BRITS SHINE ON ESCORT RALLY SPECIAL BUT PROBLEMS HIT
From a field of nearly 120 Ford Escorts, Belgians Florian Gonon and Adrian Fernemont were split by just one second at the end of an actionpacked Escort Rally Special based at the Chimay race track in Belgium.
On the last of 10 closed-road special stages, Gonon went one second faster to clinch his win on a day when British drivers Osian Pryce and Marty Mccormack set the early pace before retiring.
In the modified division, former World Rally Championship ace Francois Duval and Ludovic Blaton took the spoils in
Scott Williams’s Mk2, as used by
Jason Pritchard on the Cardigan Bay event a week earlier. Irish hero Frank Kelly was just over a minute down in second ahead of Tomas Davies and
Alister Mcrae, on a rare competitive outing, as Millington-engined cars took a clean sweep of the top four places.
There was no repeat victory for Pryce, co-driven by his partner Jessica Hockly, in the Mk2 from Rally Xtreme which went out with mechanical issues. They led after the first loop of three stages with Mccormack just two seconds down before he then went 10 seconds up after the second loop. However, the third loop ended their battle and left the door open for a local victory.
Mccormack in the ex-pritchard fuelinjected Mk2 hit trouble on Saturday night when a fuel leak developed on the startline of the spectator special. More problems followed the next morning with bent steering but once that was sorted Mccormack was his usual spectacular self. In his regular red Mk2 was elder brother Greg, but it was Marty who traded the lead with Pryce until an electrical problem developed.
“Going to save the car for another day as no point pushing on now,” said Marty Mccormack after missing a stage. “But we had a great craic!” Meanwhile, Greg had an impressive run to take sixth place among the historics and finish best of the UK contingent, one place ahead of Yorkshireman Tim Pearcey and Mark Glennerster. Brothers Simon and Alister Crook had a good run to finish inside the top 10.
Ben Friend’s appalling run of luck this season shows no sign of abating after a first stage retirement on Sunday. After setting a strong pace on the Saturday night stage, Friend and Cliffy Simmons were out early the following morning after the diff locked up and pitched them into the bushes.