rally results service
Unless otherwise clearly indicated, results on this site have been declared final and are therefore not subject to query or protest
Red Dragon Rally 1996
Sponsored by Stena Line
Port Talbot Motor Club
30th/31st March 1996
Clerk of the Course: John Surridge
Route: 140 Miles
Maps: 157 & 158
Starters: 86
Winners: Tony Davies/Ieuan Thomas (Toyota Corolla) & Alan Williams/Andy Bowen (Talbot Sunbeam)
A rally route using some of the classic lanes of North Pembrokeshire wasn't enough to split the Sunbeam of Alan Williams/Andy Bowen and the Toyota of Tony Davies/Ieaun Thomas on Port Talbot MC's Red Dragon Rally. Both crews were clean over the twelve sections of the 140 mile event.
The rally, a round of the Welsh, West Midlands and South Western Championships, had attracted sponsorship from the Stena Line. The start was based at that company's Fishguard headquarters; scrutineering taking place in the Customs Sheds, while the Start itself was on the harbour quayside.
The route was split into twelve Standard Sections, with one timed to the second as a tie breaker. These were linked by Regularity Sections rather than more usual neutrals. This is a method that has become traditional on the Red Dragon and meant that crews were unable to relax throughout the event as late arrival at the end of a Regularity Section would incur penalty; the only respite was the halfway halt.
The first half used the majority of lanes in the triangle formed by the main roads linking Fishguard, Haverfordwest and St Davids. A number of crews emerged penalty free, but others had hit problems. Eventual joint winners Williams/Bowen sat in both camps, as they lost three minutes after drowning out in the Brandy Brook ford but still managed to clean the section.
Less fortunate were Paul Holmberg/Maurice Leach who lost eight minutes when their Escort suffered a broken throttle cable, they recovered to take 16th overall. In similar problems were Wayne Evans/Neil Spiers who survived the first half without penalty and were in third place when they were stranded after both throttle cables broke on their Escort.
Welsh Championship regular Sarah Harmer was being navigated by 1995 London Counties Champion Cath Woodman, who was doing her first Welsh event. The ladies would have finished fifth overall but for missing the code board at PC21. Another crew who missed this board were Dennis Quinn/Nick Darkin, they were free of time penalties until dropping 39 seconds when they picked up a puncture on the tie breaking selective in the second half, this would have given them third overall but the missed code board plunged them down to 37th.
Also in trouble early on were the winners of the first two rounds of the Welsh Championship, Richard Lewis/Phil Pugh in their Toyota Corolla. They dropped three minutes on the very first section when they wrong slotted while plotting, they then lost another two minutes while hunting for the non-existent code board at PC11. They eventually finished 17th overall which was enough to keep them in the lead of the Welsh Championship but with a slightly reduced cushion to Baron Glaze/Dave Pitchford who finished fifth.
The second half moved to the east of the A40 and took in the area bordered on the north by the Preseli Mountains and on the south by the Haverfordwest to Narbeth road. The very first section was the three and a half mile tie breaker timed to the second. However the tie breaker wasn't entirely successful as both Williams/Bowen's Sunbeam 2.0 and Davies/Thomas' Corolla 1.6 cleaned it. At the finish it would have been possible to use differing engine capacity to decide the winner, however the officials declared a draw as it was felt this rule was difficult to enforce given the fact that the Toyota was a twin-cam.
The result made it a double for Andy Bowen who won the previous year's event partnering Malcolm Walters. It was Tony Davies' first rally win and, with his second place on the Rali Bro Caron, it puts him in a strong position in the Welsh Championship. For his navigator, Ieaun Thomas, it was a welcome return to rallying after an 18 month lay off.
Top points in the strongly supported South Western Championship went to Barry Luxton/Phil Luxton, who finished in seventh place overall. Baron Glaze/Dave Pitchford were top scorers in the West Midlands title race.
The Semi-Expert class was won by a massive margin by Des Phasey/Paul Middleton, the first time pairing had a clear run bar for having to disconnect the spotlights to allow a failing battery to make it to the finish; they finished 12th overall with total penalties of 8m 06s. Second in the class were Stephen Williams/Ian Taylor, they'd started slowly but speeded up in the second half to take 26th overall. Mario Mangano/Steve Weston, who had held second in class at petrol, had a number of wrong slots after the break and dropped to fourth at the end, only 11 seconds behind Gareth Evans/Dylan Evans, who took the final class award.
Ian Evans/David Evans won the Novice class with a winning margin of almost 28 minutes, this was despite a down on power engine and the fact that on the day before the rally the driver was without a navigator for the event.
OVERALL RESULTS
| Pos | Driver | Navigator | Car | Penalty | |
| =1 | Alan Williams | Andy Bowen | Talbot Sunbeam | 0m 00s | |
| =1 | Tony Davies | Ieuan Thomas | Toyota Corolla | 0m 00s | |
| 3 | Elgan Jones | Byron Jones | Ford Escort | 0m 41s | |
| 4 | Lloyd Evans | Mike Roach | VW Golf GTi | 0m 50s | |
| 5 | Baron Glaze | Dave Pitchford | Ford Escort | 1m 11s | |
| 6 | John Evans | Eurig Evans | Hillman Avenger | 1m 15s | |
| 7 | Barry Luxton | Phil Luxton | VW Golf GTi | 1m 36s | |
| 8 | Wyn Jones | Phil Clark | Ford Escort | 2m 16s | |
| 9 | Stuart Wood | Paul Waterton | Ford Sierra Estate | 3m 08s | |
| 10 | John Williamson | Jon Stobbs | Opel Ascona | 5m 50s | |
| 11 | Roy Pesticcio | Peter Thomas | Ford Escort | 7m 30s | |
| 12 | Des Phasey | Paul Middleton | Ford Escort | 8m 06s | |
| 13 | Bob Davies | Mark Newberry | VW Golf GTi | 8m 08s | |
| 14 | Chris Thomas | Carl Williamson | Ford Escort | 8m 36s | |
| 15 | Huw James | Owen Dodd | Ford Sierra | 8m 51s | |
| 16 | Paul Holmberg | Maurice Leach | Ford Escort | 8m 52s | |
| 17 | Richie Lewis | Phil Pugh | Toyota Corolla | 8m 56s | |
| 18 | Wayne Edwards | Sharon Jarvis | Ford Escort | 11m 06s | |
| 19 | Nigel Lloyd | Iestyn Leyshon | Ford Escort | 12m 15s | |
| 20 | Martin Whiteland | Aneurin James | Volvo 760 | 12m 32s | |
| 21 | Karl Hancocks | Damian Cole | Ford Escort XR3 | 14m 27s | |
| 22 | Bob Gibbons | Bev Williams | Ford Cortina | 17m 18s | |
| 23 | Chris Painter | Steve Quine | Vauxhall Nova | 21m 49s | |
| 24 | Colin Thomas | Mark Walters | Toyota Corolla GT | 31m 38s | |
| 25 | Barbara Carter | Peter Barnard | Toyota Corolla GT | 32m 13s | |
| 26 | Brian Usher | Jonathan Usher | Ford Escort | 33m 38s | |
| 27 | Glan Harbud | Gary Robbins | Ford Escort | 34m 29s | |
| 28 | Jonathan Hands | Rob Duke | Vauxhall Chevette | 34m 48s | |
| 29 | C Evans | V Cole | Ford Escort | 40m 45s | |
| 30 | Stephen Williams | Ian Taylor | Talbot Sunbeam | 42m 44s | |
| 31 | Gareth Evans | Dylan Evans | Ford Escort | 48m 50s | |
| 32 | Mario Mangano | Steve Weston | Fiat Strada | 49m 01s | |
| 33 | Mark Price | Chris Read | Ford Escort | 52m 17s | |
| 34 | Roddy Daniels | Jane Harris | Vauxhall Astra GTE | 1h 3m 21s | |
| 35 | Martin Ellaway | Matthew Farr | Ford Escort | 1h 8m 00s | |
| 36 | Sarah Harmer | Cath Woodman | MG Maestro | 1F 1m 00s | |
| 37 | Dennis Quinn | Nick Darkin | Ford Escort | 1F 2m 39s | |
| 38 | Clive Wakely | Justin Davies | Ford Escort | 1F 13m 39s | |
| 39 | Brian Davies | Jason Brown | Ford Escort | 1F 18m 11s | |
| 40 | Simon Stock | Patrick Walsh | Ford Sierra | 1F 34m 10s | |
| 41 | Chris Hughes | John Gilbey | Ford Escort | 1F 37m 40s | |
| 42 | Mark Griffiths | Charles Gill | Ford Escort | 1F 42m 05s | |
| 43 | Carl O'Grady | Gwyn Williams | VW Golf | 1F 44m 49s | |
| 44 | Jerry Rennell | Havin Johnson | Peugeot 205 | 1F 47m 22s | |
| 45 | Lyn Owens | Hefin Owens | Ford Escort XR3 | 1F 51m 02s | |
| 46 | Nicholas Yates | Simon Yates | Ford Escort | 2F 1h 02m 00s | |
| 47 | Dylan Parry | Meirion Evans | Ford Escort | 2F 1h 17m 19s | |
| 48 | Steven Roderick | Andrew Card | Ford Escort | 3F 38m 09s | |
| 49 | Julian Thomas | Dylan Williams | Ford Escort | 3F 1h 39m 23s | |
| 50 | David Williams | Darren Morris | Ford Escort | 4F 41m 35s | |
| 51 | Malcolm Middleton | Paul Thomas | Ford Fiesta XR2 | 5F 46m 21s | |
| 52 | Gareth Jones | Andrew Perry | Toyota Corolla GT | 5F 1h 36m 35s | |
| 53 | William Parry | Dafydd Williams | Ford Escort | 6F 48m 37s | |
| 54 | Carwyn Evans | Richard Vaughan | Ford Escort | 9F 1h 45m 07s | |
| 55 | Gordon Howlls | D Thomas | Ford Escort | 9F 1h 41m 20s | |
| 56 | Richard Reynolds | Gerwyn Davies | Ford Escort | 10F 1h 20m 04s | |
| 57 | Robert Fearn | Brian Jenkins | Ford Escort | 10F 4h 34m 12s | |
| 58 | Martyn Williams | Nigel Williams | Vauxhall Nova | 12F 4h 49m 11s | |
| 59 | Ian Powell | Mark Powell | Ford Escort | 13F 1h 21m 41s | |
| 60 | Andrew Lane | Phil Davies | Ford Capri | 15F 52m 04s | |
| 61 | Wayne Evans | Neil Spiers | Ford Escort | 22F 01m 25s | |
| 62 | Clive Greves | John Hands | Vauxhall Chevette | 23F 37m 10s | |
| 63 | Kevin James | Anthony Bowen | Rover Metro | 31F 5h 17m 34s | |
| 64 | Damien Thomas | N Charles | Ford Escort | 42F 6h 54m 11s |