles, 70% on tarmac. Forty-seven crews took the start.

Dave Willett/John Roberts emerged as winners in their Astra engined Escort. Having started cautiously - only being seventh fastest on the first stage - Willett upped his speed as the day progressed and the greasy tarmac surface dried out. He took seven stage wins on his way to victory. Even a loose exhaust manifold on the last stage didn't prevent him taking fastest time.

The early leaders of the event had been Simon Jukes/John Caine who had taken their nimble motorcycle engined Darrian into a 25 seconds lead after five stages. Unfortunately an afternoon showdown with Willett was prevented when the front left upright on the Darrian broke on Stage Six. Jukes lost two and a half minutes in the incident. However the damage was repaired and he recovered to take sixth overall and the U1300 award at the Finish.

Second in the U1300 class went to the Anglia of Neil Weaver/James Bailey, who were ninth overall.

Oliver Davies/Ben Davies were another crew to hit problems on SS6 when they damaged the rear axle, pulling all four links out from the floor of their 2.4 Millington engined Escort. With the help of constant welding at every subsequent service halt they survived to take second place, ninety seconds down on Willet.

Three highly experienced crews battled for third place for the whole day; Keith Wilde/John Howells (Escort), Eric Weaver/Andrew Sankey (Darrian T9) and Roger Moran/Tony Beddoes (Escort) eventually finished in that order. Weaver/Sankey were top seeds and as first car on the road had the dubious pleasure of opening up the chicanes for later comeptitors to straightline. The Darrian also suffered a bent steering arm after hitting rocks on SS5, the tracking having to be wound up to account for the distortion.

A number of crews retired while in top positions. Richard Preece/Sarah Gluyas were lying fifth when a CV Joint broke on their Astra on SS5. Dave Allmark/John Tate looked on course for a top four finish when the gearbox failed on their Escort on SS10. Martin Parkinson/Hayley Chadwick were in sixth place at the halfway point but the dry sump seized on their Escort as they attempted to leave the service area to start SS7. Andrew Morris/Neil Allman only got as far as SS2 before the gearbox broke on the ex-works Nissan Sunny.

Peter O'Dougherty/Mike Storrar retired their Escort with a broken axle after SS6, while Brandon Smith/Steve Herbert were holding third in class when they broken a stub axle on the 1300 Lada engined Davrian on SS4.

Damian Cole contested the rally as a prize for his co-driver Katy Price. After a steady run, in conditions slightly rough in places for his Darrian and with the wrong tyres for the conditions, the reigning Welsh Tarmac Champion came home in twelfth place.

Jeremy Maddox/Nicola Hartshorn took the U1600 award in their Vauxhall Nova, less than thirty seconds ahead of the similar car of Martin Roberts/Darren Green. The Road Rally class was led from SS2 by the VW Golf of Adrian Higman/Dan Coxhead. They survived a scare when the rotor arm broke, causing a misfire, which cost them 40 seconds on SS5. Second in the class secured Neal Arden/Giles Corbett the Telford AC 2001 Rally Championship.

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OVERALL RESULTS

	Pos	Driver	Navigator	Car	Penalty
	1	Dave Willett	John Roberts	Ford Escort	62m 54s
	2	Oliver Davies	Ben Davies	Ford Escort	64m 21s
	3	Keith Wilde	John Howells	Ford Escort	64m 40s
	4	Eric Weaver	Andrew Sankey	Darrian T9	65m 11s
	5	Roger Moran	Tony Beddoes	Ford Escort	65m 33s
	6	Simon Jukes	John Caine	Darrian T9	65m 55s
	7	Trevor Ridge	Simon Ridge	Ford Escort	65m 59s
	8	Jeremy Maddox	Nicola Hartshorn	Vauxhall Nova	66m 07s
	9	Neil Weaver	James Bailey	Ford Anglia RS 105E	66m 14s
	10	Martin Roberts	Darren Green	Vauxhall Nova GSi	66m 36s
	11	Richard Perry	Clive Townend	Talbot Sunbeam	66m 43s
	12	Damian Cole	Katy Price	Darrian T9	67m 07s
	13	Paul Walker	Ian Walker	Ford Escort	67m 36s
	14	Andrew Clayworth	Chris Jones	Ford Escort	67m 37s
	15	Paul Pritchard	Vernon Brown	Ford Escort	67m 40s
	16	Adrian Higman	Dan Coxhead	VW Golf	67m 54s
	17	Chris Powis	Paul Downes	Vauxhall Nova	68m 12s
	18	Tim Baker	Andrew Smallman	Talbot Sunbeam	68m 25s
	19	Neal Arden	Giles Corbett	Ford Escort	68m 31s
	20	Carl Thomas	Chris Ridge	Ford Escort	68m 35s
	21	Chris Painter	John Painter	Austin Mini	69m 10s
	22	Alan Watkins	Tim Bloxham	Ford Escort	69m 20s
	23	Richard Roe	Paul Edwards	Talbot Sunbeam	69m 36s
	24	Paul Williams	Chris Kelly	Peugeot 205 GTi	70m 31s
	25	Anthony Gluyas	Tim Gluyas	Ford Escort	70m 38s
	26	Sam Pownall	Phil Swanborough	Vauxhall Nova	70m 53s
	27	Paul Atkins	Philip Atkins	Ford Escort	72m 14s
	28	Simon Atkinson	Ben Nixon	Hillman Avenger	74m 15s
	29	Jon Ross	Martin Kenny	Peugeot 205 GTi	74m 50s
	30	Chris Mills	Dennis Rowlands	Vauxhall Astra GTE	75m 00s
	31	Paul Morgan	Roger Morgan	Toyota Corolla	76m 46s
	32	Pete Hamer	Niki Griffiths	Talbot Sunbeam	77m 30s
	33	Dominic Giovinazzo	Antonio Giovinazzo	Audi 80	78m 37s
	34	Gigi Bettencourt-Gomes	TBA	Vauxhall Nova	78m 56s
	35	John Sale	TBA	Peugeot 205 GTi	79m 52s

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