Unless otherwise clearly indicated, results on this site have been declared final and are therefore not subject to query or protest
Clerk of the Course: Chris Rowlands
Route: 140 Miles
Maps: 116 117 118 125 & 126
Starters: 89
Winners: Mal Acott/Nigel Roberts (Ford Escort)
Welsh Border CC’s Classic Lanes Rally attracted a capacity entry of ninety cars, of which eighty-nine took the start from Wrexham. The rally used a 140 mile route creating a roughly clockwise loop centred on the start/finish venue and stretching over to the Llangollen area.
For most of the front runners there were just two sections on which they dropped time, one was near Bryneglwys, the other was over Llantysilio Mountain, the latter had an off road section which included three triangle controls in close proximity. The second half was comparatively easy and was cleaned by all Experts and Semi-Expert crews.
With the rally being decided over a just a few miles there was bound to be a close finish and so there was. Mal Acott/Nigel Roberts coming home just nineteen seconds ahead of Brynli Thomas/Roger Evans. For Acott it was his first ever rally win, Roberts having previously won the Barcud Rally 2000 with Phil Turner.
Pacemaker winners Anthony Gluyas/Richard Preece finished third. Andy Roberts/Stuart Frost, again comparatively lowly seeded, finished fourth in their Subaru Impreza.
The rally was a round of both the West Midlands and North Western championships and, at the tail end of the season, was expected to have a significant affect on the title race. However most leading contenders had problematic events and there were few major changes at the top of the championship tables.
Paul Holmberg, navigating for Steve Webster in an Impreza, could have virtually assured himself of the navigator’s title if he had finished in the top five, however he had an unhappy event, being held up by a taxi on one of the critical sections, and coming home in seventh place.
Howard Price/Carl Williamson, having tied up the Welsh Championship, were trying to secure the ‘triple crown’ of titles, but finished in 58th place after wrong slotting and getting stuck on a track.
Iain Tullie lost all chances of taking the North Western navigators’ title. He only finishing eleventh after the Nova he shared with Carl Hawkins became stuck on a triangle on the Llantysilio Mountains section. In contrast Marcus Watmough remained in contention after finishing tenth with Stew Dale in a Sierra 4x4.
With Simon Cottrell away successfully competing on Mull and Howard Prices’ problems, Gary Jones moved himself into contention in the North Western drivers’ table with just two rounds remaining. Navigated by Iestyn ap Daffydd, he finished in fifth overall and won the Standard Production award in his Toyota Corolla.
The three controls on the Llantysilio Mountain caused a number of crews problems. Kev Parry/Gareth Price picked up a fail at that point and withdrew, similarly Michael Pedley/Dave Pedley missed a code board at a route check and got a wrong approach at a Passage Control, with the navigator feeling unwell, they retired soon afterwards.
Adrain Higman/Brian Jones were hoping for a good run on their local event but they retired with gearbox problems on their VW Golf in the first half. The first retirements of the night were Alan Roberts/Paul Jones who had the cambelt fail on their Escort just half a mile into the rally.
The Semi-Expert class was won by navigator turned driver for this event, Byron Jones, he was navigated by Matthew Maidment. Jones had won the Novice award on the same rally on its last running in 2000.
The Novice Class was won by Martin Cooke/Paul Taylor, while the first Beginners home were Glyn Williams/Dai Jones.
OVERALL RESULTS
Pos | Driver | Navigator | Car | Penalty | |
1 | Mal Acott | Nigel Roberts | Ford Escort | 2m 56s | |
2 | Brynli Thomas | Roger Evans | Peugeot 205 GTi | 3m 15s | |
3 | Anthony Gluyas | Richard Preece | Ford Escort | 4m 07s | |
4 | Andy Roberts | Stuart Frost | Subaru Impreza | 4m 16s | |
5 | Gary Jones | Iestyn ap Dafydd | Toyota Corolla | 4m 32s | |
6 | Dewi Williams | Alan Jones | Peugeot 205 GTi | 4m 53s | |
7 | Steve Webster | Paul Holmberg | Subaru Impreza | 6m 30s | |
8 | Delwyn Price | Steve Price | Ford Escort | 6m 32s | |
9 | Ian 'Dude' Roberts | Andy Moss | VW Golf GTi | 6m 39s | |
10 | Stew Dale | Marcus Watmough | Ford Sierra GLSi 4x4 | 7m 01s | |
11 | Carl Hawkins | Iain Tullie | Vauxhall Nova GTE | 7m 17s | |
12 | Byron Jones | Matthew Maidment | Honda Civic | 7m 30s | |
13 | Ian Furniss | Russell Roberts | Peugeot 205 | 7m 36s | |
14 | Glyn Price | Huw Jones | Ford Escort | 7m 42s | |
15 | Mike East | Roger Davidson | Peugeot 205 GTi | 7m 47s | |
16 | Dave Jones | Baz Green | Vauxhall Astra GTE | 7m 50s | |
17 | Dave Edwards | Andy Edwards | Ford Escort | 8m 11s | |
18 | Roger Powley | Jon Smith | Toyota Corolla | 8m 29s | |
19 | Lee Bartlett | Richard Edwards | Peugeot 309 GTi | 10m 46s | |
20 | Lee Evans | Anthony Williams | Vauxhall Nova | 10m 59s | |
21 | David Jones | Ian Evans | Peugeot 205 GTi | 12m 53s | |
22 | Martin Cooke | Paul Taylor | Vauxhall Astra SRi | 12m 55s | |
23 | Medwyn Jones | Brian Stubbs | Talbot Sunbeam | 14m 26s | |
24 | Ian Jones | Peter Tomlinson | VW Golf GTi | 14m 35s | |
25 | Neil Bye | Stephen Bye | Peugeot 205 GTi | 15m 24s | |
26 | Bob Gush | Kevin Warlow | Vauxhall Astra GTE | 16m 35s | |
27 | Gareth Jones | Iwan Jones | Vauxhall Astra | 19m 03s | |
28 | Bob Ward | Jonty Bloxham | Ford Escort | 19m 53s | |
29 | Glyn Williams | Dai Jones | Ford Ecort | 26m 26s | |
30 | John Broadhurst | Gareth Williams | Ford Escort | 27m 00s | |
31 | Mal Jones | Ian Fellows | Peugeot 205 GTi | 29m 48s | |
32 | Stuart Kelso | Rich Renshaw | Peugeot 205 GTi | 34m 28s | |
33 | Derwyn Roberts | Merfyn Williams | Ford Escort | 37m 56s | |
34 | Terry Micklethwaite | Dave Evans | VW Golf | 47m 16s | |
35 | Simon Randall | Paul Davenport | Ford Escort | 1F 4m 38s | |
36 | Jim Paterson | Adrian Smart | Subaru RX Turbo | 1F 4m 48s | |
37 | Clive Baty | Brynmor Pierce | Proton Compact | 1F 5m 34s | |
38 | Peter Gill | Andrew Jones | Peugeot 205 GTi | 1F 6m 32s | |
39 | Adrian Hodgson | Chris Lightburn | Renault 18 TS | 1F 6m 37s | |
40 | Andrew Matthews | Colin Jones | Ford Fiesta XR2 | 1F 14m 24s | |
41 | John Morris | Vicki Price | Peugeot 205 GTi | 1F 16m 05s | |
42 | Phil Hughes | Stu Gush | Vauxhall Astra GTE | 1F 27m 52s | |
43 | Tony Watkin | Medwyn Evans | Vauxhall Nova | 1F 33m 53s | |
44 | Tristram Pierce | Dave Cox | Peugeot 205 GTi | 2F 12m 29s | |
45 | Brian Spurr | Jim Clarke | Ford Escort | 2F 13m 21s | |
46 | Keith Gush | Jenny Gush | Vauxhall Nova GTE | 2F 18m 26s | |
47 | Chris Thompson | Justin Cotton | VW Golf GTi | 2F 22m 33s | |
48 | Phil Harvey | Andrew Porter | Ford Escort | 2F 27m 36s | |
49 | Chris Robinson | Alan Pemberton | Toyota Celica GT | 3F 12m 26s | |
50 | Derek Fielding | Philip Roath | Vauxhall Astra | 3F 26m 03s | |
51 | Chris Rogers | Martin Jones | Peugeot 205 GTi | 4F 15m 58s | |
52 | Adam Clews | Dave Skinner | Peugeot 205 GTi | 4F 24m 20s | |
53 | Steven Williams | Geoff Williams | Peugeot 205 GTi | 5F 14m 33s | |
54 | Mark O'Leary | Shaun Hardy | Ford Escort Mexico | 6F 10m 33s | |
55 | Nick Bamford | Karl Short | Ford Fiesta | 6F 32m 02s | |
56 | Alan Bradbury | Geoff Evanson | Ford Escort | 8F 28m 14s | |
57 | Richard Evans | Terry Bennett | Vauxhall Astra SRi | 9F 38m 53s | |
58 | Howard Price | Carl Williamson | Toyota Corolla | 17F 00m 00s | |
59 | Brian Miller | Ashley Kennell | Ford Fiesta XR2 | 25F 44m 00s | |
60 | Andrew Roberts | Paul Rowlands | Ford Escort XR3i | 55F 27m 58s |