ORR-SOME RESULT FOR DOMINANT STANLEY
Escort Mk1 pairing are unstoppable on the Ulster Rally.
Stanley Orr and Graham Henderson were convincing winners of the Historic section of the Ulster Rally and took maximum points in the British Historic Rally Championship. The County Down driver led his home event from the very start with his beautifully-prepared Ford Escort Mk1 looking as good at the finish ramp at it did at the start.
The duo’s winning margin was 31.5 seconds over Adrian Hetherington and Ronan O’neill’s Escort Mk2 but Hetherington was happy with the result, never having driven a BDA Escort competitively on Tarmac before. Third place went to Simon Webster and Jez Rogers, which was an excellent result considering the driver was unwell for much of the event.
With almost 100 stage miles packed into nine special stages, the Ulster
Rally promised to be a seriously tough event for man and machine. Classic tests such as Mcgaffin’s Corner,
Bronte Homeland and Shinn Bridge were all tackled three times with a regroup in Banbridge and service in Newry making it the most compact Ulster rally in recent years.
Ten drivers registered for the
British Historic Rally Championship took to the start and it was Orr who set the pace over the slippery opening stage at Mcgaffin’s Corner where overnight rain had the potential to make life awkward for the crews. Orr posted a time 7.8s quicker than Webster on that opening test, with Joe Price another 5s further back. Hetherington in fourth was too cautious on that opening stage and was 16s off the pace. But Paul Street and Ian Jones were already out with damaged steering on their Escort Mk2 after going off
the road on the first stage.
Orr stretched his lead to 27s on the tough 13-mile Bronte Homeland test with some brave driving as the roads were extremely slippery under the trees which dotted the stage. Price lost a huge amount of time when he slipped off the road and it was just a case of bringing the Escort Mk2 home in an effort to gain championship points for the rest of the day.
The final stage of the opening loop ran over an hour late due to a blockage by a competitor in the international section, but Orr held his concentration to hold a lead just shy of 40s going into the first service. Hetherington had muscled his way into second place ahead of Webster with Rudi Lancaster and Ben Friend completing the top five places. Barry Stevenson-wheeler was only 13s behind Friend with Lee Ashberry a further minute back.
Roads were much drier over the second loop of stages although a couple of minutes of rainfall on Stage 6 caused some slides for the crews. Orr felt a vibration in the car and changed the propshaft but, other than that, all was well with the lead now out to 51s. Hetherington went much quicker on the middle loop but had left himself with far too much to do to catch Orr.
Webster, despite being sick and lacking experience of the Ulster stages, still held a fine third place over a minute ahead of Lancaster, who was enjoying the event. Stevenson-wheeler was next up ahead of Price but Friend crashed out of the event on the sixth stage while closing the gap on Lancaster and Ashberry also retired before second service. Malcolm and Ron Mounsey were still going and looking for valuable championship points in their Talbot Sunbeam Ti.
Orr/henderson managed their lead to perfection over the final three stages to take victory by 31.5s over Hetherington, who was much happier with his pace by the finish. Webster’s third place was impressive and he had almost a minute to spare over Lancaster. Stevenson-wheeler was just under a minute further back in fifth place with Price happy to make the end after his earlier troubles and was delighted with his pace on the latter stages. Mounsey took seventh in the Sunbeam and top points in the BHRC 2 category.