‘Robinson finally wins his home event’
Escort crew ta me epic entry.
Matthew Robinson and Sam Collis finally won their home event, the Trackrod Historic Cup, fighting off opposition from a strong entry.
The hugely popular result was one that they have chased since joining the top level of historic rallying in the UK and it was won the hard way against some ferocious opposition as the Yorkshire forests played host to the final round of the British Historic Rally Championship.
To make it a big day in nearby Malton, cars prepared by Rallysport Developments took a clean sweep of the podium as Matt Edwards traded his Btrda-winning Fiesta R5 for a Fiat 131 to take second and Steve Bannister rekindled a 20-year-old partnership with Dave Oldfield to take third in his Escort Mk2.
Robinson made his intentions for the weekend clear at 2000hrs on Friday when he dumped the clutch on the startline of the opening Dalby stage. No horses were going to be spared and it was going to be trophies or trees. Just under 10 and a half minutes of dusty darkness later, he led the rally but only by two seconds from Edwards.
Bannister and Steve Bennett/osian Owen were right up there as well, while Ieuan Rowlands, on his first sight of a Yorkshire forest, was well in the hunt in the Brm-powered Avenger. However, 2018 BHRC champion Paul Barrett and Gordon Noble did not fair well, on their roof within a handful of junctions. Damage was light and Robinson soon found them a replacement screen for a restart the next morning.
Saturday dawned bright and dry for early stages in Cropton and Gale Rigg and Barrett was awesome on his first experience of these forests to take a second a mile out of everyone. There was never going to be a result at the end of this, but he’d come to Yorkshire for the craic with his friends and rivals and was making the most of it.
“We hit a few bumps in Cropton and Gale Rigg,” reported Robinson of an illhandling car. In fact, both rear springs had snapped and there wasn’t much service time to replace them, with new units loaned by Class D3 pacesetter Stuart Egglestone. Robinson was well into his lateness getting one side sorted but, fortunately, there was only a 10-miler in Dalby before a second service when the other side was replaced.
After Gale Rigg, Robinson was just 1.9s up on Edwards, who was showing the Fiat unprecedented pace. However, with one side of the car working properly, Robinson set a storming pace going nine seconds faster than Barrett and extending his lead to 11s over Edwards.
Sadly, the Dalby stage ended the tremendous battle for the BHRC co-driver’s title as Bennett/owen went out with a broken half shaft and Simon Webster/jez Rogers had a suspension breakage. Bennett had been just 10s up at the point it all went wrong. Also out from the battle for third place with gearbox problems went Rowlands and the Avenger. The result this project deserves will surely come in 2019.
Barrett set another fastest time in Staindale as Robinson, now with the back of the car doing what he expected, added marginally to his overall lead. The final stage was nearly 14 high-speed miles in Langdale and the BDG was screaming as Robinson set the pace by two seconds from Edwards to secure victory by nearly 16 seconds. “The support on and off the stages has been immense,” said Collis. “We’ve finally managed to get the job done on the local rally.”
Edwards had also driven a mighty rally to take the Fiat so close to a major win. “It’s not a Fiesta R5 and it’s not an Escort,” he said with a smile. “I’ve driven it as hard as I could!” Bannister and Oldfield were relieved to make Filey in third with an ailing back axle that would not have lasted another stage.
A tremendous fourth overall was more than enough to make Chris Skill BHRC Category 2 champion in his Escort Mk1 after a great performance with Graham Wild on the notes.
They had a fine battle with Warren Philliskirk/garry Green and ended the rally unable to turn the engine off due a snapped starter lead. Eventually, Philliskirk took sixth overall behind the non-historic Escort of Phil Burton while a D3 class-winning seventh overall for Egglestone/brian Hodgson secured the BHRC co-driver’s crown for Hodgson.
Rounding out the top 10, all with impressive runs in their own right, were Darren and Nicole Moon, James Potter/bob Duck and Nick Carr/ Dave Robson.