Ross Le Noa bags first Jersey Rally win by nearly two minutes
Organiser: Jersey Motor Cycle & Light Car Club When: October 12/13 Where: Jersey Championships: ACSMC; ASWMC Sealed Surface; RAC Historic Asphalt Stages: 28 Starters: 80.
Ford Escort Mk2 pairing Ross Le Noa and Dominic Volante combined season-long good form with local knowledge to take their maiden Jersey Rally win. But victory came only after a titanic scrap with Simon Le Noa/katie Le Blancq’s Ford Anglia 2300 and Darryl Morris/ Steve Gully’s Escort Mk2 – the latter mounting an all-ornothing charge to finish runner-up for the second year running.
Dry, sunny weather created ideal conditions for high speeds on Jersey’s narrow lanes and Ross Le Noa took full advantage: using soft compound tyres from the off he powered through the opening stages in Trinity and St Martins, setting three fastest times in a row to open a 14.2s gap over Simon Le Noa, while perennial Jersey frontrunners Jeremy Baudains/james Ollivro (Escort Mk2) contested third with Morris/gully. The lead battle continued through the evening in St Brelade and Le Rossignol, pursued by top UK crew Simon Chapman/ Neil Colman in their Proton Satria Millington.
But the dark stages eventually caught out Baudains; he dropped off the leaderboard after a time-consuming overshoot while Chapman lost several places when his engine died for nearly two minutes. This left Simon Mauger/ Brian Cammack (Escort Mk2) holding fourth, with Ed Fossey/ Will Rutherford’s 1600cc Peugeot 208 R2 a heroic fifth.
Saturday morning’s stages consisted of the fast, open St Johns test and the tight confines of Waterworks Valley. Here, Simon Le Noa pushed for the lead until he clipped a wall and knocked his handling awry. Morris, third, said his shortstroke engine was losing out on power while Mauger admitted to “wringing the car’s neck” to stay on the pace. Unfortunately, Fossey’s terrific run came to an abrupt end, crashing heavily on Waterworks 2 after hitting a hidden kerb and colliding with a tree.
The closing tests, St Lawrence and Les Platon, ended with Ross Le Noa setting consistently the second-fastest times to claim victory by 1m57.1s. Morris threw everything into the final miles and overhauled Simon Le Noa by 10.4s, with Mauger fourth. Neil Cotillard/helier Lucas (Subaru Impreza) recovered from a slow start on Friday, climbing from 24th to an eventual fifth. Baudains staged a late fightback, going fastest on five consecutive tests to take sixth. Results 1 Ross Le Noa/ Dominic Volante (Ford Escort Mk2) 1h48m30.4s; 2 Darryl Morris/ Steve Gully (Escort Mk2) +1m57.1s; 3 Simon Le Noa/ Katie Le Blancq (Ford Anglia 2300); 4 Simon Mauger/ Brian Cammack (Escort Mk2); 5 Neil Cotillard/ Helier Lucas (Subaru Impreza); 6 Jeremy Baudains/james Ollivro (Escort Mk2); 7 John Le Brun/jason Le Brun (BMW E30); 8 Martin Waters/ Ian Edwards (BMW E30 325i); 9 Simon Chapman/ Neil Colman (Proton Satria Millington); 10 Steve Ellis/jamie Vaughan (Escort Mk2).
Class winners: James Weaver/teresa Butler (MG ZR), Sam Bingle/ Matthew Le Brun (Citroen Saxo VTS), Morris/ Gully, S Le Noa/ Le Blancq, Cotillard/ Lucas, Andy Corner/ade Camp (Peugeot 205).