‘Lepley was a hero in the Silver Star’
BTRDA Series reviewed,
The year is 2007. That’s the last time a frontwheel-drive car won the Silver Star category, Graham Middleton steering a Hyundai Coupe Kit Car to the title. Now the duck has been broken by the brilliant George Lepley, in a 1600 Ford Fiesta R2 no less.
It was a dominant year for Lepley, winning the R2 Rallye Trophy in its inaugural year, topping the class on every single round he entered. But, despite the fact that the Silver Star is usually taken by a two-litre Ford Escort Mk2, it was also the target from the start of the season.
“I remember saying at the start of the year ‘I reckon I can go for top three in the Silver Star, if not go for the win’,” explains Lepley.
“Some people looked at me funny. But I believed I could do it. I knew it would be a mega achievement as we’re in the first R2, it’s a 1600 and a bit outdated now.”
The 21-year-old, studying Chemical Engineering at the University of Nottingham, could truly commit to this season having had a part year in 2017.
The biggest challenge was adapting to a left-hand-drive car, but thanks to the family business it wasn’t too much of a problem.
Since before George was born, his father Jason has bought and sold rally cars, many of them with great history and driven by Colin and Jimmy Mcrae, Ari Vatanen, Russell Brookes and Henri Toivonen, to name but a few.
“Hopping in and out of different cars gives you special awareness – I’ve done Goodwood and shows – you do get used to adapting quickly to lots of different cars,” he says.
“Seeing the cars come out of the shed and driving them down the road now and again, even if I have to persuade dad. It’s surreal when you’ve watched videos of the cars on Youtube and then you get to drive them, wondering what must have been going through the guys heads driving them on an event.”
Lepley got quicker and quicker as the year went on, taking two sevenths with a third sandwiched between in the Silver Star on the Cambrian, Severn Valley and Plains rallies to start the year.
A class win in Carlisle, a second on the Nicky Grist and a win on the Woodpecker meant he’d wrapped up the Silver Star and the R2 Rallye Cup with a round to spare, and finished ahead of the likes of Luke Francis in his Ford Fiesta RS WRC, having done the same number of events, in seventh overall.
Lepley’s co-driver, Tom Woodburn, added the Silver Star and R2 Rallye Cup in the BTRDA to the Prestone Motorsport News Junior British Rally Championship co-driver award, in a fulfilling year for his trophy cabinet.
Andy Davison and Tom Murphy were his closest rivals in a Talbot Sunbeam, but their bid was hurt by car trouble on the Nicky Grist and with a low score on the Trackrod Rally. Persistent struggles to get the most out of the car scuppered the pair’s title push, but by the end of the year they looked much more like themselves and will be strong contenders next year if they return.
Allan Mcdowall took the title in 2011, and scored third in this year’s Silver Star standings as the top Ford Escort, with Gavin Heseltine on the notes. Carlisle and Woodpecker retirements hit his bid hard.
Max Utting didn’t finish outside of the podium places in the three events he did, and would have been a likely challenger for the title in his modified Ford Fiesta ST had he completed the year. Rob Dennis (Escort Mk2) and Ieuan Rowlands (Hillman Avenger) also took class wins, but the latter did one round and the former retired from the Nicky Grist and the Woodpecker. ■