Oliver Davies, with Jack Bowen alongside on this occasion, drew upon his vast knowledge of Weston Park to record an incredible 10th AGBO stages rally victory aboard his formidable Ford Escort MK2.
Weston Park was looking particularly stunning in the early spring sunshine as the Staffordshire parkland estate welcomed rally folk for the 29th annual running of the Land & Estate Maintenance AGBO Stages rally. Once again organised by the West Midlands based Owen Motoring Club, the 2025 running of the AGBO stages rally would feature ten stages covering almost 30 miles and had attracted many a previous winner, with Davies, Lee Edwards, Gary Thomas and Andy Corner accounting for 50% of the roll of honour!
Last year’s victors Lee Edwards and Ben Crump would head the entry list in the fabulous Jaguar engined Escort G3 but could not match the pace of Davies and Bowen on the day, with the pairing finding themselves 11 seconds adrift in second after the first 3 stages. The dry conditions on both the asphalt roads and adjoining grassland was perhaps playing into the hands of Davies, whose smooth driving style may not have seemed quickest to the naked eye but proved very effective on the time sheets!
Indeed, try as Edwards might, he and Crump just could not get any more out of the fantastic sounding Escort and despite 4 stage victories out of the remaining 7 stages, and never outside the top 2 stage times, would end the day 14 seconds in arrears.
This had been some drive by Davies and Bowen who must have surprised more than a few with their rapid early morning pace before settling into a strong rhythm and defeating many people’s favourites for the event victory by a fair margin. Surely Davies must now qualify for some sort of commemorative feature within the estate after recording a 10th victory at Weston Park, which accounts for more than one third of the event history!
Whilst not quite able to match the pace of the front two crews Dai Dot Davies made a welcome return to the hot seat of the family Darrian GTR and with Steve Pugh alongside put in a strong drive to keep previous double winner Gary Thomas (co-driven by Christopher Walton) at arms length throughout and claim a well deserved final step of the podium.
Personally I believe the organisers have the event regulations perfected by allowing all wheel drive machinery to complete as long as they run a H pattern gearbox and best of the four wheel drive machinery on the day would prove to be Wayne Larbalestier and Matt Endean aboard their Mitsubishi Evo 3. Consistently setting times well within the top ten, an entertaining drive would see the Japanese machine end the day 6th overall and topping class E.
Perhaps the closest tussle on the day was found in Class C however where the top 3 would end the event separated by just 6 seconds and fill positions 8,9 and 10 overall. Dave Hopwood and Sam Kelter (Ford Escort MK2) enjoyed a flying start to the event setting 5th and 8th fastest times on stages 1 and 2 but then struggled in stages 4 and 5 to find themselves tied on times with the similar machine of Joshua Moss and Phil Tucker at the half way point.
This appeared to be all the motivation Moss and Tucker required as 3 more top 10 stage times would see them sitting on a relatively comfortable 6 second cushion with just the final two stages remaining. Which in the end proved vital as Hopwood and Kelter would end the day just as they started by taking 5 back over the final loop to miss out on class victory by 1 solitary second!
Late entrants Mike Simpson and Sam Weller were there or thereabouts throughout and ready to pounce if the fight ahead became too fraught. As it was they couldn’t quite get close enough to the leading 2 class C runners and would bring their MK2 Escort home third in class and 10th overall.
Elsewhere class victories would go the way of yet another previous winning crew in the form of Andy Corner and Ade Camp, this time competing in the Ford Fiesta R200. It feels rather odd seeing them in something other than a Peugeot 205 but the pairing recorded an impressive 3 top ten stage times on their way to Class B victory and 12th overall.
And last but not least Tom Bishop and Tom Aleksandrowicz would claim Class A victory aboard their Vauxhall Nova after a strong drive would see them finish the day in 20th position overall.
There can’t be many better locations for a single venue rally especially when the sun is out. And with the glorious sound of competition engines bouncing off the parkland landscape it proved a great days entertainment for the very reasonable sum of just £9! Next up for me is the Alan Healy Memorial Rally at Cadwell on the 6th April for the latest instalment of the Circuit Rally Championship.
GALLERY
Paul Commons Motorsport 