 1996 Twister Rally |  1997 Resolution Rally |
1996 Twister Rally | 1997 Resolution Rally |
Drive of the night went to first novices Paul Boxall/Jonathan Dunsdon who came in 10th, comfortably ahead of first Semi-Experts Paul Gosling/Stewart Lawrence (16th).
The Nightwatchman followed the recent trend towards tight sections and simple navigation. These two combined to give a very satisfying event to end the season on. A few sections had been included to separate the experts but even these had simple navigation, CoC Matthew Fowle relying on the narrow, twisty lanes to get a result.
Starting from Pease Pottage Services, at the bottom of the M23, the route took in some of the more familiar Nightwatchman roads, through Slaugham and up towards Turners Hill. These sections didn't really trouble the Experts, but already the combination of navigation, route and road was taking time off the novices. Nothing too difficult in any one respect but combined they were just enough to keep the experts awake. First experts to fall by the way were car 3, Tony Michael/Paul Barrett picking up a 7 minute penalty at TC5 to plummet to 17th. They did claw their way back 10 places, but this penalty was back breaking.
More experts were cast aside at TC 7. CoC Fowle had issued standing instructions to miss a left when ever crossing the Sussex/Surrey Border, and a fair number of crew were forced to own up to mistaking this for the East/West Sussex border. Worst affected were Fiona Casey (standing in for Doug Kingsley) and PRAR managing to get all the way to TC7 before having to turn back for the PC. Ian Mepham/Martin Smith also suffered the same fate, but a lesser penalty.
A quick avoid map references section allowed Michael/Barrett to make amends, they were the only crew to escape penalty. Mepham/Smith added to their tail of woe, some three minutes off the pace. There were five cars with only a single minute's penalty at this point: Andy Juniper/Dean Taylor, Les Parsons/Roger Davidson, Colin Rodger/Sue Speller, Paul Wright/Mark Goodman and Steve Cole/Bob Blows. Notably absent from the lead minute were Dave Smith/Cath Woodman.
The route pressed on taking a quick neutral section through Haywards Heath before diving back out into the Sussex lanes. The longer sections didn't challenge the experts too much, and thus at petrol the standings were unchanged with five cars all on one minute. Going remarkably well at this point was Paul Sharp. He was lying in 27th spot, out of 30 starters, despite being forced to steer and navigate at the same time.
The first sections out of petrol served only to transport crews to the North Downs. The area between Dorking and Cranleigh was to see the bulk of the action, as CoC Fowle utilised the narrow, high banked lanes to their best advantage. TC23 saw the penalties begin to mount again, although as usual the experts were able to limit their losses to just one minute. At the head of the field five the five cars held their position.
A quick neutral section through Westcott allowed crews to compare notes. For the next section CoC Fowle through in a tricky piece of navigation. This saw a number of top crew thrown slightly, and only Parsons/Davidson and Cole/Blows remained on the lead minute. The next section kept the pressure on. Casey/PRAR attempted to press on two quickly and took a visit to the bushes. Fortunately Michael/Barrett pulled them out, and they struggled on with the loss of four minutes. Paul Sharp was less lucky, his rally ending a few feet further into the bushes. Eventually the course closing car were able to extract him, but the subsequent time lost put him plumb last.
The route continued it's zig zag course. Cole/Blows eventually fell from the lead just after Peaslake, a three minute penalty punishing them for a navigational error. The standings at this point were:
1 Parsons/Davidson 1 2= Smith/Woodman 2 2= Wright/Goodman 2 4 Rodger/Speller 3 5= Cole/Blows 4 5= Juniper/Taylor 4The final standing were much the same as these, the rest of the rout not being able generate many more penalties at the top. Cole/Blows did fall foul of the standing instruction to miss a left, going back for a loop cost them some more time and split the tie for fifth.
With results, and breakfast produced and digested the 1996 championship year was over. Parsons/Davidson split the ACSMC honours with Juniper/Taylor and Mepham/Smith. Mepham/Smith were confirmed as ASEMC and AEMC champions.
Pos Driver/Navigator Car f m 1 Les Parsons/Roger Davidson Sierra 1 2 Paul Wright/Mark Goodman Escort 2 3 Dave Smith/Cath Woodman Astra 2 4 Colin Rodger/Sue Speller 205 GTi 3 5 Andy Juniper/Dean Taylor Sunbeam 4 6 Ian Mepham/Martin Smith Golf GTi 7 7 Tony Michael/Paul Barrett Escort 9 8 Steve Cole/Bob Blows 205 GTi 10 9 Fiona Casey/PRAR 12 10 Paul Boxall/Jonathan Dunsdon 205 GTi 14 11 Trevor Joel/John Upham Sunbeam 15 12 Chris Pratt/Nick Arden 205 GTi 32 13 Neil Lewis/Bob Muttram Lancia Fulvia 48 14 Simon Johnson/Jim Perkins 309 GTi 51 15 Kevin Goodfellow/Paddy Parker Escort 61 16 Paul Gosling/Stewart Lawrence 205 GTi 69 17 Steve Penrose/Allan Askew Astra 72 18 Simon Millington/Richard Whitehouse 205 GTi 73 19 Simon Bush/Andrew Bush Maestro 76 20 Bob Bridges/Ian Miles Fiesta 87 21 Melanie Heaton/Kevin Judd Fiesta 94 22 Gareth Hurford-Jones/Rob Liddiard Astra 98 23 Ray Deacon/Paul Rodemark Metro 101 24 Andy Cattani/Neil Ayling Alfa Sud 114 25 Dave Bushby/Roger McKenzie Escort 141 26 Chin/Chris Scudder Astra Estate 174 27 Mike Hurst/Simon Gudgeon Honda Accord 1 183 28 Mark Lodder/Martin Curtis Kadett 10 290 29 Denis Bratley/Chris Carpenter Lancia Delta 13 480 30 Paul Sharp/Paul Sharp Escort 15 473
