Joe Price and Chris Brooks stormed to Woodpecker Stages National Rally victory aboard their infamous MK2 Escort despite strong all-wheel drive opposition in the form of George Lepley’s Galant VR4.
Pre-event there was much talk about the Group A Mitsubishi in the hands George Lepley taking a convincing victory though it appeared the raw speed of Joe Price, especially on his home event, had not been fully taken into account. However only half the event was in the Shropshire forests, where the Ludlow resident has so often excelled, with Cwmysgawen and (new to almost all competitors) Ceri replacing Radnor for the 2023 rendition of the Sixty & Worcestershire Motor Club organised event.
In what turned out to be the hottest day of the year it would however be the RSD prepared Fiat 131 crew of Nick Elliott and Dave Price who claimed an early lead after the Cwmysgawen test but George Lepley, with Dale Bowen alongside, put the four wheel drive at his disposal to good use in Ceri to hold a 1 second lead over Price as the crews headed back to the more traditional Shropshire stages.
And it is the stages on the English side of the border where Price and Brooks come into their own; the pairing setting 9th and 7th fastest time overall in Hopton and Haye Park respectively to gain a pivotal 10 seconds on their rivals and hold a 9 second lead at the mid event service. And despite Lepley again having the edge in Ceri on the afternoon loop, the Nottinghamshire man was no match for Price in his own back yard, with the Escort pilot going on to claim a sublime 11 second historic category victory.
Meanwhile Richard Jordan and James Gratton-Smith had put in a stellar morning drive to hold third at the half way point but a huge stage cancelling roll in Cwmysgawen ended their involvement in the event (here’s hoping they make a speedy recovery and return to the stages sooner rather than later). This left the MK2 Escorts of Roger Chilman and Tom Walster to battle it out with Elliott’s Fiat 131 for the final podium position. The second running of Ceri would see the demise of Walster (stub axle) though and Chilman, co-driven by Patrick Walsh, just had the edge on Elliott over the remainder of the event to take maximum BHRC points with 3rd.
Rory and Paul McCann starred in category 2 with the Hillman Avenger (Class C2) crew claiming category victory by an enormous 41 seconds with an excellent 9th overall in the historic section of the event! Josh Carr and Osian Owen (Class C3) would take maximum BHRC category points in 2nd aboard their Pinto powered MK1 whilst Andrew Stokes and Jonny Tad Evans (Escort MK1) would round out the podium positions and in turn take class C5 honours. Meanwhile Terry Cree and Ricardo Shores were first home in category 1 with 80th overall in their Mini Cooper S and in the race for overall honours Arron Newby (Skoda Fabia) survived a late charge from Elliot Payne (Ford Fiesta) to claim outright rally victory.
Whilst great to see the Galant VR4 driven so well (this being a car I fondly remember seeing in period) It was in some respects pleasing to see two wheel drive machinery still end up on top of the pile. However it won’t be long before four wheel drive machinery is taking historic rally victories in the UK, possibly as soon as the Trackrod in just over a week’s time! It will be interesting to see the impact of this (although not currently able to score overall BHRC championship points) and whether an increase in four wheel drive machinery at the sharp end would be to the detriment of historic rallying in general. I’m hopeful this won’t be the case but the governing bodies potentially have some important decisions to make in the coming years regarding eligible point scoring machinery.
GALLERY (From stages 2 & 6 – Ceri)
Paul Commons Motorsport 