ROBINSON GETS OVERDUE WIN
Popular driver scores maiden bhrc victory.
After five years of coming close, Matthew Robinson and Sam Collis finally scooped an overall win in the MSA British Historic Rally Championship on the Carlisle Stages.
On an event where dust and the Kielder ditches took no prisoners, Robinson went ahead when overnight leader Ieuan Rowlands slid his Brm-engined Hillman Avenger into a ditch part-way through the 14-mile Newcastleton stage.
“About time,” said Robinson. “We’ve been close so many times, so it makes a change. But the man of the rally was Ieuan Rowlands.”
Into a sensational second place went the Pinto-powered Escort Mk2 of Stuart Egglestone and Brian Hodgson.
As the Category 1 cars returned to their rightful place at the head of the field, Rikki Proffitt and Graham Wild won the division in their Porsche 911 and Mark Holmes and Craig Simkiss topped Category 2 with another fine performance in their Escort Mk1.
Three stages on Friday evening made up half of the historic rally and it was Rowlands and Emyr Hall who attacked from the start. On only his second rally in Kielder, and his first taste of the Kershope and Newcastleton block of stages, Rowlands set a fierce pace to take a five-second lead from Paul Barrett/dai Roberts. Unfortunately, birthday boy Barrett was soon out with an engine fire at the start of the second stage.
As the sun started to set, the dust and midges got even worse and the survivors were glad to make it back to Carlisle at the end of the leg. Robinson responded in stage two as the route crossed the border into Scotland but Rowlands grabbed another five seconds in the second run of Tommy’s Fell to end the day five up.
“We decided to go for it and we didn’t have much left over,” said Rowlands on Saturday morning after putting the Brm-avenger project firmly on the map. “The dust was a bit scary and we don’t know these stages. The team has told me to go for it today and the 14-miler in Newcastleton will be the decider.”
His words were to prove prophetically accurate. After the short test in Florida came the big one and the Avenger did not reach the end of the Newcastleton test. Robinson, meanwhile, set the pace to add to his advantage. “I just tried to be neat and fast, but we had to drive fairly carefully,” said Robinson. A safe run through the final Ash Park stage sent Robinson and Collis back to Carlisle for an overdue and well deserved victory.
“It was a shame it didn’t go to the end,” added Robinson of the battle with Rowlands. But the Avenger will be back stronger than ever and Rowlands’s pace next time out on the Red Kite will be a major talking point in 10 days’ time.
No less praiseworthy was the class D3-winning second overall for Egglestone and Hodgson. With everincreasing confidence in the Escort Mk2, the local driver leapt to the head of the BHRC points with a masterful run. “I got my head into gear for the long stage and kept it neat and tidy,” said the former British Junior Rally champion.
It was nip and tuck for second between Egglestone and Rudi Lancaster/ Guy Weaver and Egglestone’s foursecond profit in Newcastleton set him up for a margin of just three seconds at the finish. “I’m really pleased with that,” said Lancaster after his best result of the season to date.
A few seconds back, another tight contest settled fourth place in favour of Simon Webster/jez Rogers who had only five seconds in hand over Steve Bennett/ Osian Owen. Bennett was a superb second fastest in Newcastleton to claw back 21s, but was still just short of regaining time lost on Friday evening.
“It just didn’t click last night but it was much better today,” said Bennett.
After rolling out of the Pirelli Rally six weeks earlier, Webster was pleased with fourth. “We ran out of rubber on the long stage and we had fuel vaporisation off the stage starts, but we’ve had a good event,” he said.
Tim Freeman and Paul Williams were a decent sixth despite losing time to several cars off in Newcastleton, while Ben Friend/cliffy Simmons led the class chase of Egglestone in seventh overall. An overnight change back to a fourspeed ’box set Friend right for Saturday, while Holmes/simkiss took Category 2 by half a minute from Warren Philliskirk/ Mark Casey who were a last-minute pairing after illness struck Philliskirk’s planned co-driver. Ahead of Philliskirk in ninth overall was the Escort Mk2 of top non-historic 2WD runners David Hutchinson and Peter Johnson.