 Cross Border Rally 1996 |  Preston Rally 1996 |
Cross Border Rally 1996 | Preston Rally 1996 |
The overall event was won by Charlie Brown/Neil Turner, with P Mackay/F Mackay bringing their mini home as first Novices. (Don't you just hate entry lists without people's first names on - Ed.)
The Scottish run their events slightly differently to the English and these differences were to prove telling. First difference was that the route was 230 miles! This is almost double a typical English road rally. To fit the route in before dawn car one started at 8pm, somewhat earlier than the usual midnight start of an English event. With only 32 time controls there were quite a few long sections, but to ensure that there would be no ties CoC Pete Martin included both a regularity section and another timed to the second tie decider. Neither of these would be needed as the difficult navigation ensured that there was a good spread of penalties.
With the longer sections allowing plenty of plotting time the emphasis was on getting the route correct and not missing any codeboards. The first standard section of the night caused a few problems with only five crews able to solve the navigation, and drive the correct 3 mile route to TC3 in the 6 minutes allowed. No association managed to get all three crews through unscathed and this left ACSMC and AWSCC tied on 1 minute a piece. The long loop round Carron Valley Reservoir didn't take any more time off anyone. Only when J Solly/M Russell dropped two minutes at TC5 did the ACSMC move into the overall lead. By TC6 AWSCC had slipped to third place, P Seril/R Seril having dropped two codeboards.
These positions remained unchanged right up to petrol. This included a 28mph regularity section using whites in Loch Ard Forest. The navigation continued to be quite involved, section using gridlines written in binary had everyone reaching for their calculators for example. The long section lengths meant that the top navigators were unable to press home their advantage. The section up to TC8 proved to be the undoing of a few people. Accurate reading of the navigation was required, and Watson/PRAR were among many to fall foul of it. Team wise their wrong approach had no effect, but they fell from (joint) 1st to 6th in one manoeuver.
The first section out from petrol proved to be the undoing of the ACSMC team. Unused to using crossroads twice they all missed the white loop just north of Dunipare. This let the ANICC team into the lead, despite R Ewing/Drew Todd also missing the loop. Three controls later the ACSMC moved back into the joint lead. Poor times by the ANICC on the sections alongside the Forth had let them back in. By TC18 the ANICC had moved ahead again, eeking out a 3 minute lead (101 against 104). This was despite the odd missed codeboard or two.
More longer sections brought he crews to the rather unusual ford at Knowehead. The ford in question runs under the B816, and is approached by slotting hairpin left into a field. There then follows a very slippery decent to the stream, which claimed at least one piece of bent metalwork. The ford itself then runs, Italian Joblike, back under the B816 and you then face a struggle back up the slippery slop the other side! Unfortunately the section was too long to claim many people, despite the avoid map reference navigation. This was partially due to the 15 minute delay that the weather forced upon the organisers. It did take enough time off the ANICC team to let ACSMC back in to a 9 minute lead.
More fun and games were to follow with a run at the hill climb course alongside Forrestburn Reservoir. Times were recorded for interest purposes only...
A set of short, 4 minute sections followed, and these proved to be bread and butter to both the ANICC and ACSMC, minimal time penalties were accrued but Louden/Merry dropped a few costly codeboards and the ANICC were unable to recover. Good times, and the correct route, by the AWSCC allowed them to move up into 2nd spot. With only a few more controls, despite 30 miles of route, there was nothing that the other teams could do and the ACSMC emerged as the champions.
1 ACSMC The Association of Central Southern Motor Clubs 128 2 AWSCC The Association of West of Scotland Car Clubs 284 3 ANICC The Association of Northern Ireland Car Clubs 400 4 ESACC East of Scotland Association of Car Clubs Not Classified
Pos Driver/Navigator Car m Team 1 Charlie Brown/Neil Turner Micra 19 AWSCC 2 Mark Greenwood/Andy Juniper Astra 23 ACSMC 3 J Solly /M Russell Escort 43 AWSCC 4 Trevor Joel/Dean Taylor Sunbeam 46 ACSMC 5 Andy Watson/PRAR Punto 59 ACSMC 6 M Louden/H Merry 205 GTi 65 ANICC 7 D Johnston/A Gibson Golf 74 8 R Ewing/Drew Todd Frogeye Sprite 76 ANICC 9 J Whiteford/I Maxwell Escort 82 10 K Butler/K Matier Corolla 168 11 P Seril/R Seril Celica 222 AWSCC 12 J Henderson/L Cochrane Sunbeam 259 ANICC 13 Dave Shadwell/Douglas Smith Escort 346
1 P MacKay/F MacKay Mini 29 2 A Cornes/T Allison Golf 73
