 Noreaster 1992 |  Highwayman Rally 1993 |
Noreaster 1992 | Highwayman Rally 1993 |
However, like the best laid plans of mice and men, it was not to be, and at the end of an uncomplicated night's sport Mike Biss & Cath Woodman rolled out winners (in his well-known Sierra Estate). Second was AERRO high flier Pete Gregory with Pete Tilling in the Hot Seat. Relegated to third (starting car 1) were Terry Schraider & Chas Davis (in Terry's venerable Sunbeam) and fourth (from a seeding of 20) were Doug Robinson & Rob Nugent in Doug's unfashionable Capri(!).
The start was from Hartwell's in Abingdon where a rather disappointing 33 cars lined up. The bulk of the competitive mileage was to be found in the Chilterns, with petrol in High Wycombe, and the finish rather remotely at Cheively (apparently the only place guaranteed to be open within a large radius.) Starting before midnight the cars had a longish Transport section to Chalgrove where the competitive proper started.
With 40 controls in the total mileage of about 140 the night was going to consist of lots of tight sections and the emphasis would be on the usual fast accurate plotting. (If in doubt - go flat out!) As usual, good use of unmarked triangles (and trees!) was made, and the navigation although on the whole simpler than in previous years was still sufficient to keep navigators active.
First retirements of the night were Peter Miles/Rick Snook when the lights went out on their Alfa in the first Transport section. Next to go were unlucky John Upham and Tim Warburton when John's TVR's diff decided to lock solid leaving PCD. This has basically blown John's chances in the ACSMC championship - the TVR's reliability has been somewhat suspect all year and this was the final straw.
Most cars made it to the first time recovery section with out much trouble, a few loosing only the odd minute (or gaining two for booking early!). Andy Juniper and Dean Taylor lost their throttle spindle and where only able to continue with a jack plug (provided by Doug Kingsley from the car behind) tie-wrapped into place! Amazingly these repairs held through out the night and they lost no time in completing them.
From the recovery section onwards things were somewhat different and only one crew (Pete & Pete) were to make it to petrol on time and with no penalties. Doug Kingsley & PRAR were also clean timewise but had managed to go sailing past the first codeboard of the night without realising. The 20 minute penalty they entailed was to drop them right out of contention. The half-way results demonstrated the gulf between the experts (masters?) and the two novice crews. The majority of experts had dropped about 10 minutes in total where as neither of the novices were to survive going OTL. With petrol in an MTC and exclusion being the penalty for OTL this was the end of the night for them. (Perhaps organisers could be more careful of the status of controls - if petrol in was just a normal TTC/NTC this would not have occurred.)
Petrol was in the middle of High Wycombe and those of you who know the M40 junction will know what a pain the lights on it can be. These coupled with the second noise test in the link out from petrol made this section somewhat tighter than expected.
In the past the organisers have turned the screw in the second half and this year was no exception. The route from MTC21 to TC39 was all competitive and contained 17 intermediate controls and a host of PCs in the space of 65 miles. With a few longer sections (with QZs) the typical section was 3 miles long. This leads to a schedule where any wrong slots are severely punished as is any slacking on behalf of the driver or navigator.
Most crews managed to make it through to TC39, including John Upham and Tim who had been relayed home and returned to spectate. Most cars, there were a scant 20 cars classified in the final results after some had gone OTL or DNF'd. There were 3 exclusions for lights on in a QZ, but although they queried the decision it was in vain. With £65 required for a protest that was the end of things, and they went home somewhat dischuffed.
Pete & Pete, who were leading at half way, had difficulties with a short gridlines section which allowed Mike & Cath through to win by 1 minute. The next three crews were all separated on the furthest cleanest basis which gave third to Terry & Chas, fourth (1st Expert award) to Doug & Rob and fifth (2nd Expert) to rising stars Colin Rodger & Sue Speller. Joanna Johnson & Pete Johnson came in first Semi-Experts (12th O/A) with Derek Newbould & Ken Underwood second (16th O/A).
Doug & PRAR came in 7th only dropping 2 minutes in the second half, and cursing the codeboard they had missed. Other WCC crews to suffer were 2nd seeded Mick Smith & Roger Davidson who had a wrong approach to a PC on a triangle which dropped them to 8th. They later came close to an in-car divorce after a curious incident. The door had flown open, the navigation vanished into a ditch and Mick refused to stop as he was in press on regardless mode. Fortunately, after Roger had hit him with his clipboard, Mick chose to stop and Roger retained his seat.
The organisers reported ClubSport's Andy Manston had been involved in an incident with a member of the public which left him cameraless. The Police were called to reclaim his equipment but by the time this had happened everybody had gone home to bed.
Pos Driver/Navigator Penalty 1 Mike Biss/Cath Woodman 0F 7min 2 Peter Gregory/Pete Tilling 0F 8min 3 Terry Schraider/Chas Davies 0F 13min 4 Doug Robinson/Rob Nugent 0F 13min 5 Colin Rodger/Sue Speller 0F 13min 6 Mark Goodman/Simon Hopkins 0F 18min 7 Doug Kingsley/PRAR 0F 22min 8 Mick Smith/Roger Davidson 0F 24min 9 Paul Sharp/Andrew Bargery 0F 25min 10 Gavin Johnson/Stephan Miles 0F 35min 11 Kevin Marshall/Andy Watson 0F 48min 12 Joanna Johnson/Pete Johnson 0F 49min 13 Matryn Harris/Martin Saunders 0F 52min 14 Tony Michael/Paul Barrett 0F 94min 15 Rob Smith/Craig Codling 0F 150min 16 Derek Newbould/Ken Underwood 1F 80min 17 Ian Orford/Peter Barnard 2F 170min 18 Andy Spindlow/Bob Muttram 3F 86min 19 Pat Delaney/James Hasler 3F 157min 20 Graham Dear/D. Waldron 7F 155min
