Sevenoaks & DMC

Kent Rally 1996

24th/25th February 1996

Mepham by a minute

Noreaster 1996

Powerush Rally 1996

Ian Mepham/Martin Smith scored their maiden win on Sevenoaks & DMC's Kent Rally. Having been knocking on the door for the past six months they have finally gained admission to the Masters' Club. Their win was one of consistency, because although there were crews who were faster across the ground, they were found to be missing vital codeboards at the finish. Only four crews made it to the finish fail free and they reaped the just rewards of accurate navigation. Steve Penrose/Allan Askew were best of the Semi Experts, bringing their Astra home with a mere 11 fails! The Novices and Historics completed a shorter route. The Historic section fell to Mike Cockle/Andy Kilby, fail free in their Cortina GT, with Ray Deacon/Paul Rodemark first Novices on 1 fail.

With the usual top heavy field of Experts lead away by Andy Juniper/Dean Taylor it seemed like business as usual. By half way they had built a comfortable lead of three minutes over the Astra of Russell Fry/Cath Woodman. Already several fancied runners had taken a tumble, notably Doug Kingsley/PRAR and Steve Cole/Bob Blows who were found to have missed a codeboard early in the first half. Mepham/Smith shared third with Les Parsons/Roger Davidson, back after holing the radiator on the Taunton, and Keith Lee/Matthew Fowle.

The route had trickled it's way around the NW corner of 188 taking in familiar roads such as Magpie Bottom and Bough Beech reservoir. With a few long way round triangles and some varied navigation there was plenty to keep both occupants of the cars active. Some sections seemed to have caused more consternation than others. The short avoids section down to TC5 at Goathurst Common took time off two-thirds of the field. A long quiet zone in the section up to TC10 also caused some trouble - most notably to Parsons/Davidson who took the wrong route and were unable to recover their lost time. More fails were recorded by crews neglecting to go round the triangle just after TC10 having missed the last line of the navigation.

With only 80 of the 195 miles elapsed the first half seemed merely to be a gentle run before the tribulations of the second 'half'. This built into a tussle between Mepham/Smith and Parsons/Davidson.

Juniper/Taylor picked up their fail early on into the half, missing a small loop out near Goudhurst. With Fry/Woodman slipping up and dropping time at TC21 the lead was handed to Parsons/Davidson (on the tie decider from Mepham/Smith). Mepham/Smith harried Parsons/Davidson for a further 18 controls until, at TC39, Mepham/Smith dropped a minute. By now the route had wended it's way onto the unused roads of map 177 (East London!). Fry/Woodman had slipped to fourth spot, with south-western crew Stuart Wood/Paul Waterton occupying the third spot.

The final 10 miles were to see these pairings reversed as first Parsons/Davidson dropped two minutes on a section defined by grid squares. Les later confessed that they had to go back to look for a codeboard having become confused by the junction at Choppers Wood. Wood/Waterton also dropped an armful of minutes on the same section, having to pick up a tow from Parsons/Davidson, allowing Fry/Woodman to scoop third on the tie decider.

With only a short section remaining Mepham/Smith held on to take their first win. With the Historics and Novices taking a shorter route by virtue of cutting out some of the larger loops, the results proved too difficult to calculate on the morning.

PRAR

Final Results:

Main Event

Pos Driver/Navigator                     Car              f   m
 1  Ian Mepham/Martin Smith              Golf GTi             5
 2  Les Parsons/Roger Davidson           Sierra               6
 3  Russell Fry/Cath Woodman             Astra               20
 4  Stuart Wood/Paul Waterton            Sierra Est          20
 5  Andy Juniper/Dean Taylor             Sunbeam          1F  1
 6  Steve Cole/Bob Blows                 205 GTi          1F  5
 7  Doug Kingsley/PRAR                   Cavalier         1F  6
 8  Keith Lee/Matthew Fowle              Astra            1F 18
 9  Steve Garside/Glynn Hayward          Nova             2F  8
10  Ray Heathcote/Pat Gadsby             Viva             2F 28
11  Tony Michael/Paul Barrett            Escort           2F 39
12  Paul Wright/Mark Goodman             Escort           3F  8
13  Gordon Popperwell/Graham Coker       Escort           4F 10
14  Trevor Joel/John Upham               Sunbeam          5F 40
15  Nick Vine/Brian Cammack              XR2              7F 45
16  Barbara Carter/Peter Barnard         Corolla          7F 63
17  Steve Penrose/Allan Askew            Astra           11F 67
18  Grodon Milbank/Mat Clark             Escort          14F 60
19  Dave Bushby/Roger McKenzie           Escort          15F 54
20  Rob Norrington/Chris Moore           Sunbeam         16F 37
21  Simon Millington/Richard Whitehouse  Cavalier        18F 78
22  Nick Hedges/Ian Thompson             Audi 80         57F 35

Historics & Novices

Pos Driver/Navigator                     Car              f   m
23  Mike Cockle/Andy Kilby               Cortina GT          30
24  Ray Deacon/Paul Rodemark             Maestro          1F 20
25  Andy Gibson/Steve Bubb               MG               1F 20
26  Peter Locks/Ann Locks                Austin Healey   10F 57
27  Frederick Game/John Hubbard          Hyundi Lantra   12F 49
28  Martin Ingall/Martin Brazil          Austin Healey   14F 41
29  Andrew Overy/Geoff Medcraft          Golf Gti        25F 56
30  Robert Reynolds/Russell Briggs       Nova            28F 25
31  Christine Hiscock/Colin Hiscock      Chevette        40F 51