DOWN THE PUB
Roger Clark was his rallying hero
“I was just a school kid when Roger Clark was competing on the RAC Rally and I navigated in the early days when he was still rallying. I’d always wanted to do the old RAC Rally. I did enter it in the 1990s but the entry was refused. So finally, it came round to the Roger Albert Clark Rally and I got there and
I just can’t believe it.”
He went for an MG Midget
“I should have chosen a Ford Escort as it’s easier to prepare. But I didn’t think I’d be competitive against all the other Escorts, so I was looking for a class that was more at my level. I thought I’d be up against Minis and Imps, so I thought I’d do something a little bit different. In hindsight, it was probably not the brightest choice.”
It has been a long project
“It is a 1967 car and I built it myself from a pile of scrap and it took me six years from 2002. We’ve had to develop the car and my first rally in it was the Sunseeker in 2013.”
He is a fan of Categor y 1
“It was watching the Robin Hood Stages 15 years ago that made me decide that I had to do it. Unfortunately, the Category 1 numbers have dwindled but I was over the moon to get to the Roger Albert Clark Rally. I couldn’t believe it when Geraldine Mcbride agreed to be my co-driver. We’d met on rallies before. Whoever was co-driving had to be small to fit in the car and Geraldine has won more championships than I can remember.”
They finished the event
“This was the ultimate! Just getting it round to the finish was unbelievable. I don’t think it had ever been done in a MG Midget and I knew the organisers would do all they could to help us stay in the rally. Doing the equivalent of five or six rallies consecutively in a Midget was a huge challenge. The service crew was made up of some friends who had never been to a rally before and we took just every spare part we could find.”
He is semi-retired
“I’ve been an engineer all over the world but now I’m semi-retired. I drive a minibus for specialneeds children!”