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Great Western Classic & Vintage

Sponsored by Premier Trophies + Dan Howell Classics

Bath Motor Club

18th August 2024


Great Western Classic Rally 2024
Winners: Graeme Bolt/Caroline Bolt (Fiat 124 Spider)
Photograph: © M&H Photography

Organiser: Bath Motor Club

Date: 18th August 2024

Clerk of the Course: Bernard Northmore

Route: 125 Miles (5 Regularities + 4 Tests)

Base: Walcot Rugby Club

Starters: 53


The inaugural Great Western Classic & Vintage Rally was based at the Walcot Rugby Club, to the north of Bath. The Clubhouse provided the start and finish venue. In between crews tackled a historic rally that was aimed at novice crews.

Fifty-three crews took the start on Sunday morning. They faced a full day of rallying, with competition being made up of five regularities and four tests.

The first reg started at Tog Hill and ran for 19 miles to Easton Grey. There were four timing points, with navigation by tulip diagrams.

The first timing point gave an indication as to those crews who were on form, four arrived exactly on time, these included Graeme Bolt/Caroline Bolt (Fiat 124 Spider) and Robert Smith/Richard Stanier (Volvo P1800E).

However, by the end of the section, it was Richard White/Richard Scott (Volvo Amazon) who had a lead, having dropped just two seconds. Elliott Dale/Charlotte Dyall, who had forsaken their intended Bentley Special 4¼ for their usual Ford Escort, were in second place, tied with Tony Brooks/Dave Kirkham (Alpine Renault A310) for the position.

The second regularity started just to the north of Malmesbury, then looped around to Charlton, and finished at Chelworth. This was a speed table section, with three timing point, plus a code board to be located.

Bolt/Bolt tied with Colin Weekley/Jacob Weekley (Austin Healey 3000) for the best performance over this reg; both picking up penalties of three seconds. This put Bolt/Bolt in second place, one second behind White/Scott.

The Great Western was using a double Joker System, with one Joker being available for the morning sections, and another for the afternoon. The Joker reduced a crew's largest lateness penalty to 15 seconds. This helped Elliott/Dyall as they misread a tulip just prior to the final timing point, turning right instead of left. They were over a minute late at the TP, but this was cut to 15 seconds thanks to the Joker. They were not alone; 35 crews had used their Joker by the end of Reg 2.

A number of crews missed to find the single code board on the section and incurred a five minute penalty. These included Rod Hanson/Clare Grove (Triumph TR7 V8), who lost out on a top twenty finish as a result.

Two tests completed the competition for the morning. The first was at Kemble Airfield. Scoring was by the Class Improvement System, where the fastest car in a class received zero points and those slower in a class got an increasing number of penalty points depending how many class rivals were faster than them.

Steve Conner/Pater Blackett (VW Golf GTi) were quickest at Kemble, stopping the clock a second ahead of Tim Sawyer/Suzanne Barker (Ford Escort Mexico). In the lead battle White/Scott extended their advantage as they were second fastest in their class, while Bolt/Bolt were fourth. This meant that the gap between the two crews increased to four seconds.

The second test was at South Cerney. Master crews were to the fore here, with Dale/Ryall taking fastest time, one second in front of Gavin Rogers/Suze Rogers (Reliant Scimitar SE5A). Third quickest, Sawyer/Barker were eight seconds further back.

Leaders White/Scott were fastest in their class, adding nothing to their penalty total, while Bolt/Bolt were fifth in class, which increased their total by six seconds. This meant that at the Lunch Halt, which was taken at Cirencester Livestock Market, White/Scott led Bolt/Bolt by ten seconds. Smith/Stainer were in third, one second behind the Fiat pairing.

Great Western Classic Rally 2024

The afternoon session began with a regularity, which started just outside the Livestock Market, with competitors being given an allocated time at the reg start, this being two minutes after they had booked out of the lunch halt MTC. The navigation was by a descriptive table. The section had six timing points in its 20 miles length and it circled around Cirencester.

For the second time in the event, Weekley/Weekley put in the best performance over the reg, a second ahead of Brooks/Kirkham. Critically for the lead battle, Bolt/Bolt were third best on nine seconds, which was five seconds better than White/Scott. The gap between the two was now down to five seconds.

The only retirement of the event was the MG B Roadster of Douglas Carmichael/John Gearing, the crew withdrawing with numerous mechanical issues, including fading brakes and fuel pump problems. They had been in fifth place at the lunch halt.

The morning tests were now repeated, with South Cerney 2 preceding Kemble 2. Again, the Masters dominated on both tests; Rogers/Rogers were fastest at South Cerney, while Conner/Blackett were best at Kemble. The honour of being fastest over the four tests went to Gavin Rogers, whose total was 13 seconds ahead of Elliott Dale's.

There was a special award for the most consistent crew over the four tests; for this the totals for Tests 1 and 2 were compared with those for Tests 3 and 4, the award going to the crew whose two totals were most closely matched. The winners, with a difference of two seconds, went to Smith/Stanier in their Volvo P1800E.

The two crews battling for the win both collected a total of nine seconds of penalties over Test 3 and 4, so remained separated by five seconds as they moved to the two final regularities.

The penultimate reg started near Culkerton and, after skirting to the north of Tetbury, finished at Leighterton. It was 16 miles long, with four timing points.

Bolt/Bolt put in the best performance on the reg, picking up just four seconds in penalties, nine better than any other crew, and, very importantly 32 less than White/Scott - the husband and wife team were now in the lead.

The final regularity was the longest of the event at almost 23 miles. There were six timing points and it started only two miles after the end of Reg 4, the route having passed through Leighterton. The route then skirted Chipping Sodbury, Tormarton and Doyton, to end two miles from the finish venue.

Brooks/Kirkham tied with Paul Mills/Nick Cooper (Mini Cooper S) for the best performance on the reg, this late charge moved the latter crew up to third in the final standings, the pair having been in twelfth place at Lunch. Brooks/Kirkham finished in seventh.

Smith/Stanier were one second off the best over the reg and this promoted them to the runner up spot at the Finish, their best result to date.

Maintaining their hard fought for lead, Bolt/Bolt dropped 13 seconds on the reg, this was enough to see them home to a maiden rally win, with a victory margin of eight seconds. Caroline Bolt also had the honour of picking the least number of penalties over the five regularities; 18 seconds fewer than any other navigator.


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