 Barum Rally 1997 |  Cross Border Rally 1997 |
Barum Rally 1997 | Cross Border Rally 1997 |
Despite having to run in the huge dust clouds kicked up by preceding cars, Mike Biss and Cath Woodman emerged triumphant from the Phoenix Rally. They were never really pushed close, although they did struggle with a few of the handouts. Martin Smith continued his campaign for 'Tart of the Year' rolling out with his eighth different driver for this year. Matthew Fowle piloted Martin to 2nd place, just two minutes behind Mike & Cath. The only other crew to keep a fail from their timecards were Dave Taylor/Jim Bowie, sacrificing precious minutes to avoid devastating fail. Last year this tactic netted them the win, but this year it was only good enough for third.
The semi-experts award went to Chris Moore/Andy Coshan, who vowed to be back having thoroughly enjoyed themselves. The Novices trophy was picked up by Mike Lambert/David Leckie. Mike, of course, is a local regular, but it was David's first proper night event.
An event of two halves, a cliche, but an accurate one none the less. The first half of the Phoenix was characterised by the dusty, bumpy white roads which criss cross map 132. The second by intricate route instructions on map 133. This was all finished off with a quick trip round Brandiston Airfield.
The first section took 13 tulips to get onto the whites. These however were the 'whites' on a photocopy of map 134, printed on the back of the handout. A few crews struggled to find the map, whilst others struggled to find the handout! First casualties of the night were Mark Lodder/Roger McKenzie who damaged two rims in East Bilney ford. They were forced to skip the rest of the second half, only having one spare. Charity came to the rescue and they were able to rejoin at petrol, but they were eventually placed plumb last with a magnificent fifty fails! Also struggling with the ford were eventual Semi-Expert winners Moore/Coshan, their sunbeam developing an aversion to water.
As the event moved further onto the whites, the top crews came to the fore. Showing well were Carl Hawkins/Steve Coupland, despite being of the opinion that the navigation was too involved and a result would be best obtained by tightening the timing. They were destined to get a fail after going the long way round a loop. Several crews had difficulty with the White on West Rudham Common. An ambiguity in the route instructions saw several crews attempting to make a 'goer' out of a field. Only ingenuity and tow ropes save them from an embarrassing end. Sensibly penalties at the next control were scrubbed.
By petrol things had begun to sort themselves out and the standings were:
=1 Kingsley/PRAR Clean =1 Biss/Woodman Clean =1 Jeremy Rodgers/Mark Fearon Clean 4 Paul Wright/Mark Goodman 3 min (furthest cleanest) 5 Hawkins/Coupland 3 min (furthest cleanest) 6 Fowle/Smith 3 min (furthest cleanest)
The second half route struck out north towards the sea, taking in some very 'rare' roads. A few missing codeboards on triangles caused a bit of confusion, but this paled somewhat when compared to the handout at MTC31.
It was simply grid lines with two map references tucked in to define the loops. Easy to say now, but on the night it was a cause of much consternation. PRAR, struggling with food poisoning, picked up two fails on this section, and may other crews were reduced to following and dropped shed load of time.
The run in to the finish was not too difficult, but required a combination of accurate plotting and shear speed. Falling foul of the former was the undoing of Rodgers/Fearon, two fails on one section proving very costly. The tie decider round Brandiston came into use, being required to split 6th and 7th places, with D Williams/C Booth getting the better of Paul Sharp/Paul Barrett by 2 seconds!
SCCoN also ran the Poxihen Rally earlier in the year.
Pos Driver/Navigator Car f m 1 Mike Biss/Cath Woodman Nova 5 2 Matthew Fowle/Martin Smith Mazda 323 7 3 Dave Taylor/Jim Bowie Golf 25 4 Paul Wright/Mark Goodman Escort 1 14 5 Carl Hawkins/Steve Coupland Nova 1 18 6 D Williams/C Booth Clio 1 30.02 7 Paul Sharp/Paul Barrett Escort 1 30.04 8 Chris Moore/Andy Coshan Sunbeam 1 50 9 Doug Kingsley/PRAR Nova 2 27 10 Jeremy Rodger/Mark Fearon Maestro 2 30 11 Damian Conway/Ben Conway AX 4 38 12 Alan Wakeman/Ian Perry Peugeot 205 4 60 13 Rick Chapman/Maggie Chapman Peugeot 309 23 42 14 Mike Lambert/David Leckie Avenger 36 58 15 Owen Turner/Mike Turner Imp 46 67 16 Mark Lodder/Roger McKenzie Kadett 50 33
