Tour Of Cheshire 2022 Report
Tour of Cheshire report by Martin Phaff (mostly).
Mike and Lorna Harrison and their experienced Team from Knutsford and District Motor Club were rewarded with a full entry for the Tour of Cheshire. The entry was pretty much a who’s who in Historic Road Rallying and a close fought battle was promised from the start.
Reg A should have been a simple affair, but with a route amendment due to road closure and change of timing, it was already making sure crews were awake. Reg B was a jaunt cross-country using Herringbones. Despite the sunshine, crews were also considering if in places the roads were fords, puddles or just flooded as the cars waded through the water with varying degrees of success. Unfortunately, Les Andrew /Martin Phaff in their Peugeot 104ZS drowned out and with two horse boxes following this caused them and about 10 cars behind to use their jokers. David Smith/Norden Lester Golf GTi also expired in a further big puddle to use their joker but fortunately delayed no one else.
Next up, we were treated to an enjoyable drift round the very slippery surface at Rednall Karting, which saw most crews beat the bogey time. At coffee halt the leader board was impossibly close with the top 4 overall separated by just 6 seconds.
Reg C and D saw the route heading back east and what appears to be very simple routes on the map never quite transpire as such, as is the reputation of the Tour of Cheshire. Some debate about which way round a triangle we should head and if it was a full diamond we had to pass through or only partially touch it (shorter route) kept navs nervous. Reg D contained no speed changes whatsoever, but nobody hit the illusive perfect score over the two IRTC’s. Reg E was an enjoyable 8.5mi Jogularity with some off-road sections included, just to keep the crews guessing and ‘trusting the trip’ along this final short section. Following this a run into Market Drayton Livestock Market for 3 tests and lunch. Sadly, Stephen Owens and Nick Bloxham arrived with an almighty bash to the back of their beautiful Porsche 356.
Photo by Tony Large Photos by Ben Lawrence
After lunch we went straight into Reg F which saw some interesting penalties starting to creep in, whether it was juggling the 3 maps needed for the route or the 8 speed changes that the crews had to deal with during this reg, it certainly demanded everyone’s focus.
Onto Reg H, which had a sting in the tail for some crews as the handout which looked very simple, provided an approach direction into EoR that forced a much longer route round than was obvious, causing some crews to go back for it the long way round.
A welcome return to the Oulton Park rally circuit saw 2 slippery tarmac tests, both repeated, and smiles all round for the crews, spectators and marshals who were treated to some sunshine and classic rally cars doing what they do best – entertaining a crowd! Oulton had more grip than usual which probably didn’t help front runners Nick and Andy Pullan’s Imp as it succumbed to a broken half shaft.
Reg I didn’t cause too many issues before Reg J took us into the finish via a 4mile Jogularity, and with only a single control we saw crews trying to achieve the illusive 0s penalty and 7 crews did!
Overall winners were Willan/Frost in a Volvo PV544, 11s ahead of Crosby/Proctor in a 911, ruing their 2 line faults at Oulton Park which cost them the win, 3rd place went to Matt Warren/Ryan Pickering in another 911 just 2 seconds further back. Best Expert and 8th overall, just 65 seconds behind the winners, was a great result for Elliott Dale/Charlotte Ryall RS2000 whilst best Novices were David Foster/Peter Blackett in a Mini Clubman 1275GT, Peter back rallying after a long lay-off.
A great Tour of Cheshire, always enjoy the trip to Oulton and the Rednal Kart track was a great new addition – a report plagiarized from Kelvin Phipps.
cheers Martin.
