BISHOPSTOWN STAGES
With rallying now back on the agenda, County Down’s Bishopscourt Stages was a hive of classic Ford-based, flat-out activity.
With rallying back on the agenda, we head to County Down to capture the action as the Escorts (and Anglias) take on everyone else on the circuitbased special stage rally.
It had been a 15-month drought of rallying on the island of Ireland where rallying is such a way of life that the 100 max entry for this year’s Bishopscourt Stages was reached in a matter of minutes. And, with some of the best-prepared cars making the cut at the non-spectator event, Classic Ford went along for a fix.
Damian Toner was fastest of the classic Ford drivers from start-to-finish with navigator Denver Rafferty despite feeling a lack of rear grip on the opener. Stage two and the Mk2 Escort was 0.9 seconds faster than two-wheel-drive leader Barry Morris, in a rapid Darrian T90 well suited to the stages. On the longer 6.6-mile stage three, Morris pulled away and over the second-half increased the gap from 10 to almost 22 seconds, leaving Toner second.
Car sales man and rally hire operator, Gareth Irwin proved he knew his line of business with 15th overall, second Escort and second in class. With fellow Donegal man Justin McCauley the pair finished stage one 29th and climbed up the leader board on every stage, visibly on the pace of those more familiar with the circuit. John Bradley was lucky to escape without damage when he had to take evasive action to avoid a car that blocked the road, to finish third of the Escort runners with Crawford Henderson. John Devlin followed with flat shift issues believing it needed reprogrammed.
Joe Hegarty switched from a modern Mitsubishi to a classic Ford in time for the County Down rally, one place ahead of James Kennedy who had day-long steering issues. “It’s been about 15-years since I drove a car without power steering. Now I remember why I put it in the car!” The Antrim man added, “It needs a totally different driving style” with slides his answer.
Sam Adams and Harry Johnston were class winners on the way to 25th overall, 4.5 seconds from Kennedy but some 23.9 seconds ahead of Randalstown men Anthony and Damian McCann.
Stephen Peoples and Kieran Burke had two spins on their way to following the McCann duo but finished ahead of 22 more classic Fords of which were, understandably, largely the Escort. Scotland’s Allan MacKay was the exception to the rule in the Anglia 105E — having driven on other islands like Barbados and Mull — to give Daniel Hamill an experience.