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Ilkley Jubilee Historic Rally

Sponsored by Crossley Evans Ltd

Ilkley & District Motor Club

18th-19th October 2025


Ilkley Jubilee Historic Rally 2025
Winners: Guy Woodcock/Michael Cochrane (Ford Escort)
Photograph: © Tony Raine

Organiser: Ilkley & District Motor Club

Date: 18th-19th October

Clerk of the Course: Andy Pullan & Ian Mitchell

Tests: 180 Miles (9 Regularities, 9 Tests, 1 TC Section)

Base: Otley

Starters: 81


For the 2025 Ilkley Jubilee, Round Seven of the HRCR Club Championship, Ilkley & District Motor Club had introduced a Saturday evening section to the traditional day long Sunday rally. This new leg was to consist of two regularities, plus a Time Control Section in the grounds of Bramham Park, home of the Leeds Festival and familiar to competitors on the Rally of the Tests.

A 12 Car Challenge was to run alongside the Saturday leg and, then, a well supported Targa Rally would follow the Sunday leg. Both these events had simpler navigation than the main Historic Rally. Seven competitors elected to contest both of these subsidiary events.

After a number of years being based in Leyburn and making extensive use of the Catterick Ranges, the Jubilee moved back to the organising club's home area for 2025.

Sixty-five cars took the start at 17:45 on Saturday evening; seven of these were contesting the Challenge Rally.

There was no gentle introduction, the opening regularity was 23 miles long and contained seven timing points. It started just outside Otley and went as far north as Swinsty Resevoir, before finishing at North Rigton.

Dan Willan had lent his Volvo PV544 to Gremlin winner Steve Head in preparation for the latter's planned assault on the Rally of the Tests; in return Head lent Willan his Escort RS2000 for the Ilkley Jubilee. The car obviously suited Willan as he and navigator Niall Frost took the joint best performance over the first reg. In a sign of the contest ahead, their times were match by Lewis Ayris/Matt Outhwaite (Ford Escort).

Only adding a second to their total on the short Reg 2, Ayris/Outhwaite took the lead after the section; they were at this point three seconds clear of Matt Fowle/Ryan Pickering (Ford Escort Mexico) and Nick Pullan/Ian Canavan (Peugeot 205 GT), who shared second place. Willan/Frost fell to fourth.

The Bramham Park TC Section had five time controls, all but the final one timed to the minute. Penalties were a quarter of the time lost, that is, being a minute late would cost competitors 15 seconds in penalties. The final point was timed to the second.

Willan/Frost put in the best performance, hitting all the timed to the minute controls on time and being 35 seconds late at TC7; with penalties quartered here as well, this equated to nine seconds in penalties. This gave them a nine second lead at the end of the leg.

The only other crew to clean all the timed to the minute controls was Guy Woodcock/Mike Cochrane (Ford Escort), the driver being familiar with the venue as organiser of the Rally of the Tests. This put them in second place as competitors arrived at the end of leg control in Collingham. Top seeds John Haygarth/Martyn Taylor (Opel Kadett Rallye) completed the top three at the overnight halt.

One car that didn't make the final control was the Ford Cortina of Derek Skinner/Sue Skinner, which had to trailered out of the second regularity.

With the addition of the Targa Rally, 83 crews took the start from Wetherby Services on Sunday morning.

Ilkley Jubilee Historic Rally 2025

Battle recommenced at 08:30 on Sunday morning with two tests and a regularity in Bramham Park. Nick Bloxham/Emily Anderson (Ford Escort Mexico) were quickest on Test 1, but only by a second from Haygarth/Taylor, while nineteen crews beat the bogey on Test 2. Notably, in the Targa Rally, Dick Baines/Harry Baines (Mini Cooper S) were awarded a Wrong Test as they missed out a large loop.

Timing Point D on the reg caused major issues for a large number of crews; it was on a loop and almost half the field failed to find it.

After Bramham, Willan/Frost led Woodcock/Cochrane by six seconds, while Ayris/Outhwaite were ten seconds further back, with Haygarth/Taylor in fourth, 24 seconds off first place. These four crews were pulling clear of the rest of the field.

Matt Fowle/Ryan Pickering had been in fifth place before the Reg 2/1, but their Escort had a head gasket fail on the reg and they were out.

After a straightforward two timing point regularity the route arrived at Rufforth Airfield for four tests. These made little difference to the lead battle as Willan/Frost and Woodcock/Cochrane were still six seconds apart after them. Haygarth/Taylor had however passed Ayris/Outhwaite for third place.

Front suspension problems started to afflict the Sunbeam Tiger of Callum Guy/Amy Henchoz, who had been in ninth place, and they decided that they would avoid the remaining tests, although they did complete the event, simply contesting the regularities. Martyn Payton/Miles Fieldhouse retired their Volvo PV544 when a core plug failed.

Regularity 2/3 was to the south west of Boroughbridge and took competitors to the lunch halt at the Bev Blacker Motorsport facility at Allerton Park. By this point Willan/Frost had extended their lead .... by one second. Also, Ayris/Outhwaite had repassed Haygarth/Taylor for third place after the latter failed to locate a route check on Reg 2/3.

In the Targa Rally, Suze Rogers/Gavin Rogers (Nissan Micra) had taken the lead on the Bramham regularity and held a lead of 12 seconds over Andrew Thompson/Joshua Bailey (Mazda MX5) at the lunch halt.

Regularity 2/4 was another 23 miler and contained five timing points. Willan/Frost put in a better performance than Woodcock/Cochrane at each of these and emerged from the section with a lead of 24 seconds. Ayris/Outhwaite were now only five seconds off second place.

Bob Hargreaves/John Thornley (BMW 318i), who had won the 12 Car Challenge the previous evening, retired from the Targa at this point with a broken driveshaft.

A test at Pateley Bridge Showground was followed by two more at Coldstones Quarry. These allowed the leaders to pull away further from their pursuers and after Regularity 2/5, the penultimate section, they held a lead of 37 seconds. It was Ayris/Outhwaite that were second place as they collected 15 fewer penalties than Woodcock/Cochrane on the reg; the two crews were separated by two seconds.

The final regularity had three timing points; it started at Darley and looped around to finish close to Menwith Hill Camp. It was a disaster for Willan/Frost, their trip was playing up and this led to them gaining a one minute Wrong Approach penalty at TP 2/6B. At the same control Ayris/Outhwaite were eleven seconds late as they got the route correct. In contrast, Woodcock/Cochrane dropped just seven seconds on the whole section and came through at the end to claim victory. They finished three seconds ahead of Ayris/Outhwaite, while Willan/Frost were eleven seconds further back in third.

Haygarth/Taylor had the strongest finish of the leaders and closed to within exactly one minute of the lead at the Finish - the penalty for that missed Route Check on Reg 2/3 was one minute.

For Mike Cochrane it was his third win of the year, while for Guy Woodcock it was his second Ilkley win, he had won as a navigator in 2012.

Rogers/Rogers extended their lead in the Targa Rally during the afternoon, finishing over a minute ahead of Alex Willan/Kevin Savage (BMW 325i). Thompson/Bailey had held on to second place until they were another crew to have a problematic final reg and dropped to fifth place at the Finish.


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