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Sunday, 21 January 2007 |
Yorkshireman Steve Magson and co-driver Geoff Atkinson made sure the long trip to Wales was worthwhile by winning the opening round of the ANCRO organised 2007 Hankook Rally Challenge which got underway today with the Red Kite Stages Rally based in Llandovery.
Driving the venerable Opel Ascona 400, the Pickering garage proprietor
beat nearest rivals Steven Finch/Stanley Graham (Ford Escort) by over a
minute after the two loops of stages in the classic mid-Welsh forests,
with the Escort of Polly Patti/David Gamblin claiming third place a
minute further adrift.
Despite the delay in finalising the championship due to various
circumstances, nine ANCRO registered crews made the start and reported
various fortunes throughout the day.
On his way to Class 4 victory, Magson commented on how slippery the
stages were but had few problems other than a minor overshoot at a
hairpin whilst Class 3 winner Finch had to replace an oil cooler at
service after it had sprayed oil onto the windscreen.
Class 2 went the way of John Evans/Neil Featherstone (Ford Escort) who
had problems in the early stages with water pump gasket failure but
soldiered on to claim sixth overall and winners of Class 1 were the
Citroen C2 of Mark Gamble/Stephen Link who were competing together for
the first time and reported no problems on their way to a creditable
fourth.
With Prima Motorsport’s David Gamblin sat alongside Polly Patti, they
had a big moment on SS5 but other than that were good value for their
third overall and second in class. Max Utting and Dai Roberts were
another new pairing for 2007 and gave a good showing in their Ford
Fiesta ST on their way to fifth overall and third in class.
It might have been a different story if Dave Brick/Rob Woodhouse (Ford
Escort) hadn’t had a mysterious electrical problem which meant stage
maximums on the first three stages but once the loose wire was fixed,
they set fastest stage times on the final two stages to salvage seventh
overall and second in class.
Sadly, the Peugeot 106 of Richard Sykes/Simon Taylor weren’t classified
as finishers as they had a high-speed off on SS1 and were precariously
balanced on a ledge until rescue came. However, despite being OTL, they
battled on to the finish which wasn’t the case for Louise Cook who
retired her Peugeot 205 in her first forest event.
The event was won outright by Simon Hughes/Claire Mole who made the
most of their Ford Fiesta ST Trophy prize drive in Steve Perez’s VK
Vodka Kick Ford Focus WRC. Leading by nearly a minute at the service
halt, the pair dropped some time on the second loop of stages but
nonetheless, gave a very impressive performance. ANCRO regular Wug
Utting and Adrian Grinstead used the event to test their Subaru N12 in
readiness for next month’s Rallye Sunseeker which comprises the opening
round of the Subaru Group N Trophy.
The awards were presented by Carol Lincoln, owner of the Castle Hotel
in Llandovery which was hosting a rally for the very first time.
With backing from global performance tyre manufacturer Hankook, the
‘Clubmans’ series has a total of seven rounds, three of which are
additions to the championship and as well as the Red Kite Stages, these
include an exciting asphalt sortie to the Epynt ranges in mid Wales
with the Eventsigns Mewla National Rally and an end of season blast
around the fast Yorkshire forests with the Malton Forest Stages. The
three additional events join the existing rallies, the Barretts Rally
of Kent, and three Welsh events which comprise the Severn Valley
Clubmans Rally, the Swansea Bay Clubmans Rally and the Bulldog Clubman
Rally.
The champion driver wins a free entry on to each of the Hankook MSA
Gravel Rally Championship (Hankook GRC) events for 2008 and a range of
exciting additional prizes for special categories, including the
Juniors, will be announced shortly as more companies pledge their
support for the series.
2007 Calendar
21st January Red Kite Stages (Llandovery)
18th March Barretts Rally of Kent (Ashford)
2nd June Severn Valley Clubmans Rally (Llandrindod Wells)
21st July Swansea Bay Clubmans Rally (Swansea)
26th August Eventsigns Mewla National Rally (Builth Wells)
20th October Bulldog Clubmans Rally (Oswestry)
4th November Malton Forest Stages Rally (Pickering)
Regulations can be obtained by contacting Championship Registrar Val Thompson as follows by email on
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