In conditions well suited to 4WD machinery, George Lepley and Dale Bowen put in a strong drive to claim Malton Forest Historic Rally victory with 8^th position overall aboard their Mitsubishi Galant VR-4.

A healthy contingent of 94 cars would line up for the start of the North Yorkshire based Malton Forest Rally with several crews electing to use the event as a pre RAC shakedown.  Seb Perez and Gary McElhinney were one of those crews who, having switched from the 911 to the family owned Lancia Stratos in the run up to the event, became the star attraction for many.

With Perez still getting to grips with the Italian Machine he was never likely to trouble the top spots in what proved tricky conditions; however the pace was encouraging, especially through the afternoon loop of stages, as the Global Brands backed machine climbed 6 positions to end the event in a very respectable 20^th overall and 7^th in the historic category.

With a monumental amount of rainfall in the lead up to the rally, George Lepley and Dale Bowen would be hot favourites to take historic category victory but any thoughts of an easy run to the finish were quickly dispelled as Matthew Robinson and Sam Collis stormed through Langdale to claim an early 4 second category lead. This was was perhaps all the motivation Lepley required however as the Nottinghamshire man went on to set fastest category time on all of the remaining 5 tests to claim historic rally victory by 24 seconds.

It seems somewhat unfair that a rear wheel driven MK2 Escort built in the 70s would sit in the same H2 class as the late 80s Mitsubishi but Robinson fully utilised his local knowledge to keep Lepley on his toes and was rewarded with the unofficial 2WD historic victory with 9^th position overall.

Steve Bannister must be able to drive the North Yorkshire stages with his eyes closed having competed in them so often over the years and the ‘Malton Missile’ was holding a strong 3^rd in category before being forced into retirement at the half-way point.  This left Barry Mckenna and Arthur Kierans (Ford escort MK2) to round out the historic category podium positions and David Brown and Richard Wardle (Ford Escort MK2) to end the day as 3^rd 2WD historic crew home.

Class H1, for historic specification cars up to 1600cc, was being lead somewhat convincingly by the Hillman Avenger of Matt Bown and Tom Murphy at the mid point service.  That was as good as it got for the East Midlands based crew however as brake failure would end their day prematurely.  This left the way clear for Paul Rawson and Mike Curry to claim class victory aboard their MK1 Escort, with Kurt Hodgson / Sam Campbell (Peugeot 205) and Geoff Taylor / Steve Greenhill (Sunbeam Imp) completing the top three.

In the race for Overall honours Elliot Payne and Jack Morton fought back from a first stage deficit to claim victory by 37 seconds aboard their Ford Fiesta Rally 2; Payne thus completing a whitewash of single day North Yorkshire forest events in 2023!  Behind, Alan Carmichael and Bonnie Papper claimed a well deserved second in their Hyundai I20 R5 whilst Andrew Purcell and Martin Brady took 3^rd in their VW Polo.

Elsewhere, Nick Cook and Nigel Hutchinson (Ford Escort MK1) would claim Class 3 victory with an excellent 19^th overall whilst Martyn Hawkswell and Ben Cohen were first home in Class 4 (26^th overall).  Ben Cree and Robert Wiggins meanwhile would take Class 2 top spot (Opel Corsa) with 34^th whilst Class 1 winners Pete Gorst and Mark Twiname (Vauxhall Nova) would just pip them to the unofficial front wheel drive victory with 33^rd.

Having visited Gale Rigg more often than close family in recent years it was nice to head to Cropton on this occasion, a decision which was fully justified upon hearing the roar of the Stratos down the infamous long straights!  The river flowing across junction 11 and afternoon sunshine were added bonuses also, nicely whetting the appetite for the long awaited 5 day marathon that is the RAC rally later in the month!

FULL RESULTS

GALLERY