VOLVO CREW LAND RALLY OF THE TESTS

Andy Lane and Richard Crozier take a narrow win on gruelling event

Andy Lane and Richard Crozier turned in a superb performance to win the Rally of the Tests in their Volvo 123GT.

After three long days of competition over special tests, regularity sections and time control sections, Lane and Crozier headed the finishers into Chester late on Sunday afternoon after the 15th edition of the event that re-creates the RAC Rally of the 1950s.

A total of 93 crews set out on a prologue section from Bournemouth on Thursday before the meat of the event started on Friday with halts in Bristol and Stoke-on-trent.

Husband and wife Robert and Sue Mcclean were the first casualties when their Ford Anglia’s engine seized on the opening test in the Bournemouth winter gardens.

The Saturday evening time control section within the confines of Swynnerton army camp pushed Lane/crozier to the fore with a tremendous performance to set them up for Sunday’s final day. They duly took first overall, which is reserved for pre-1962 cars.

In a very competitive event, other strong contenders were the Porsche 356s of Paul Crosby/ Andy Pullan and Howard Warren/iain Tullie and it was Crosby who headed the pursuit of Lane through the final day as the route crossed into North Wales. Crosby narrowed the gap to just nine seconds over the final sections on the run towards Chester, with 2015 winner Warren less than half a minute down in third.

The MGB of John and Peter Dignan topped the post-1962 cars with a total that would have put them third overall against the earlier cars.