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Moonbeam Rally 1996

Sponsored by Telford Motor Auctions

Telford Auto Club

9th/10th March 1996

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Richard Lewis/Philip Pugh made it two wins out of two when they took their Toyota Corolla to victory on the Telford Motor Auctions Moonbeam Rally, the second round of the Welsh Road Rally Championship. They succeeded despite losing twenty minutes when they got stuck on a white halfway through the event.

Telford AC, under the leadership of Maurice Leach for the sixth consecutive year, ran what had become the standard formula for the Moonbeam - an intricate route in the area to the south of Shrewsbury utilising a large number of whites. Unusually for events in 1996 the Club didn't demand that entrants supply marshals, despite this all controls were manned and no code boards were used.

The 130 mile route was split into eight competitive sections, the first two being the most demanding of the night. The whole route card was handed out at the Start Control thus allowing most crews to complete plotting during neutral sections.

The first section was 15 miles long with four Intermediate Time Controls and a large number of three metre passage controls. Last year's winners Jonathan Gwillym/Neil Spiers emerged as the leaders at the end of it; they were the only crew not to drop a minute at the first ITC and had a 59 second lead by the end of the section. Unfortunately they only got a few miles into the second section before, in the forestry section, contact with a rock, hidden in the grass, bent the steering so badly that they were forced to retire.

Also out of the event at an early stage were Dennis Quinn/Nick Darkin. Dennis had turned up in his wife's shopping car, a Sierra Cosworth 4x4. The car dropped onto three cylinders soon after the start of the first section, the crew were then unable to replace the oil soaked spark plugs due the specialised nature of the units on the car.

Section Two was the longest of the night at 25 miles and established the leading runners for the rally. It ran from Map 126 onto the north west corner of 137 and included a two mile run through Mortimer Forest as well as a number of uncharted tracks. Lewis/Pugh arrived at CFC2 with a 46 second lead over Wyn Jones/Phil Clarke.

A short selective took competitors to Petrol at Craven Arms. Most crews dropped further time on this section but the lead positions remained the same. Lewis/Pugh were on 8m 53s, while Jones/Clark had narrowed the gap slightly to be on 9m 17s. Cyril Crook/Chris Ware held third in their Sunbeam on 9m 45s; they had lost time early on when spectator cars had blocked the entrance to PCB, which was in a lay-by. Other than these three crews, no other competitors were under 11 minutes.

There were problems immediately after Petrol when a track leading to a Via Control quickly became impassable. Lewis/Pugh got stuck for almost 20 minutes before resuming the original route. The section was scrubbed at the finish which meant that the penalties didn't count. The delay however left Lewis/Pugh fighting for the rest of the night to remain within their 30 minute time limit. A number of other crews also got stuck on this field, most notably affected were Paul Holmberg/Gareth Price who had held fourth at Petrol, they subsequently picked up a number of fails as they cut route to keep within maximum lateness. A broken clutch cable also cost them time. They finished in 27th position, remarkably, exactly the same position as Holmberg had achieved on the Rali Bro Caron, the opening round of the Welsh Championship.

The fifth section took crews over the Stipperstones which was blanketed in fog, it was to prove the final decider for the top places as the last three sections which followed it were relatively short and few dropped any great amount of time over them. It was Lewis/Pugh who held a healthy four and a half minute lead at CFC5 after an impressive drive as they fought to avoid going OTL. They were to maintain the pace and had a final victory margin of almost eight minutes. It was a performance which gave them a second victory and a substantial lead in the Welsh Championship.

Second was taken by Phil Harding/Paul Middleton, they'd been in fifth at Petrol but moved up as the route took them into home territory; it actually went through the driver's farmyard at one point. The result was doubly pleasing as they had spent the previous day changing the head gasket on their Chevette.

Jones/Clarke managed to hold on to third despite problems caused by damage sustained in an incident near Bridges, where they had lost five minutes to the leaders. The loss of a headlight slowed them in the thick fog and the Escort's radiator, which had been damaged, needed to be continually topped up to keep the car running. At the end they beat Crook/Ware for third place by just 3 seconds.

John Evans/Eurig Evans (Hillman Avenger) had decided on a steady run after an off on the Bro Caron. However they suffered a big moment at a ford and yump on the roman road near Leebotwood. The heavy landing making it impossible for the driver to open his door for the rest of the event. They were pleased to finish in seventh place.

Two places further back at the Finish was the Corolla of Tony Smith/Paul Green. They had struggled with a dodgy gearbox from the first section, then lost their handbrake and map light in the second half.

Kev Ikin/Rob Jones were debuting a new Ford Escort - last minute adjustments being made in the start car park. The car performed perfectly, but their run was spoilt by the fact that they missed a passage control on the opening section and then also failed to get the final PC of the night. They finished in 22nd place.

The Semi-Expert class was won by the Telford crew of Chris Wilson/Roger Fildes, they were consistently faster than any other in their class all night and thus managed fifth overall. The winning Novice crew were the Rhyl pairing of Stephen Edwards/Paul Jones in their Sunbeam.

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OVERALL RESULTS

	Pos	Driver	Navigator	Car	Penalty
	1	Richard Lewis	Phil Pugh	Toyota Corolla	10m 59s
	2	Phil Harding	Paul Middleton	Vauxhall Chevette	18m 38s
	3	Wyn Jones	Phil Clark	Ford Escort	21m 55s
	4	Cyril Crook	Chris Ware	Talbot Sunbeam	21m 58s
	5	Chris Wilson	Roger Fildes	Vauxhall Astra GTE	25m 20s
	6	Baron Glaze	Dave Pitchford	Ford Escort	28m 51s
	7	John Evans	Eurig Evans	Hillman Avenger	32m 59s
	8	Sarah Harmer	Phil Harrison	MG Maestro	33m 32s
	9	Tony Smith	Paul Green	Toyota Corolla	39m 48s
	10	Simon Price	Alan Lovett	Ford Escort	39m 54s
	11	Des Phasey	Steve Price	Ford Escort	40m 02s
	12	Duncan Williams	Lance Gilmore	Peugeot 205	40m 23s
	13	Darren Williams	Mat Morgan	Vauxhall Astra	40m 56s
	14	Mick Huffer	Colin Bowen	Ford Escort	44m 36s
	15	Mark Price	Chris Read	Ford Escort	57m 00s
	16	Simon Tuckman	Ric Chalmers	Ford Escort	59m 48s
	17	John Jones	Chris Rowlands	Renault 11	1F 42m 26s
	18	Stephen Bishop	Timothy Kear	Ford Escort	1F 44m 19s
	19	Jonathan Ross	Dave Stocking	Ford Escort	1F 44m 33s
	20	Stephen Edwards	Paul Jones	Talbot Sunbeam	1F 54m 05s
	21	Huw James	Owen Dodd	Ford Sierra	2F 18m 34s
	22	Kevin Ikin	Rob Jones	Ford Escort	2F 21m 34s
	23	Nigel Thomas	Phil Stocking	Ford Escort	2F 25m 59s
	24	Peter Zjalic	Gerallt Davies	Toyota Corolla	2F 38m 59s
	25	Brian Jones	Nigel Roberts	Ford Escort	4F 37m 04s
	26	Kev Nunns	Dave Evison	Toyota Corolla	7F 24m 30s
	27	Paul Holmberg	Lee Ellis	Ford Escort	8F 13m 40s
	28	Richie Roe	Dave Sillars	Talbot Sunbeam	9F 49m 35s
	29	Jonathan Robinson	Joylon Robinson	Morris Ital	10F 44m 56s
	30	Dave James	Alan Mellings	Ford Escort	10F 52m 53s
	31	Steven Hilditch	Paul Hughes	MG Metro	11F 59m 49s
	32	Nick Martindale	Adrian Higman	Ford Escort	12F 41m 02s
	33	Oliver Davies	Chris Jones	Ford Escort	12F 59m 34s
	34	Mark Skellern	Steve Turner	Ford Escort	14F 32m 33s
	35	Sean Pinches	Chris Jones	Ford Escort	15F 24m 28s
	36	Geraint Davies	Emyr Jones	Toyota Corolla	15F 24m 56s
	37	Tony Watkins	Medwyn Evans	Mini	16F 48m 48s
	38	Carl O'Grady	Gwyn Williams	VW Golf	16F 52m 32s
	39	Robert Fearn	Brian Jenkins	Ford Escort	17F 37m 59s
	40	Brian Spurr	James Clarke	Ford EScort	19F 24m 43s
	41	Christopher Rogers	Kevin Povah	Ford Sierra	23F 36m 44s
	42	David Williamson	Martyn Allen	Ford Fiesta XR2	32F 31m 46s

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