Dawnbreaker Rally 98 1998 Inter-Association Rally

Kent Rally 2000

Making the most of their local knowledge, Pheasant Plucker organisers Steve Cole/Bob Blows showed a clean pair of heels to the field. They were closely pressed by Matthew Fowle/John Upham, but John eventually had to resort to openning an envelope and this put paid to their chances.

Second place went to Doug Kingsley/PRAR with Paul Wright/Mark Goodman snapping at their heels. Ken Pape/John Stringer came in as first Semi-Experts, with Karen Porter/Ali Redford guarenteed a trophy as the only Novices in the main event. The Cross Border also paid host the the National Student Motorsport Championship, with John Swinney/Piers Evershed making a name for themselves as winners.

Running close on the heels of the Pheasant Plucker posed a few PR problems, but these were resolved. More telling was the weather which played a major factor in the outcome. The storms had subsided, but there was plenty of standing, and flowing!, water to contend with, along with fallen trees and other debris. Into this mix some non trivial navigation was thrown and as a result this year's Cross Border was the best to date.

Starting from Malsanger House, the route headed pretty much due south in order to make use of map 196. The experts made light work of these early sections, although some of the students managed to get fails at the first codeboard! Eventually the midden hit the windmill. The section was a relatively simple one, a circular herringbone, but with a choice of starts it was just enough to catch people out.

Amongst those caught out were none other than Mike Biss/Cath Woodman. This was their only time penalty (3 minutes) but on checking they had missed a loop and a codeboard. This fail was to cost them second place. Showing well at this point were Fowle/Upham posting a clean sheet, along with Cole/Blows and Wright/Goodman.

With not much more to test people the standings at halfway (at the Meon Hut) were:

1= Fowle/Upham              Clean
1= Cole/Blows               Clean
1= Wright/Goodman           Clean
4  Nick Piper/Glynn Hayward 1 min
5  Doug Kingsley/PRAR       3 min

The second half started with some re-routes due to flooding and trees blocking the route. Heading south onto map 196 the penalties started to mount. The route toke in some fresh lanes in the Forest of Bere before turning north again at Fort Nelson.

Heading East to the maze at Barnet Side and the narrow lanes on the southern half of map 186, the navigation stepped up slightly in complexity. There was still plenty to play for though. The section which finally put paid to Fowle/Upham turned out to be a simple numbers for letters substitution. Not cracking it put a fail onto their timecards which they couldn't recover from. Steady progress by Kingsley/PRAR saw them move ahead of Wright/Goodman.

PRAR

Final Results:

National B

Pos     Driver/Navigator                 Car      f   m
 1  E 1 Steve Cole/Bob Blows             205          2
 2  E 2 Doug Kingsley/PRAR               Nova        14
 3  E 3 Paul Wright/Mark Goodman         Escort      19
 4  E 4 Martin Smith/Sue Speller         Corolla     24
 5  E 5 Mike Biss/Cath Woodman           Nova     1   3
 6  E 6 Nick Piper/Glynn Hayward         Astra    1  25
 7  SE1 Ken Pape/John Stringer           205      1  25
 8  E 7 Trevor Joel/Andy Juniper         Sunbeam  1  25
 9  SE2 Matt Pullen/Paul Watson          Ibiza    1  32
10  E 8 Kevin Belcher/John Thornton      Maestro  1  45
11  E 9 Nick Hedges/Glyn Williams        Audi 80  2  61
12  E10 Matt Fowle/John Upham            306      3  29
13  E11 Mark Browell/Stefan Arndt        Mini     3  40
14  SE3 Rob Smith/Kevin Taylor           205      4  29
15  SE4 Tom Jenkins/Chris Moore          Fiesta  15  45
16  E12 Neil Lewis/Bob Muttram           Delta   17  36
17  SE5 Rob Reynolds/Allan Collyer       323     18  36
18  E13 Steve Penrose/Allan Askew        Astra   26  50
19  N 1 Karen Porter/Ali Redford         Saxo    32  40
20  SE6 Ralph Henley/Chris Crane         Sierra  33  52
DNF E   Philip Wilkins/Gordon Popperwell Escort

Clubmans'

 1  John Swinney/Piers Evershed          309      1   8
 2  Robert Jacobs/Michael Campbell       Sunbeam  1  18
 3  Charlie Brown/Oly McCollum           205      2  44
 4  Mike Frank/Steve Brumpton            Escort   3  15
 5  William Perry/Mark Knight            Nova    12  51
 6  Steve Thompson/Rob Thompson          Manta   12  55
 7  Peter Wheatley/Steve Azzopardi       Metro   14  35
 8  Matt Evans/Crispin Kennedy           Felicia 15  39
 9  Jamie Corstorphine/Frederick Darras  Mondeo  41  26
10  Arnaud Martin/Michael Sheath         306     67  55
DNF Tom O'Rourke/Keith Ramsay            106		
DNF Paul Swindells/Rachel Gleave         Volvo 340		
DNS David Hussey/Daniel Montagu          Renault 19		
DNS Michael Cochrane/Matthew Jones       Polo