 1994 Bow & Arrow Rally |  1994 Three Rivers Rally |
1994 Bow & Arrow Rally | 1994 Three Rivers Rally |
The event returned to it's refurbished start venue at Regency in Witney, where 33 crews assembled for the night's sport. First car off into the night were Gregory/Tilling in they were to lose time as their Astra's exhaust fell apart. Repairs involving poking a stick "where the sun doesn't shine" got them moving again but the time lost dropped them from far contention. Next off were Cole/Blows in a 205, followed by Rodger/Elcomb in a similar vehicle. Andy Elcomb had stepped in at short notice to take Sue Speller's usual role.
Counting for 4 championships the Bullnose attracted the cream of the Southern crews, including the leading contenders from the ACSMC, LCAMC, ASWMC & CMSG. With these championships moving into the dropping stage, crews were keen to improve their standings.
The route began with some fast open sections defined by simple navigation (tulips and spot heights) but the Bullnose has a reputation for being tough both navigationally and route wise. First section to put the cat amongst the pigeons used odd and even grid lines to define the route. This was to be the first point where expert navigators could demonstrate their prowess. Kingsley/PRAR reported passing 4 cars on this section, and Watson/Juniper passed 3, indicating that their seeding could have been higher. The next section included the first white of the evening, the slot being very hard to find in the long grass. To the delight of the spectators, over shooting made the slot much harder to turn into, and many crews were relieved that they had not got a wrong approach to the next control, located at the junction beyond the white.
The route also included the very deep ford at Hartford Bridge. A brief rain shower in the afternoon ensuring that sufficient water was available to challenge the crews (and float the inflatable crocodile). Micheal/Barrett managed to drown out costing them a few minutes as they restarted the RS2000. Fellow LCAMC contendors Biss/Woodman also stalled but were able to restart their Sierra quickly and only drop 1 minute.
Thus at petrol 7 cars were still clean. Leading the Semi-Experts were Cuss/Madge on 1 minute, with Piper/Neeham leading the novices with only 3 fails(!). They were later to go OTL as the navigation proved too difficult. The route then moved into Warwickshire for the first time in 8 years, heading north towards Shipston-on-Stour. As expected the level of navigation was raised leaving petrol, with one section proving decisive. Kevin Belcher (CoC) had chosen to define the route by map features (spotheights, milestones and contour lines), and just for good measure had reveresed the order and thrown in a PC or two. Sorting this lot out was to drop almost every crew a minute. Once again the stronger navigators reported passing many crews (Juniper claiming a total on 6 once he had sussed the first PC). Once again basically straightforward navigation had been used to good effect and the best navigators came to the fore. PRAR later reported that they had taken a flier and ignored half of the information, but nothing ventured nothing gained...
A herd of cows put paid to the final section of the event, a farmer having blocked the road to take them in for milking. Under the circumstances it proved best to cancel the whole section, but getting the computer to produce the correct answers took much longer than many people were prepared to wait.
Thus a select crowd gathered for the awards. Morris/Sullivan held on to take the Novices' award, with all other crews going OTL. Cuss/Madge took the Semi-Experts from Thomas/Upham, with a fine 5th position overall. Juniper/Watson took 2nd o/a winning the tie-decider from Cole/Blows on the the furthest cleanest basis.
Thus it was left for PRAR to briefly thank the marshals, organisers and competitors before departing for some well earned sleep.
1 E Doug Kingsley/PRAR Cavalier Clean 2 E Andy Watson/Andy Juniper 1 3 E Steve Cole/Bob Blows 205 GTi 1 4 E Mike Biss/Cath Woodman Sierra Estate 2 5 SE Neil Cuss/Andy Madge 205 GTi 4 6 E Mike Bowler/Peter Davies Astra 8 7 E Tony Michael/Paul Barrett RS2000 12 8 E Andy Spindlow/Paul Hardy Audi Coupe 15 9 E K Fry/Brian Chamberlain Astra GTE 19 10 E Ian Orford/Bob Jones Nissan Micra March 21 11 E Rob Smith/Craig Codling Escort 26 12 SE Andy Thomas/John Upham Fiesta 35 13 E Colin Rodger/Andy Elcomb 205 GTi 37 14 SE Gordon Milbank/Paul Sharp Escort 39 15 E Pete Gregory/Pete Tilling Astra 49 16 E Dave Chennells/Melanie Sadler 205 GTi 55 17 SE Barbara Carter/Len Beer Corolla 58 18 SE Vic Quayle/Craig Downer 309 GTi 65 19 SE Peter Cook/Paul Watts Escort 90 20 E Gavin Rodgers/Andrew Bargery Escort 1F 9 21 E Sean Gadsby/Pat Gadsby Nova GTE 1F 26 22 SE Nick Barltrop/Rob Liddiard Renault 12 3F 113 23 N Stella Morris/Sam Sullivan Escort XR3i 6F 156
