Clubmans Beginners Road Rally Championship Round 2 the Tour of Cheshire.

Six of our beginner crews secured entries in the Clubmans section of an oversubscribed Tour of Cheshire. They faced a different navigation challenge with “no plot” tulip roadbooks and detailed time schedules to follow, rather than the marked maps they received on the Dansport. 

 

 

Championship Leaders Mike and Liz Dixon in the MGB were our highest seeded crew, 2 minutes on the road ahead of Dave and Jackie Batchelor, who made a last-minute switch from their Manta to the trusty TR4 (Oh, to have such choices). The seeding proved to be spot on as these 2 crews were nip and tuck throughout the day. 

 

On the first regularity Liz dropped just 6 seconds, against Jackie’s 11. The 911 Of Julian Adams and Grant Edwards was also performing well with just 13 seconds dropped. There was no such luck for Simon Kennedy and Nick Lunn in the Volvo 142. Their timing was hampered by a trip meter wiring glitch (n.b. Scotch Locks are not great in rally cars). An overenthusiastic Mark Woodcroft in the Chamois pressed on a bit too hard, ignoring Alison’s advice, consequently picking up a couple of minutes of penalties for early arrivals. Meanwhile Mat Jones and Nicki Kulynycz were feeling their way in their first ever event in the little 1275 Mini. 

 

The Cheshire showground tests gave the drivers the first chance to unleash the horses. The unseasonally wet winter caused some rutting, challenging the later runners, especially the low slung Mini. The situation was not helped when both the Mini and Chamois joined the several cars that went the wrong way on test 3. 

Remarkably, on Regularity B, our three leading cars tied, all dropping just three seconds. At coffee, after 9 time controls and 5 tests, just 26 seconds covered all three of them. The MG pushed a little further ahead on Regularity C dropping 6 seconds against the TR’s 13. The 911 slipped back with 50 seconds of lateness. A resurgent Volvo with a fixed Brantz showed what it was capable of with only 14 seconds dropped, following that up with the best performance of our beginners on the closed road regularity. 

After another dash around the showground, regularity E uncovered a chink in the Dixon’s armour, 56 seconds dropped on a tricky road section while the Batchelors still had a joker which, despite a similar glitch, avoided the penalty. That was enough to edge the TR4 ahead of the MGB. 

The cars then moved onto the fiendishly slippery Oulton Park test. The TR4 squeezed out another few seconds over the MGB, extending their lead to 12 seconds at lunchtime. The notable performance on the treacherous surface came from Mat in the Mini, who exploited the cars handling to set the fastest time of all our contenders and on the subsequent Oulton tests got quicker and quicker.

The exceptional performances of Liz and Jackie continued on Regularity F, dropping a meagre 36 and 25 seconds respectively across 9 controls. Adams/Edwards in the Porsche had a problem which pushed the leaders beyond their grasp. After thrashing twice more around the Oulton Park test, the final regularity was as tight as a duck’s nether regions, with 9 seconds covering our top 3 contenders. 

All 6 beginner crews made it to collect their finisher’s cheese. Everyone provided high praise for how efficiently the event had ben run. The Batchelors hung on to their narrow lead pipping the Dixons by just 23 seconds with the Porsche of Adams and Edwards less than 5 minutes adrift.