 1995 Kent Rally |  1995 Barum Rally |
1995 Kent Rally | 1995 Barum Rally |
Andy Juniper/Dean Taylor took second overall, some 3 minutes back, with third falling to Nigel Hall/Dave Pitchford a further minute behind them. Second Windsor CC Sunbeam, and fourth placed overall, came Les Parsons/Roger Davidson. Roger was pleased to break his longstanding run of DNFs. In the Semi-Experts, Melanie Pearce/Dood Pearce were the only crew not to suffer a fail, and their total penalty of 52:41 was to see them in 6th place overall. The novices class fell to Russell Eden & Duncan Williams, a very respectable 14th overall, with just 3 fails. They were just ahead of Sean Rowlands/Mike East in the first Production car.
Huw James/Neil Spiers lead the field from the start in Hay-on-Wye to the start of the first section. This criss-crossed the overlap between maps 148 & 165, and with the handout printed in microscopic print there was no way that the section could be cleaned. Novices Micheal Pfeiffer/Clive Meredith posted the best time with a penalty of just 1:10. They posted respectable times all night, but when forced to cut the final section they made the mistake of booking in to MC3 some 35 minutes early. With penalties handed out at 1 fail per minute this was a costly mistake to make and they were left languishing in penultimate place. Justin Wells/Gareth Young made a similar faux pas and picked up a massive total penalty of 58F 56:00 to win both the cricket and a token award for last placed finisher.
The first section was to decimate the field, with cars off left, right and centre. First to fall by the wayside were James/Spiers succumbing to a broken cam shaft in their escort. Early accidents claimed the chevette of Terry Pressdee/Iain Tullie and the Escort of Nigel Hall/Dave Pritchford. Jonathan Gwillym/Byron Jones were forced out due to axle trouble on their Escort.
With the route on to TC5 defined by avoiding map references, only crews who could actually plot & bash were able to arrive unscathed. This section saw the emergence of Harmer/Gadsby, arriving at TC5 with a total penalty of 2:23, next in line were Novices Lloyd/Leyshon on 4:10, putting the whole gamut of experts to shame.
With similar performances during the rest of the first half Harmer/Gadsby lead into the half-way halt at Clyro. They had a total penalty of 9:23, putting them some 5 minutes ahead of Parsons/Davidson (14:55). Third at petrol were Juniper/Taylor (17:15), having dropped a large swathe of time by not taking the shortest route to TC4 and then having to back track. Fortunately good times at TC6 (0:10) and TC8 (1:05) saw them overtake Holmberg/Vale who finished the half on 18:15 after a steady run. The route was taking it's toll with only 11 cars arriving at petrol fail-free.
The second half was to prove somewhat easier, although only two crews posted clean sheets: Dave Evans/Chris Ware (trying to make amends for a poor first half) and Holmberg/Vale (hoping to pick up a few places as others fell by the way). The second half looped south, taking in Olchon Valley (and the ford at Upper Blean) before coming to within a mile of the start prior to the final 45 minute section at the foot of the Black Mountains. There were few retirements, notably the TVR Vixen of John Upham and PRAR who had an up-white excursion which removed the exhaust (and broke the engine mounts - JU).
The only real casualties amongst the top ten were Parsons/Davidson who dropped 3:54 on the half, allowing both Juniper/Taylor & Holmberg/Evans to pass them. Like the first half, only 12 crews completed the route without a fail, and with penalties ranging from 0 to 45 Fails the gap in ability between Novices and Experts is as wide in Wales as it is in England.
Pos Driver/Navigator Car F M S 1 Sarah Harmer/Pat Gadsby Maestro 14 20 2 Andy Juniper/Dean Taylor Sunbeam 17 15 3 Nigel Hall/Dave Pitchford Escort 18 15 4 Les Parsons/Roger Davidson Sunbeam 18 49 5 Dean Williams/Steve Durbin Escort 51 36 6 Melanie Pearce/Dood Pearce Escort 52 41 7 Nigel Thomas/Philip Stocking Escort 2 30 03 8 Colin Davies/Owen Dodd Escort Van 2 31 24 9 Graham Evans/Mark Hill Escort 2 52 07 10 Roy Pesticcio/Simon Lannon Escort 3 29 56 11 Dylan Davies/Jon Stobbs Escort 3 41 49 12 Chris Painter/Steve Quine Nova 3 46 17 13 Sean Rowlands/Mike East Fiesta 4 53 32 14 Russell Eden/Dunacn Williams Nova 3 54 45 15 Huw James/Neil Spiers Escort 5 28 42 16 Pete Cotton/Matt Baker Escort 5 39 08 17 Graham Davies/Brian Jenkins Peugeot 6 55 18 18 Joanne Southall/Martyn Southall Yugo 55 7 65 17 19 Nigel Lloyd/Iestyn Leyshon Escort 8 31 37 20 John Williamson/Carl Williamson Ascona 8 42 28 21 Wayne Edwards/Sharon Jarvis Escort 8 53 32 22 John Stocking/Dave Stocking Escort 10 44 43 23 Tony Watkin/Medwyn Evans Mini 12 73 08 24 Mark Morgan/Ian Morgan Sunbeam 13 44 08 25 Andrew Bowen/Ian Taylor Escort 15 61 28 26 Jonathan Lees/Richard Preece R5 turbo 16 45 11 27 Gary Tobias/Gary Robbins Hyundai 16 53 45 28 Robert Fearn/Paul Thomas Golf GTi 19 60 28 29 Peter Price/Steven Mitchell Chevette 21 62 57 30 Duncan Ridge/Tim Virgo Midget 23 67 06 31 Michael Pfeiffer/Clive Meredith Escort 40 70 07 32 Justin Wells/Gareth Young Sunbeam 58 56 00
