The White Rose Classic Report

By David Smith

The third event in the HRCR championship as the White Rose starting and finishing in Malton, East Yorkshire and organised by a team from the Malton and Beverley Motor Clubs with Matthew Atkinson as Clerk Of Course. The entry of 49 included many of the usual HRCR regulars but the event was lead off by Dan Willan and Ryan Pickering in their immaculate Volvo PV544. With 15 masters leading the event the final result was difficult to predict. The road book and plotting for two of six regularities was issued at scrutineering on Saturday afternoon.
First competitor was away at 08.31 with spot height and herringbone instructions for Reg1. With 5 speed changes from the start just off the A64 we had a steady run up to the end of Reg1 just west of Pickering. A short transport section through Wrelton brought us onto Reg 2 which was issued at signing on. The route contained 3 speed changes and took us initially north towards Cawthorn Moor then travelling south through Newton on Rawcliffe to finish 2 miles north of Pickering. Speeds were very relaxed which created some grumbles among the more experienced crews but for less experienced crews slower speeds still created a challenge yet gave more time to enjoy the beautiful Yorkshire Wolds countryside.

Andrew Parr and Rob Funnell (Austin Cooper S) First Novices.  Photo by John Waide

After negotiating Pickering and a short blast east down the A170 Test 1 was located south of the village of Snainton. The short farmyard style test with 2 code boards kept all crews on their toes. Test 2 was located close to Sherburn and contained the challenge of using reverse gear which created quite a spread of results even for some of the more experienced crews. Unfortunately the rally ended early for Phil Wood and Kevin Phipps in their Volvo P1800 with a blown core plug. Coffee was at Bolli’s in Wykeham back on the A170; the chat amongst competitors seemed to be about managing the neutral time controls.
Reg 3 had been issued the previous evening and with a conservative timing regime seemed to present few problems to crews as it started north of Snainton headed close to the perimeter of Dalton Forest and finished very close to Dale Park. Quite a few of the more experienced crews cleaned a few of the sections on Reg 3 and many crews including novices lost no more than 20 seconds on the whole regularity. Tests 3,4 and 5 were completed before lunch at Dale Park. Test surfaces were quite varied including gravel, concrete and farm track so although quite short nevertheless all enjoyable and well marshalled.
A tasty fish and chip lunch was provided at Dale Park before we completed test 6 in the park and travelled a short distance to the start of Reg 4. Again this had been issued with the road book in tulip and grid line format so for most crews reg 4 was straightforward.

 The route took us south, very close to Scarborough finishing just north of East Ayton. We were then routed to the quarry north of West Ayton for tests 7,8 and 9. Some of the gravel was a bit rough and test 8 caught out 9 competitors with a WD including the writer.
A longish transport section brought us south back onto the A64 and then Reg 5 start was south of Ganton on a steep yellow. This was the longest regularity through classic Wolds countryside and several pretty villages, with only 3 time controls most crews only dropped only a few seconds on the whole regularity and so were obviously able to enjoy the countryside as well.
Tests 10 and 11 were close to the village of Wetwang with the final test being further north near to Duggleby, all of these tests were longer and the most interesting with the final test being close to 2 miles long.
The final regularity was plot and bash based on grid lines and spot heights, the lack of junctions for the first couple of miles helped navigators “get it on the map” while on the move. Four time controls and 3 speed changes at locations that were not easy to spot kept the pressure on until the final time control and the run back into Malton to the Ryedale Bowls Club. Retirements noted at the finish included Car 20 the Escort of Roger Fildes and Julian Broadhurst and Car 28 of Mark Goodwin and Anthony Davies whose TR7’s reliability faltered just before the last regularity.

Mark Goodwin and Anthony Davies (TR7) prior to accelerator cable problems. Photo by John Waide

Martin and his team had some issues with entrants querying ideal regularity times and speed change points, hence the delay in issuing final results. However this volunteer team have put in a tremendous amount of work to provide an enjoyable day of motor sport on some of the best daylight road rally terrain in England. At the top of the table the top six players had less than a minutes penalty between them. Well done to winners Dan and Ryan who lead from the outset with Steve Head and Ian Tullie finishing second and Paul Crosby and Ali Proctor third. Jason and Dan Stone in their Escort won the Expert class and Andrew Parr and Robert Funnell in their Mini won the novices.
Its good to see the White Rose back in the calendar offering something for all levels of experience and many thanks to Martin and the team for hosting HRCR in Malton.

All photos by kind permission of John Waide