 Kent Rally 1997 |  Poxihen Rally 1997 |
Kent Rally 1997 | Poxihen Rally 1997 |
A tough route saw only 34 finished from the 41 starters, notable retirements included Guy Robinson/Charles Wheeldon (went home after getting a WD) and Mike Monaghan/Dave Campbell (retired after navigational difficulties). Last year's winners, and therefore top seeds, Tim Tordoff/Ian Frazer fell foul of the same WD as Robinson/Wheeldon. They soldiered on to finish 14th, their one fail costing them 13 places! They were the only crew to be on the same level as Biss/Woodman timewise.
CoC Rod Bint pulled no punches, with many crews struggling to clean the first few sections of the night. These saw the majority of the mechanically induced retirements - Carl Hawkins/Steve Coupland's Nova breaking a driveshaft and Richard McLachlan/Eddie Clough braking the suspension in their Escort. With plenty of PCs and tight 4 minute sections there was no need for difficult navigation. The first handout was grid lines and the second a straight herringbone with four junctions!
With the straight-forward navigation most of the experts managed to make the start of the timed to the second section without major penalties. However this was to all go out of the window on the 4 minute section down to TC16.
As is always the way on these sections the hand out was avoid map references - 12 of them! Navigator panic must have set in, to judge by the crews heading in all directions. Cars 1 & 2 (Tordoff/Frazer & Robinson/Wheeldon) took the wrong route entirely and WD'd the TC16, this was the end of their evenings, along with those of over 25% of the field. Of the rest Biss/Woodman breezed through it all, tip-toeing through the carnage and cleaning the section. Roger Ashmead/Alex Hoult were closest to them, dropping just 43 seconds. Between 3 and 5 minutes seemed typical for the rest of the field. Doug Kingsley/PRAR managed to drop 6.23 having wrong slotted into a field rather than the correct white!
The first portion of the route used the deceptively fast roads of the Vale of Belvior, taking in a few whites for good measure. A quick loop onto map 130, brought crews to a welcome time recovery section preceding the Burton Lazars whites. These took a few more minutes off people, to give the halfway standings as:
1 Mike Biss/Cath Woodman 1.00 2 Nigel Wright/Richard Pashley 3.15 3 Martin Self/Alan Ogden 3.33 4 Doug Kingsley/PRAR 7.23 5 Mark Turner/Tim Cork 7.33 6 Gordon Milbank/Martin Smith 8.24
The second half saw some shuffling of the chasing pack, and the meteoric rise of David Williams/Richard Booth. Dropping two minutes at TC37 cost Wright/Pashley their second place, but they regained it as Self/Ogden dropped 7 minutes (and two places) at TC49. Kingsley/PRAR picked up a puncture at PC42, changing the wheel cost them 9 minutes and two further places.
Tussle of the night was over 8th place, with 8 changes in the second half. Eventually Roger Ashmead/Alex Hoult took the spot, 41 seconds ahead of Gordon Milbank/Martin Smith who in turn were 2 seconds ahead of John Pickavance/John Chadwick!
After breakfast and protracted results calculations Biss/Woodman were announced as the winners by a fine margin.
Pos Driver/Navigator Car f m.s 1 Mike Biss/Cath Woodman Nova 7.00 2 Nigel Wright/Richard Pashley Fiesta 16.15 3 Mark Turner/Tim Cork 205 19.33 4 Martin Self/Alan Ogden Corolla 21.33 5 David Williams/Richard Booth Clio 16v 25.54 6 Doug Kingsley/PRAR Nova 28.33 7 Roger Hage/Bob Marshall Corolla 30.54 8 Roger Ashmead/Alex Hoult 205 GTi 32.43 9 Gordon Milbank/Martin Smith Escort 33.24 10 John Pickavance/John Chadwick Escort 33.26 11 Gareth Edwards/Andy Lewin Astra 42.33 12 Kevin Greater/Reg Marratt Escort 54.53 13 Barry Kendall/Robert Duck Austin A90 73.29 14 Tim Tordoff/Ian Frazer Nova 1 10.00 15 Jeremy Rodgers/Mark Fearon Maestro EFi 1 32.49 16 Russ Jones/Richard Hage Mini 1 39.00 17 Mark Whitford/Mick Fern Corolla GT 1 44.25 18 Graham Marshall/Dave Oliver Astra 1 49.13 19 Chris Jobburn/Rob Grainger Corolla GT 1 57.14 20 Nik Kershaw/Jez Pole Astra 2 25.00 21 Andrew Baker/Patrick Cooper 205 D 2 30.40 22 Damian Conway/Peter Riddle AX GT 2 37.00 23 Mick Brown/Chris Roberts Astra GTE 3 31.26 24 Robin Clarke/John Atherton 309 SRi 3 36.12 25 John Shepherd/Brett Berrisford Astra 3 61.43 26 Simon Hewitt/Richard Cornwell Maestro 4 26.17 27 Rick Chapman/Maggie Chapman 309 GTi 4 50.00 28 Brian Burkinshaw/Richard Faraday Firenza 4 59.02 29 Owen Turner/Andrew Dadswell Imp 6 63.00 30 Steven Blevins/Craig Wilkinson Megane 16v 11 57.00 31 Nigel Hunt/Laban Barlow Astra 24 39.00 32 Keith Astley/Mick Bell Astra GTE 25 54.00 33 Jason Stone/Daniel Stone Corolla GT 31 26.00 34 Richard Egger/Andrew Egger MGB 43 46.00
