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Holrus Stage Rally 2001

Newtown & District Auto Club

8th December 2001

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Newtown AC only managed to attract eighteen entries to their Holrus Stages Rally, despite it being held on the tarmac roads of the Eppynt Ranges. However the event was well received by those crews that did take part.

The rally used a simple route layout, repeating a loop of two stages three times, with a service halt between each loop.

The first stage started at the top of the New Road and ended a mile prior to Four Ways Bridge. Only one small chicane was used on the New Road section and this led to the fastest two cars beating the bogey time over the stage on the second and third loops

The second stage went via Four Ways, the Burmah Road and the German Village to finish just North of the Rifle Ranges. The three loops provided in total 45 stage miles.

The rally saw a close battle between the Darrian T90 of John Dalton/Llinos Jones-Edwards and the Metro 6R4 of John Price/Caroline Price, with the Darrian claiming the winner’s laurels.

Dalton/Jones-Edwards were having their first outing together in preparation for next season and took the lead on the first stage, they lost it to Price on Stage Two before regaining it again on the very last stage.

John Price had a troubled event. He was entered in John Mercer’s regular car in a comparison test against his own regular 6R4, he found it a very different car. He had further difficulties with sheep on the track. Running first car on the road he reported instances on nearly every stage where he found sheep in his path; an incident on the first stage causing him to spin. At the end of the rally Price decided not to book into the final control thus withdrawing from the event and allowing other crews to gain awards. Sportingly he remained for the prize giving to present the awards.

Price’s withdrawal meant that Dalton had a winning margin of almost two minutes over the rear-wheel drive Ford Escort of Huw Jeffreys/Elgan Davies, who in turn were just seven seconds ahead of Mark Lane/Rob Lane in their Darrian T90. The Holrus was the latter pairings first outing on pace notes and they struggled initally.

Peter Stojanov/Paul Cook in their ex-John Price Metro 6R4 were making their first visit to Eppynt and survived a big spin on the last stage to make it home in fourth place, the only four wheel drive competitor to make the Finish.

Neither of the Mitsubishi Lancers that started the rally made it to the end of the first loop. Ken and Alan Brown only made it a few hundred yards into Stage One before they clipped a unsighted rock which ripped the calibre and disk off their Lancer. Robert Davies/Paul Spooner went off in dramatic fashion at the Rifle Ranges at the end of Stage Two. Despite having to be rescued by a recovery vehicle winch, the car emerged without a scratch.

Two other cars failed to make the Finish. Huw Williams/Yan Griffiths put their Peugeot 205 off the road on the downhill approach to the Davrian Bridge on Stage One, ending up almost 150 yards below their intended track with severe damage to the front end of the car. Nicky Beckett/Richard Jones also went off at the same point on the second loop, ending up in the brook.

Richard Yorke/Keith Jones in a Vauxhall Chevette HSR had a day long battle with the MG ZR of Robert Stone/Martin Prestage. Having trailed the MG for the first five stages, Yorke/Jones snatched fifth place on the final test. Stone/Prestage had the consulation of winning the Under 1600 class. While the Under 1400 class was won by the Suzuki Swift of Mike Morgan/Kath Curzon.

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OVERALL RESULTS

	Pos	Driver	Navigator	Car	Penalty
	1	John Dalton	Llinos Jones-Edwards	Darrian T90	36m 10s
	2	Huw Jeffreys	Elgan Davies	Ford Escort RS	38m 05s
	3	Mark Lane	Rob Lane	Darian T90	38m 12s
	4	Peter Stojanov	Paul Cook	MG Metro 6R4	38m 28s
	5	Richard Yorke	Keith Jones	Vauxhall Chevette HSR	40m 31s
	6	Robert Stone	Martin Prestage	MG ZR X-Power	40m 35s
	7	Richard Walsh	Lisa Pickard	Vauxhall Astra Kit Car	41m 55s
	8	Tim Gluyas	Sarah Gluyas	Opel Ascona	42m 31s
	9	Mike Morgan	Kath Curzon	Suzuki Swift GTi	43m 14s
	10	Gary Lomas	Mike Jones	Lancia Stratos	43m 47s
	11	Mark Harris	Neil Bevan	Peugeot 205 GTi	45m 22s
	12	Mike Rowlands	Andy Morgan	Vauxhall Astra GTE	48m 01s
	13	Dave Williams	Chris Williams	Mini Cooper S	53m 12s

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