Richard Hill and Ben Smith would emerge from the season opening Riponian Stages Rally as joint British Historic Rally Championship leaders whilst George Lepley and Dafydd Evans would claim a second Riponian National event victory in 3 years aboard their Mitsubishi Galant VR-4.
With Wass still unavailable, the season opening Riponian Stages Rally would once again rely on the more western based forests of Cropton and Gale Rigg to deliver the bulk of the mileage with two passes through the short Boltby stage providing a nod to the event’s traditional roots.
Despite significant early interest, more than a few entries dropped away on the run up to the event but nonetheless a healthy entry of 118 crews would leave the start at Thirsk Auction Mart; now in Motorsport UK mandated performance order; with the exception of Mini Challenge crews that is who are still able to run first on the road in a separate group.
But whilst plenty of historic machinery would appear on the start list BHRC runners in the National event were a little on the light side. Indeed, only classes H8 and H6 in category 3 and class H3 in category 2 would feature more than 1 entry! Possibly the result of the aforementioned running order changes and/or 2026 being a non R.A.C Rally year?
All wheel drive historic rallying has yet to take off on the British Isles also however Jason Lepley Motorsport are trying their very best to bring it to the fore by not only running 2 Mitsubishi Galant VR-4s for George Lepley and fellow East Midlands man Barry Jordan but also turning out a Category 5 Lancer Evo IV for Jason’s younger son James.
And that appeared to be paying dividends as despite 2025 BHRC champion Jordan being unable to make the start, James and George would find themselves locked in an almighty battle for outright National Rally Victory across the morning loop with just 1 second separating the brothers at the halfway point. But unfortunately that would be as far as the battle would go however as James and co-driver Tom Jordan were forced into retirement at the Thirsk service with differential failure.
The 4WD machines were, as you would expect, in a league of their own on the slippery North Yorkshire forest tracks and George Lepley and co-driver Dafydd Evans would find themselves with a 32 second National rally lead with now just 2 stages remaining after delays across the morning lead to the cancellation of Boltby 2. And, with little in the way of opposition for the Group A machine, the Anglo Welsh duo were able to cruise to a 35 second victory with Lepley repeating his success from 2 years ago.
For many years the pinnacle of historic rallying, category 3 was by far the most competitive on the day with over 20 registered crews battling out in the Yorkshire forests. Traditionally the Ford Escort MK2 battleground it was pleasing to see a growing number of Fiat 131’s take the start, with Adrian Hetherington and Jack Mathewson joining Nick Elliot in a 3 pronged Italian marque attack.
The Abarth’s would struggle for pace in the wintry conditions though leaving it to the Blue Oval machines to battle it out for category glory. But whilst several of the usual candidates would feature at the business end of the time sheets it would be Donegal duo, Damien Tourish and Kevin Duggan who would find themselves in the lead after stage 1; a fantastic debut in the Yorkshire forests for the Irish duo, who despite a strong track record in Ireland have done very little rallying on the UK mainland.
Clutch issues would hinder Tourish and Duggan for the remainder of the event however leaving Richard Hill and Patrick Cooper to come to the fore. And, after the two longer morning tests in Cropton and Gale Rigg it would be latter pairing who would find themselves holding a 3 second category lead whilst Matthew Stroud and Simon Jones in a similar BDG powered Ford would emerge as their nearest challengers.
Stroud’s impressive morning run would unfortunately come to an end in Cropton 2 with mechanical issues though, leaving fellow Yorkshireman Paul Thompson, with Josh Davison alongside, to climb from fourth to second after setting a strong pace over the final two stages. Meanwhile Tourish and Duggan just managed to hold off a late charge from Matthew Robinson and Hannah McKillop to claim an impressive 3rd in category on their BHRC debut.
Hill and Cooper appeared to have found the form of yester year on the 2026 Riponian Stages Rally and despite a sluggish start to the event never looked like being caught over the afternoon loop as the long established pairing went on to claim a well deserved 17 second category victory with 12th position overall in their Ford Escort RS1800.
Category 2 would feature a handful of delightful Ford Escort MK1’s and the Dansport prepared Porsche 911RS of Ben and Steven Smith and it would be the latter duo who would carry on their strong form from the final day of last November’s R.A.C rally to claim a dominant category victory. Behind, Jeremy Easson and Mike Reynolds would top Class H3 in 33rd position overall aboard their BDG powered Ford Escort MK1 whilst Terry Cree and Richard Shores would complete the category 2 podium in their stunning BMW 2002 ti with 47th position overall.
Meanwhile the Interclub historic runners would be categorised into class H1 for the more powerful machinery and class H1a for the smaller engined vehicles and it would be local man Ben Jemison, with Adam Burkill on the notes, who would be first home in class H1 with 23rd position overall in their Vauxhall Chevette HSR. Richard Spink / Kathryn Grewer (Ford Escort MK2) and Charles Mathewson / Josh Carr (Ford Escort MK1) would complete the interclub historic podium whilst Robin Shuttleworth and Malcolm Smithson would claim class H1a honours with 49th position overall in their Ford Escort Mexico.
The Riponian Rally was also the opening round of the HRCR Northern Historic Rally Championship with registered cars featuring in both the National Historics and the interclub events. As it was David Brown and Richard Wardle would top the registered runners with 24th position overall in their Ford Escort MK2 whilst the similar machines of Tony Thompson / John Connor (25th overall) and Richard Spink / Kathryn Grewer (27th overall) would round out the podium positions.
The fight for overall rally victory would be contested by the modern machinery in class 1 and it would be Elliot Payne and Patrick Walsh who would claim yet another Riponian victory aboard their Ford Fiesta Rally2. Joe Cunningham and Josh Beer would put in a strong performance aboard the aging Ford Fiesta WRC but would ultimately come up 17 seconds shy despite setting fastest stage time in Cropton 2. Meanwhile Liam Clark and Jack Morton would complete the overall podium in their Ford Fiesta Rally2.
The British Historic Championship runners now move onto Rally North Wales at the end of March for round 2 of the championship with Ben Smith and Richard Hill sharing the championship lead having both claimed category victories. Despite winning the overall National event George Lepley sits 15 points in arrears as a result of insufficient category 4 runners for maximum points to be awarded.
GALLERY
Paul Commons Motorsport 