1996 Wessex Rally

1996 Bullnose Rally

The Drystone stuck to it's traditional format with 130 miles of route including familiar sections such as High Rake and Hay Dale. With deliberately easy navigation and plenty of make up the best drivers were to come to the fore. Drive of the night went to Hawkins/Coupland who, starting as car 23, struggled with the thick dust thrown up by the front runners. High Rake was particularly bad, with the dust reducing visibility severely.

Starting from Chesterfield the first few sections of route didn't trouble the sixty car field, although there seemed to be some confusion over the correct route on Bradwell Moor. Ian Mepham/Martin Smith (Golf Gti) dropped 2 minutes here and they struggled to recover to 7th O/A despite consistent times in the top 5. They dropped a few minutes later when the car's (not the driver's or navigator's!) brain became unplugged!

The first of the real decisive sections was Middleton Moor/High Rake. Only Robinson/Wheeldon were able to clean both parts of the section. Six crews were able to limit their loss to seconds: Mepham/Smith 6, Steve & Richard Pashley 10, Hawkins/Coupland 12, Mike Monaghan/Dave Campbell 14, Damian Conway/Pat Gadsby 16, Gordon Popperwell/Graham Coker 37. The rest of the field was left trailing in their dust.

The rest of the first half allowed a little respite, prior to the sting at the end. The short section including white at Priestcliffe Ditch and the loop south of the A6 was to see everybody penalised by at least a minute. Fastest were Robinson/Wheeldon on 1:07. Hawkins/Coupland posted the second fastest time (1:12) to move into second place ahead of the Pashleys. Likewise Tim Tordoff/Ian Frazer posted the third fastest time and moved into third, leapfrogging both the Pashleys and Conway/Gadsby. Thus the standings at petrol were:

1 Robinson/Wheeldon 01:07
2 Hawkins/Coupland  01:24
3 Tordoff/Frazer    01:34
4 Pashley/Pashley   01:38
5 Conway/Gadsby     01:50
6 Michael/Barratt   01:53
7 Monaghan/Campbell 01:57

With a prompt restart, the organisers not wasting the short summer night with a long halt, it was back into the thick of things. The 99% asphalt regularity section Goyt--round Erwood Reservoir before going over Goyt's Moss and Axe Edge moor--took a further few seconds off the leaders. Here the leaders had to give best to four other crews. Brown/Roberts and novices Benson/Stevens both posted a very respectable six second penalty. Both Tordoff/Frazer and Martin Self/Alan Ogden squeezed in one second ahead of Robinson/Wheeldon on 9 seconds. Hawkins/Coupland struggled on this section, their 33 second penalty being enough to drop them to 4th O/A. This was to be Robinson/Wheeldon's final penalty, as they went on to clean the remaining 70 miles.

With the general lack of rain the going on the whites was very firm and despite the clouds of dust many cars were able to clean the longer sections. The final timed to the minute section across Beeley Moor took a few minutes off some crews, allowing Hawkins/Coupland to regain second spot from Tordoff/Frazer. A late surge from Randall/Davenport completed their run from 13th to 3rd bumping the unfortunate Tordoff/Frazer to 4th.

The final section proved to be the sting in the tail. Having dropped time in the last competitive some crews fell foul of the 'thou shalt not make up time in a neutral section' rule. The fails accrued ruined some good results - notably the Pashleys, who would have been sixth, but dropped to 30th! Almost half the field completed the route without fails, and there were only a dozen retirements from the 60 starters demonstrating the benefits of simple navigation and tricky roads.

Best of the visiting LCAMC (and AEMC) runners were 6th placed Gordon Milbank/Paul Sharp making the long trip up from Essex. The comfortably beat LCAMC (and AEMC) championship leaders Mepham/Smith but were unable to assail their championship lead.

[I'm not sure of the other championship (EMAMC ANCC) standings I'm afraid.]

PRAR

Final Results:

Pl Car Driver/Navigator     Cls   First Half   Second Half     Total Penalty
 1  1  ROBINSON/WHEELDON    E1    01:07 -      +  00:10 -      =   01:17     
 2 23  HAWKINS/COUPLAND     E2    01:24 -      +  00:33 -      =   01:57     
 3 13  RANDALL/DAVENPORT    E3    02:28 -      +  00:12 -      =   02:40     
 4  3  TORDOFF/FRAZER       E4    01:34 -      +  01:09 -      =   02:43     
 5 11  SELF/OGDEN           E5    02:06 -      +  01:09 -      =   03:15     
 6 19  MILBANK/SHARP        E6    02:48 -      +  01:38 -      =   04:26     
 7  5  MEPHAM/SMITH         E7    03:22 -      +  03:22 -      =   06:44     
 8 17  POPPERWELL/CORKER    E8    02:11 -      +  04:49 -      =   07:00     
 9 10  CONWAY/GADSBY        E9    01:50 -      +  05:17 -      =   07:07     
10  6  MICHAEL/BARRATT      E10   01:53 -      +  05:18 -      =   07:11     
11 18  ASHMEAD/HOULT        E11   04:07 -      +  03:48 -      =   07:55     
12 22  BROWN/ROBERTS        E12   07:00 -      +  01:06 -      =   08:06     
13 21  WRIGHT/COPPOCK       E13   05:52 -      +  02:44 -      =   08:36     
14 49  BEVILACQUA/MITCHELL  N1    05:33 -      +  03:07 -      =   08:40     
15 16  PRESSDEE/CARR        E14   07:21 -      +  01:30 -      =   08:51     
16 20  LUMB/PICKAVANCE      E15   07:37 -      +  06:10 -      =   13:47     
17  7  WRIGHT/GOODMAN       E16   08:37 -      +  05:38 -      =   14:15     
18 47  HARWICH/HOWDLE       N2    07:16 -      +  07:30 -      =   14:46     
19 59  HUNT/HOLLIS          N3    15:37 -      +  04:11 -      =   19:48     
20 31  HARTWELL/ROBERTS     E17   14:25 -      +  06:35 -      =   21:00     
21 32  CHIN/LIDDIARD        E18   10:07 -      +  12:46 -      =   22:53     
22 41  BETTS/ROBERTS        N4    13:10 -      +  11:56 -      =   25:06     
23 25  LODGE/HEPPENSTALL    E19   12:54 -      +  13:31 -      =   26:25     
24 36  KERSHAW/POLE         E20   14:47 -      +  16:24 -      =   31:11     
25 35  TURNER/CROSBY        E21   19:33 -      +  12:30 -      =   32:03     
26 28  PHILLIPS/CUTTELL     E22   24:32 -      +  10:02 -      =   34:34     
27 48  STONE/STONE          N5    04:11 -      +  32:30 -      =   36:41     
28 34  BRAY/WOOD            E23   41:10 -      +  04:42 -      =   45:52     
29 55  TURNER/DADSWELL      N6    32:52 -      +  20:38 -      =   53:30     
30  2  PASHLEY/PASHLEY      E24   01:38 -      +  02:12 - 01F  =   03:50  01F
31 12  TURNER/CORK          E25   04:02 -      +  01:16 - 01F  =   05:18  01F
32 50  MARRATT/BOOTH        N7    07:15 -      +  07:35 - 01F  =   14:50  01F
33 40  HOBDAY/DUNHAM        N8    09:41 -      +  05:59 - 01F  =   15:40  01F
34 39  ASTLEY/ORTON         E26   10:04 -      +  06:04 - 01F  =   16:08  01F
35 46  GREEN/ALLEN          N9    12:02 -      +  07:41 - 01F  =   19:43  01F
36 52  BENSON/STEVENS       N10   18:55 - 01F  +  02:06 -      =   21:01  01F
37 33  RITCHIE/WESTHEAD     E27   13:52 - 01F  +  07:19 -      =   21:11  01F
38 44  BIRD/KELSAL          N11   15:10 -      +  13:51 - 01F  =   29:01  01F
39 43  HUNT/PRIDMORE        N12   16:29 - 01F  +  13:33 -      =   30:02  01F
40 45  BURGESS/EVANS        N13   31:47 -      +  30:36 - 01F  =   62:23  01F
41 51  GREEN/JORDAN         N14   19:02 - 01F  +  20:53 - 02F  =   39:55  03F
42 60  OATES/OATES          N15   23:14 - 04F  +  14:24 -      =   37:38  04F
43 53  WALKER/FOWLER        N16   35:23 - 03F  +  10:19 - 01F  =   45:42  04F
44 42  PERCHARD/VARLEY      N17   13:27 - 04F  +  17:27 - 01F  =   30:54  05F
45 57  NORTHEDGE/JOLLEY     N18   42:26 - 02F  +  40:00 - 08F  =   82:26  10F
46 58  HOWDLE/HOLMES        N19   44:00 - 12F  +  37:52 - 01F  =   81:52  13F
47 56  HALEY/BARNES         N20   37:00 - 07F  +  37:28 - 07F  =   74:28  14F
48 27  NORRINGTON/PRAR      E28   19:49 - 02F  +  40:00 - 14F  =   59:49  16F