Sevenoaks & DMC

Kent Rally

15th/16th February 1997

Nil-All Score-Draw

Alnite Rally 1997

Morning Mist Rally 1997

Steve Cole/Bob Blows and Paul Wright/Mark Goodman completed the 1997 Kent Rally penalty free. They were declared as the joint winners. Third place fell to Doug Kingsley/PRAR after they struggled with a circular herringbone and dropped from the lead. Mike Cockle/Andy Kilby manoeuvered their Historic MGB into fourth spot, just ahead of the Audi 80 of first novices Nick Hedges/Glyn Williams. First semi-experts were Ian Harrison/Rob Watson, who came in 7th having not had the benefit of the easier navigation given to historic and novice crews.

A change of start venue allowed the route to use some of the more interesting roads in West Kent, and East Surrey. Mike Biss/Cath Woodman lead the field away from Westerham. They were destined to miss a board in the first half which cost them 7 places. Car two featured Stella Morris, with Martin Smith on the maps. Martin's usual driver, Ian Mepham, was driving the course opening car with CoC Sue Speller in the hot seat. They struggled a bit with the first section, despite it only being spot heights, but they eventually rolled in 6th.

The second section, at Fickleshole, had to be rerouted due to the Police and Fire Brigade attending a burnt out wreck - product of some earlier joyriders. The general police presence put many people on edge, but fortunately the tulip handout was quick to plot and the route not too taxing. A quick trip down Clacket Lane, and the only casualties were Owen Turner/Andrew Dadswell. An excursion into a ditch had popped the screen out of their imp, but they were able to make running repairs (tank tape!) and continued on with almost a dozen fails on their timecard. They managed to keep out of any further trouble and didn't end up last!

The route continued down the eastern edge of 187, taking in some of the twistier lanes, and making good use of the triangles. Hever saw the route turn northwards, for a run across Toys Hill. The navigation continued in an interesting vein, nothing too difficult, although the tracing at TC9 caused some head scratching. Crews were beginning to pick up the odd minutes here and there, and CoC Speller kept the schedule quite tight. A short transport section brought the route back to the foot of the North Downs at Brasted. This was where Biss/Woodman succumbed to a very rare fail. They missed a loop having misinterpretation the navigation. They were not alone.

The handout at TC14, on top of the now foggy North Downs, indicated that TC15 was "2 miles away on the way to Sheffield & Doncaster" with TC 16 "a further 2.5 miles away on the way to Barnard Castle & Richmond!" This brought the navigators scrabbling for their discarded map covers as they sought the sheet numbers in question. This, and the fog, caused many crews to drop time (but not of course Cole/Blows or Wright/Goodman). With a few more trips up and down the Downs (and in and out of the fog) the route wended it's way on to Petrol. The standings at this point were:

1= Wright/Goodman       Clean
1= Cole/Blows           Clean
1= Kingsley/PRAR        Clean
4  Cockle/Kilby           1 m
5  Chris Pratt/Nick Arden 2 m

With the navigation pitched at the semi end of the experts it seemed simply to be a case of hanging on for a good finish especially with the route setting out into the relatively familiar territory in The Weald. And so it seemed up to TC28. Here the envelope contained a circular herringbone. Wrong slotting saw Kingsley/PRAR drop from the lead, their three minute penalty being amongst the worst. More navigational consternation arose at TC40. A mirrored tracing was enough to wrong foot the navigators, and quite a few dropped a minute or two at TC41. Fortunately for Kingsley/PRAR they managed to pull up on Cockle/Kilby, and regained third spot.

And so back to the Brands Hatch Thistle Hotel, taking in final section up and down the Downs, for breakfast. Here after many light hearted suggestions for splitting the tie (including for example: combined ages, a quick autotest in the car park, biggest breakfast, countback...) Cole/Blows and Wright/Goodman were declared joint winners.

PRAR

Final Results:

Pos Driver/Navigator      Car      Cl f   m
 1= Cole/Blows            205 GTi  E  Clean
 1= Wright/Goodman        Escort   E  Clean
 3  Kingsley/PRAR         Nova GTE E      4
 4  Cockle/Kilby          Cortina  H      7
 5  Hedges/Williams       Audi 80  N      9
 6  Morris/Smith          XR3i     E     12
 7  Harrison/Watson       XR3i     SE    15
 8  Askew/Upham           Audi 80  SE    24
 9  Pratt/Arden           205 GTi  E     29
10  Biss/Woodman          Nova GTE E   1  4
11  Locks/Locks           AH 3000  H   1 12
12  Rodgers/Fearon        Maestro  E   1 13
13= Michael/Barrett       Escort   E   1 14
13= Hayward/Muttram       Cavalier E   1 14
15  Gadsby/Gadsby         Nova     E   1 31
16  McLaclan/Clough       Escort   E   2 25
17  Carter/Barnard        Corolla  S   2 58
18  Manning/Deacon        Audi 80  N   3 39
19  Bushby/McKenzie       Escort   S  10 33
20  Reynolds/Briggs       Nova GTE S  10 54
21  Turner/Dadswell       Imp      N  11 18
22  Penrose/Askew         Astra    S  11 19
23  Greenwood/Beard       Astra    N  12 56
24  Millington/Whitehouse 205 GTi  SE 12 66