 Basil Wadman Rally 1996 |  Wessex Rally 1996 |
Basil Wadman Rally 1996 | Wessex Rally 1996 |
Starting from Barnstaple, the 30 car field was lead away by last year's winners Stuart Wood/Paul Waterton. An encounter with a gate put another battle scar onto their Sierra Estate, but like many a hard to find slot early in the first half shaped the course of their event. ACSMC rising starts Les Parsons/Roger Davidson were next, leading fellow Windsor CC members Andy Juniper/Dean Taylor. Juniper/Taylor were also to struggle with the NAM junction, although a rare driving indiscretion from AJ saw the Sunbeam conclude the rally on it's roof. Prompt action by CoC Steve Parker ensured that the blocked route didn't cause any trouble to following crews, efficient organisation being a hallmark for NDMC events.
Notably absent were ACSMC hopefuls Doug Kingsley/PRAR. Their venerable Cavalier had been retired, and would have been replaced by a Nova - had Doug not wiped it out the week before on a wet roundabout. Rob Norrington stood in at short notice, but as happened to so many, they too fell foul of Hangman's Hill.
Using the area to the south west of Barnstaple the 130 mile route had been packed in, mostly in short 4 to 5 minute sections. The first section east of the A377 proved simple enough, grid lines defining the route via Downrew Farm. The next avoid map references section via Hangman's Hill put the cat amongst the pigeons. The five way junction at Bableigh caught out many crews, and on the very narrow lanes turning round was very difficult. Penalties ranged from 2 minutes for Mike & Colin Reed to 49 minutes for James & Tracie Menear, this including 40 minutes for missed PCs. This shaped the course of the event for many.
The Reeds were unable to hang onto the lead, and by the end of the next section Batchelor/Partridge had swept past them into the lead. By TC13 the masters were beginning to make regain lost minutes and the Reeds had slumped to 7th. A fail in the second half put paid to what could have been a good result. Parsons/Davidson equalled the eventual winners time at TC6, and the Luxtons tucked in a minute behind.
The route continued on, making use of the very testing lanes between Swimbridge and the River Taw. A short time recovery section down to Atherington allowed composure to be regained, prior to a couple of sections in the maze of lanes between the A377 and the B3232. These saw the demise of Juniper/Taylor, and many others added to their penalties as they struggled with clock face navigation.
Stopping only to hand in timecards at what later became the petrol halt, the route struck out west, zigzagging under and over the A39. With the damage done, these later sections seemed a little softer, but the tight twisty roads were still able to take time off even the best crews. With the straighter roads used for time recovery sections, ten controls later the route closed the circle and arrived back at petrol. The standings at this point were:
1 Batchelor/Partridge 4 2 The Luxtons 9 3 Parsons/Davidson 12 4 Wood/Waterton 12 5 Anton Shaw/Roger Henderson 16The second half used the roads along the left and bottom edges of the map, although slightly longer sections took the pressure off slightly. Many crews managed to move up the ranks, with minutes lost here and there often proving costly. Wood/Waterton cleaned the second half, but were only able to make up a minute on the Luxtons and 3 minutes on Batchelor/Partridge. Parsons/Davidson dropped a costly two minute at TC33, this put them 4th at the end. Shaw/Henderson lost a close tussle with the Jefferis and TC49 saw them surrender 5th to them.
Wearily the crews trudged their way back to breakfast at the North Devon Leisure Centre and many had tales to tell. Parsons/Davidson proved best of the ACSMC contenders, managing to hang on to fourth O/A despite a straight on at ninety left. Norrington/PRAR moved steadily up the field as they found their form but the road ran out before they could make an impact on the top ten. The novices, aided by receiving all the route handouts at the start of each half, were dominated by the Burnells. They dropped a single minute over the course, putting them well out of reach of Simon Robison/Jonathon Carey who placed second.
Open Pos Driver/Navigator Car f m 1 Mark Batchelor/Neil Partridge Escort 7 2 Barry Luxton/Philip Luxton Golf GTi 10 3 Stuart Wood/Paul Waterton Sierra 4x4 Estate 12 4 Les Parsons/Roger Davidson Sierra 16 5 Ben Jefferies/Tom Jefferies Golf GTi 23 6 Anton Shaw/Roger Henderson Escort 29 7 Andrew Pile/Ray Snow Escort 29 8 Christopher How/James How Astra 33 9 Barbara Carter/Calvin Fenwick Corolla 34 10 Rob Norrington/PRAR Sunbeam 35 11 Trevor Joel/John Upham Sunbeam 43 12 Bob Davis/Mark Newberry Golf GTi 45 13 Pete Benson/Paul Wrigley Escort 52 14 Bill Taylor/Paul Taylor XR3 67 15 Bob France/Rob Liddiard Sierra 68 16 Martin Baker/Peter Barnard Nova 69 17 James Menear/Tracie Menear 205 87 18 David Lyon/Len Beer 106 115 19 Mike Reed/Colin Reed RS2000 1 80 20 Stephen Nott/Nicholas Tucker 205 8 89 Novices 1 Ian Burnell/Andy Burnell Astra 1 2 Simon Robison/Jonathan Carey Mexico 8 3 Sheldon Ware/Jason Hayes Escort 19 4 Barry Hilton/Andrew Ballantyne Opel Kadett 2 76 5 Tony Lawrence/Stuart Coomber Sierra Cosworth 5 77
