By Oli Waldock
Another HRCR Championship season has come to a conclusion after the John Bloxham Memorial Rally. With there being 8 rounds this year, each rally provided different challenges spread across most of England and parts of Wales. Championships were still to play for with arguably the toughest challenge of the year laying ahead as the crews arrived on Friday evening for noise & scrutineering at Classic Motor Cars.
Posh Scrutineering on the JBMR with some dubious characters in the background. Photo by MandH Photography
Pre rally predictions for the win were very difficult to make as said in the preview, so as Saturday morning rolled around there was plenty of anticipation amongst everyone involved. Having plotted regularity 2, 4 and 6 the night before, it was clear it would be an action packed event being confirmed with the issue of regularity 3 and the 40 mile route for the time control section an hour before the start. Regularity one was an hour long descriptive jogularity given at MC1 which included 7 timing points and 3 passage checks. Car 6 Fowle/Pickering were best through here with 16 seconds of penalties, but quite a few crews went wrong at PCC before the final timing point, myself included! Regularity two was a plotted route mostly using map 138 and an extract of map 139. There were a planned 8 timing points and 7 passage checks, with plenty of farm tracks and other off-road bits to contend with. Unfortunately the last two timing points were scrubbed due to unhappy locals, despite that it was Fowle/Pickering taking the honours again 19 seconds of penalties. After a frantic start to the morning we came to the short Ren-New Brickworks test, and quickest through here were Car 4 Head/Frost with 1:09. Crews then headed to a short coffee halt at the Dartmouth Arms in Burnhill Green with Fowle/Pickering taking an early lead.
Matt Fowles and Ryan Pickering (Ford Escort) started strongly but an unscheduled ditch excursion would ruin their rally. Photo by MandH Photography
Then came a series of three straightforward enough tests at Richard Solari Farms with Head/Frost and Car 5 Turner/Appleton beating the 1:12 bogey on the second test of the day. Quickest through test three were Car 16 Griffiths/Howell on 42 seconds followed by Turner/Appleton fastest again on test four with 1:44. Regularity three included 4 timing points and just the 1 passage check hidden down a tricky slot between two main roads. Best through this slightly shorter regularity were Car 11 King/Waldock with 10 seconds of penalties. Another four tests followed at two different but familiar locations before the lunch halt at Cleobury North village hall. Apley Estate offered up a couple of awesome tests with Turner/Appleton taking the honours on test 5 with 2:49. However, it would be last year’s winners Car 1 Blacker/Spencer going quickest on test 6 with 5:54. Blacker/Spencer were also fastest through test 7 & 8 at the slippery Ditton Priors with a couple of impressive times. Last month’s Dansport winners and locals Car 3 Darkin/Darkin would unfortunately suffer a puncture through the first pass of Ditton hampering them slightly. Results at lunch showed Fowle/Pickering holding a slim lead over Car 8 Haygarth/Taylor in second place. With more challenges to come it was all still to play for.
Regularity four would bring 5 timing points and 2 passage checks, running along an old disused railway line whilst dipping in and out of another of couple farm yards. Unfortunately, Car 2 Powley/Goff, Car 40 Davies/White, Car 43 Owen/Debenham & Car 49 Fort/Atkins would retire here due to fuel tank issues, a broken exhaust, unknown reasons and the sump guard becoming stuck respectively. Lowest penalties on this regularity was Car 15 Abrey/Raeburn on 26 seconds. Now in darkness, crews headed back to Ditton Priors for the 9th and longest test of the event, the two previous tests being joined together to make one, involving several splits, loops and merges. Car 13 Fildes/Youd were fastest here with 9:05. On to regularity five we went, having been given a handout at coffee for the route and speeds it was all plotted as we got to the start. This was a reasonably straightforward regularity only with bad potholes to avoid before the first junction! Car 10 Crammond/Vokes were best here with 18 seconds of penalties over 5 timing points. It was then time for what was promised to be an epic 40 mile time control section, using plenty of the narrow country lanes that Shropshire offers along with farmyards, tracks and fields. This part of the rally would claim lots of victims, too many to list in this case! However, the route was brilliant and as expected road rallying experience along with local knowledge would’ve definitely been a benefit. Fastest through the whole section were Turner/Appleton only dropping an outstanding 2 minutes which put them in a strong position to take the win heading into the final stages of the rally.
Owen Turner and Mark Appleton (Mitsubishi Lancer) on the Brickyard test. Only dropped 2 minutes on the Time Control Section. Photo by M&H Photography
A short stop at the Punchbowl Inn before the remaining crews headed to regularity six and the final section of the event. 7 timing points and 3 passage checks awaited with a few more farm yards to pass through. Following this it was once again Turner/Appleton best through here with 34 seconds of penalties. A short run back to the finish at the Punchbowl Inn completed what was an extremely challenging and tough event for driver, navigator and car, but definitely overall a great event. Congratulations to overall winners Owen Turner & Mark Appleton on a great performance, Dan & Nick Darkin on 2nd, Steve Head & Niall Frost on 3rd. 1st Experts were Car 28 Dave Alcock & Baz Green. 1st Novices were Car 41 Martin Leonard & Jason Murphy. Great results for both crews coming 11th and 15th overall respectively. Not to mention Ian Crammond winning the Driver’s championship and Ryan Pickering claiming the Navigator’s title, well done both, on top seasons.
Dan and Nick Darkin (Mazda MX5) enjoying the farmyards. They finished second Overall. Photo by M&H Photography.
I’d like to thank Nick and all of his organising crew for giving us a rally that I’m sure John Bloxham would’ve been proud of, and all of the marshals for giving up their free time to help make the event happen. On a side note; one last thank you to all the motor clubs that have put on events this year and to everybody involved in the HRCR Clubman’s Championship. Here’s to 2025!
All photos by kind permission of MandH Photography