NORTH’S LITTLE MINI’S BIG WIN
Duncan stephens finds out how an iconic car is still top of the trials pack
When Alec Issigonis penned the small, economical family BMC Mini in 1959, motorsport was far from its agenda. It took five years for competitors to realise that the compact pocket rocket could more than hold its own against much mightier opposition.
Beyond the Monte Carlo Rally successes and touring car titles, the Mini has been at the forefront of all kinds of motorsporting disciplines. And now, some 58 years after the car was introduced, it is still celebrating glory.
Bradford’s Rupert North, 42, won the MSA British Car Trial championship for the first time this year driving his bright yellow Rover Mini, which he has campaigned for nearly 20 years.
The British championship operates a class-based scoring system with a bonus point for overall wins over the 11 rounds, of which competitors counted eight scores. The British (Production) Car Trials championship was last won by a Mini back in the mid-1970s, when North was born, by Geoff Spencer.
North originally started competing in a 1000cc Mini, but switched to the 1275cc version in 1997. North loves the Mini, proudly sporting a yellow Mini T-shirt at events.
Last season the car was transformed by a switch to 13inch wheels, which meant he had a much larger choice of tyres to use on events.
North competes in local autotest events as well as his national campaign, and even missed one of the rounds in the middle of the season to take up his role as chief marshal on his home Airedale and Pennine Motor Club’s Yorkshire Dale classic trial event.
After winning at round two, which was North’s first outing of the season, the championship hopeful offered fellow competitor Shawn Franklin a double drive of the Mini after Franklin’s gearbox failed on the way to the event. It started a trend, as later in the season in North Wales, North once again offered his car to former double British champion Mark Hoppe, who had engine issues with his regular Dutton.
This left just the Gaby Mohr trial near Wolverhampton with Franklin leading by two points from North. Having campaigned the Mini since 1998, North elected to borrow a Citroen Saxo from fellow Airedale and Pennine Motor Club member Dave Toft and go headto-head with Franklin and other leading lights in the new-car class.
Despite a couple of local events to get his hand in, North didn’t believe he could beat the gaggle of Citroen Saxos in the modified front-wheel-drive class and take the category win he needed. North excelled and surprised many to feel at one with a different car and, with two brilliant climbs during the fourth run, took the class lead from Trevor Moffatt.
Moffatt battled back but North matched him on the tricky last hill (where he could have lost the championship as second in class wasn’t enough) to take the class triumph, his third overall of the campaign, netting the British championship on the last hill. Ironically, the rival Saxo had a brake wheel cylinder fail the following morning.
Having only managed third overall in the championship previously in his 15 years of support for the sport and his Mini, North said: “It has taken over a third of my adult life to become British champion.
“It’s great to win in a Mini, it would have been really nice to have 100 per cent of the championship in the Mini but it’s nice to be able to make a nearly-60-year-old design win against the more modern cars.
“It’s a decade since I won the trial on Anglesey and that was the first time a Mini had won a National B trials event in over 20 years, so to win the championship in one is brilliant. It’s nice to give the Mini one last day in the sun before it fades to the pages of history. If I am honest, it’s not the best car in the field, but I have achieved a huge ambition this season.” ■