Chelmsford MC
Preston Rally
 Torbay Rally 1997 |  Nightwatchman Rally 1997 |
Having made bold claims in the Motoring Press, the Preston fully lived up to them. Mike Biss (assisted as usual by Cath Woodman) proved to be the fastest on the night, but his total penalty of 68:58 indicated the toughness of the event. With 9 fail free crews evenly spaced in the range down to 132:13 there was no need for the tie decider.
Familiar faces filled the next two places: Gavin Rodgers/Carrie Parsons in Gavin's Yellow Escort FLY and Ian Mepham/Martin Smith in Ian's familiar Golf. Taking the advice to avoid getting a fail saw Robert Marshall/Roger Hage take the Semi-Expert's award (only 59 minutes behind Biss). The Novice's award went to 'Wookey'/Dave Knell demonstrating the abilities of their diesel Citroën BX.
As usual the Preston was decided on the whites of Norfolk and Suffolk. CoCs Dave Taylor & Adrian Gladwin made full use of the current rules regarding regularity sections to ensure things were difficult. With 'Standard' sections only used for links (and QZs throughout!) the majority of penalties were accrued at the regularity ITCs. These were positioned deep into the whites, the condition of which ensured that the required average was never achievable.
The route started as usual with a quick blast round the broken tarmac of Knettishall airfield, before moving on to the loose surface proper at Euston Estate. With a plethora of manned PCs deep in the estate this started to separate the men from the boys. Lower seeded crews reported passing many who had been too exuberant in the application of the right foot! The Preston has aquired a reputation as a car breaker, but the evidence from Euston was that drivers break cars!
Least penalised on these first two sections were Paul Sharp/Paul Barrett no doubts benefitting from Paul's Preston organisational experience. Their time at the exit of the Euston estate was over a minute faster than anybody else's! They posted a string of very fast times right up as far as Kentford Heath. Snapping at their heels came Rogers/Parsons and Mepham/Smith who had been trading times. Within striking distance were EMAMC visitors Martin Self/Brian Stott and Steve Pashley/Richard Pashley.
Moving on from Euston there was a time recovery section (useful because OTL was only 45 minutes) before the action restarted at Fox Pin and the Barnham Slips. Here the organisers had worked very hard to open up some new 'roads', a short quiet section being the only penalty for the addition of about 7 miles of whites not even shown on the map! A long link via the main roads gave some respite for car repairs, and navigators to get to grips with the roadbook before taking to the Icknield Way once again.
By the first petrol halt the field was beginning to separate into contenders, also rans and retirees. The top ten was:
1 Sharp/Barrett 00:23:59 2 Rogers/Parsons 00:31:37 3 Mepham/Smith 00:31:39 4 Pashley/Pashley 00:32:06 5 Self/Stott 00:32:11 6 Biss/Woodman 00:34:30 7 Damian Conway/Pat Gadsby 00:37:58 8 Jeremy Rodgers/Mark Fearon 00:44:20 9 Paul Dutton/PRAR 00:45:01 10 Matt Schumann/Stuart Leach 00:45:33
Despite the large penalties it was actually pretty close, with just two seconds between second and third place and less then a minute between second and fifth!
Heading back into Euston to use the rest of the estate Steve & Richard Pashley had the unfortunate luck of missing a codeboard, Having set very fast times all night this was a body blow to their position. They were graceful enough to accept it at the end, and did agree they had quite enjoyed bouncing along the whites in their Nova. Also rueing their second run in the estate were Sharp/Barrett. The struts of their Mk I escort became detached from the rest of the car, and they had to spend 20 minutes re attaching them. This dropped them to 5th. Being unable to press on regardless eventually cost them further undue time and two fails.
Leaving Euston Estate, the route struck out north to take in some whites not used in recent times. The Peddards Way and Hereward Way were targets for the next sections. A number of crews were caught out at PC31. Plotting map references on the whites was not easy, and a small slip put the PC on the other side of the dual carriageway from it's real location. The demise of Sharp/Barrett promoted Rodgers/Parsons into the lead, but as with last year's Preston, this was short lived and by the end of the next section, "Fire Tower", Biss/Woodman had come to the fore. As is often the case, they were never to be headed.
Regrouping at petrol in Watton the standings were:
1 Biss/Woodman 00:48:50 2 Rogers/Parsons 00:49:14 3 Mepham/Smith 00:55:29 4 Rodgers/Fearon 00:59:31 5 Conway/Gadsby 01:04:03 6 Sharp/Barrett 01:04:52 7 Schumann/Leach 01:07:02 8 Dutton/PRAR 01:18:43 9 Robert Marshall/Roger Hage 01:23:14 10 Nick Hedges/Glyn Williams 01:32:48
With driver ability and car strength the deciding factors on the final few sections some new names were starting to appear at the head of the timesheets. Robert Marshall/Roger Hage, fresh from organising the Cossack the week before, proving to be third fastest on Gooderstone. At the end Roger remarked that 'If anybody complains the Cossack is too rough, I'll tell them where to go!'
But a few fast times do not a rally make, and to win the Preston you need to be both fast on the whites and get to the finish without a failure (either navigational or mechanical). Biss/Woodman and Rogers/Parsons satisfied both of these criteria and of the two drivers this year Biss was the fastest. Next year...
