The first thing is to record huge thanks and congratulations to the Matlock team for this event, well organised, great roads and lots of marshals.

Despite significant problems outside the organisers control, (irate farmers, a beached saintly Volvo, an impassable ford and not least diabolical rain on Sunday morning), this tough but fair event ran to time and everyone I spoke to enjoyed it

Winners were John Haygarth/MartinTaylor in the Opel Kadett with 18.09 of penalties, beating Leigh Powley/Brian Goff`s Corolla by 48 seconds with Dan Willan/Niall Frost a further 40 secs back.

Leigh Powley and Brian Goff (Toyota Corolla) 2nd overall.  Photo By Ben Lawrence

A super performance by Dan & Nick Darkin bagged them 4^th overall in the MX5 to win the Experts, while back in 34^th, myself and Chris Rhodes narrowly led home the novices in the Avenger.

Saturday’s night leg was brilliant. I live just off the routes for regs 1 & 3 in Macclesfield Forest & the Goyt valley, so with intimate knowledge of every yard of these roads I was able to just drive without the need to slow to look for slots, especially the 2 entrances to off road car parks. A huge advantage, thank you organisers!  The majority of these 2 regs was set at 30 mph, a tough ask in the dark with passage controls and short distances between timing points.

Much of Reg 2 had to be scrubbed because of road blockages, a shame because it was another cracker.

On Reg 1 Haygarth/Taylor and the Bricknells led with 1 second of penalties over 3 controls. The truncated Reg 2 had Callum Guy and Amy Henchoz & Paul Crosby with Ali Procter on 6 while the Darkins took Reg 3 on 22 secs.

John Haygarth and Martin Taylor (Opel Kadett Rallye) Winners 2022 Dansport Historic.  Photo by Ben Lawrence

Overnight that left John Abel/Iain Tullie ahead of Powley & Goff  then Willan/Frost.

Sunday started wet and got wetter, a nightmare for the marshals. Proceedings restarted with a herringbone with 6 speed changes on which 4 cars had only 9 seconds of penalties.

Four Tests followed, on farm tracks, predominantly tarmac but with some rougher surfaces. Very few cones & all checks marshalled, not a codeboard in site.

Reg 5 was an all roads defined by map features but with only 2 speed changes.  Graeme Cornthwaite/Lynsey Procter & Angus McQueen/Mike Cochrane shared the honours here with just 2 secs.  That took us, after what was a longish morning to coffee courtesy of the YHA where Haygarth took the lead with Powley & Willan still 2^nd & 3^rd.  Reg 6 was a plot & bash defined by 2 map extracts to pass through & only 1 speed change. This looked simple but was still a challenge to plot on the move. Crews around us were taking it on without resorting to the safety first approach of stopping near the start. Haygarth and Taylor and Willan and Frost led here on 3 seconds.  Willan/Frost, this time with Tordoff and Frazer repeated the 3 secs on Reg7, all roads again defined by road colours.

At lunch the top 3 remained unchanged. By now the rain had stopped and the Peak District was showing off its wonderful autumn colours in increasing sunshine, though with 2 more regs to come I`m not sure many navigators noticed.

Reg 8 with 4 speed changes was defined by instructions followed by no less than 8 up & down arrows to locate. Crammond/Vokes were best here on 4 secs.

The sting in the tail was Reg9, a plot & bash with a second handout partway. Part 1 was all roads with a series of grid square crossings defined only by a string of numbers, tricky in a moving car and it even had the winning navigator cursing the organisers! Part 2 was coloured roads tulips. Haygarth/Taylor were best on this with 11 seconds over 5 controls.

On the way back to Buxton were 4 more tests, the last on a very twiddly go-cart track, the others on farm tracks which some thought a bit rough in places.

Supper, a glass of something & prompt results concluded a grand evening & day of rallying.

Nonetheless a good event for the 3 generations of Bricknells with Thomas returning to the fray to win class M4 with Roger, & Oli winning N1,and making a strong impression on Andrew Parr.

Andrew Parr and Oli Waldock (Austin Cooper S) N1 winners.  Photo By Ben Lawrence

Thanks again Matlock & Dansport.

Phil Cheek

All photos by kind permission of Ben Lawrence