BRITISH HISTORIC RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP
Round 4: Severn Valley Stages, June 4 The classic stage warriors head to the Epynt region for a dust and drama-filled Round 4.
All the Ford-based historic action from the Severn Valley Stages.
Paul Barrett and Dai Roberts took a dramatic overall Historic victory on the Severn Valley Stages — the fourth round of the 2016 Mintex MSA British Historic Rally Championship.
On a day of ever-changing fortunes in the dry and dusty stages in the Epynt region of Wales, Barrett and Roberts swept ahead on the final stage of the rally to win in their Pinto-powered Mk2 Escort. Rarely has a Pinto-powered car won overall in the BHRC and it was a fantastic performance from both crew members.
However, for much of the day it was Round 3 winners, Joe Price and Chris Brooks who led the field with a mighty charge. They were 26 seconds up after four stages but it all went wrong for them in the penultimate stage when a clutch problem left their Mk2 Escort stuck in gear and they lost over three and a half minutes.
Instead, Nick Elliott and Dave Price took the lead by just 5 seconds going into the final Cefn stage but as Elliott finished the stage with a puncture Barrett set a searing pace to go 5 seconds faster than any other historic crew and win by 5 seconds. Only 23 seconds back in third, for their best BHRC result to date, were Rudi Lancaster and George Gwynn.
Out at the end of the Radnor stage with a roll went Jason Pritchard and Phil Clarke, winners of Rounds 1 and 2.
The battle for Category 2 was just as intense and finally resulted in a hardearned victory for Simon Tysoe and Paul Morris (Mk1 Escort) after Stanley Orr and Guy Weaver had a torrid day in their Pinto-engined car and suffered three punctures.
Other category winners were Bob Bean/Captain Thompson (Lotus Cortina) in Category 1 and Tom Coughtrie/Michael Gilbey (Mk2 Escort) in Category K.
The Severn Valley Stages was organised by the Midland Manor Motor Club (http://46.32.240.35/svsrally.co.uk).