 1996 Barum Rally |  1996 Drystone Rally |
1996 Barum Rally | 1996 Drystone Rally |
Being a round of every championship from Dover to Land's End boosted the entry to 43 cars, with the field lead by three time winners Keith Pashley/Simon Marks. All the main regional contenders were present - car two were LCAMC stars Simon Larner/Gavin Rogers, with Colin Rodger/Sue Speller and Ian Mepham/Martin Smith flying the ASEMC flag at three and four. The eventual winners slipped in at six, with Taylor's usual driver (Andy Juniper) in a scratch pairing with PRAR at 9. With Juniper's sunbeam being reshelled after its Barum inversion they were forced to use his XR4x4 road car!
The route started it's cloverleaf around Newbury with a few short snappy sections designed to take time off the unwary. The first section, using the ubiquitous Trumpletts Farm white in the 'reverse direction', caught almost 90% of the field out. By TC6 only two crews remained clean: Robinson/Taylor and Parsons/Davidson. At the opposite end of the field Novices were having to cut route as they struggled with navigation designed for experts. Without envelopes some of these cuts proved very costly. Also struggling with the navigation were the rest of the field, only five cars arriving at petrol with a full set of codeboards.
The route was quite fast and flowing, with only the section to TC15, round Ragnal, taking much time off the top crews. Thus at petrol the standings were:
1 Robinson/Taylor Clean 2 Parsons/Davidson 1 min 3 Steve Garside/Glynn Hayward 7 mins 4 Mepham/Smith 9 mins 5 Trevor Joel/John Upham 10 minsGarside/Hayward were making the most of their local knowledge, although they had been caught out at Trumpletts Farm. Joel/Upham were first of the 'expert' crews, only to miss a codeboard in the second half dropping them well down the order. Leading the Novices were Pete Crighton/Phil Norris, although they were to retire in the second half.
With penalties abounding, a tidy run through the second half could reap large rewards. Untidiness proved to be the downfall of Larner/Rodgers: they were found to have copied a codeboard down wrongly and the resultant 20 minute penalty spoilt their clean timecards. Also suffering from bad eyesight were Juniper/PRAR, their 20 minute penalty dropping them to 13th. Late entry Cath Woodman/Ian Buxton made a run up the leader board in the final stages, but as for so many, the damage had been done by missed codeboards in the first half.
With the results delayed as navigational queries were answered not many people were around to witness Robinson's first win. As Joel/Upham fell by the wayside, Spindlow/Watson took over the lead in the experts class holding it to the end. At halfway Crighton/Norris held a 40 minute lead over Dave Bushby/Roger McKenzie, the next Novice crew. With Crighton/Norris out, they slipped into the Novices' lead. By the end however Penrose/Askew had managed to wrest the lead from the leaving them some 8 minutes back. The mixing up of regular championship crews put the regional championships into disarray, but Mepham/Smith lead the LCAMC, the ACSMC and the ASEMC as they enter the summer recess.
Pos Driver/Navigator Car m 1 Doug Robinson/Dean Taylor Capri Clean 2 Les Parsons/Roger Davidson Sierra 4 3 Steve Garside/Glynn Hayward Nova 7 4 Steve Cole/Bob Blows 205 23 5 Keith Pashley/Simon Marks Corolla 24 6 Ian Mepham/Martin Smith Golf GTi 25 7 Stuart Wood/Paul Waterton Sierra XR4x4 Estate 27 8 Andrew Spindlow/Rob Watson Audi 30 9 Kevin Belcher/Bill Melotti MG Maestro 34 10 Chris Pratt/Nick Arden 205 37Sorry I've only set the top 10 but this table was getting out of hand.
