Mini returns after a 10-year break and is a winner
Terry Cree and Richard Shores brought their Mini Cooper S out for the first time in a decade to win B2 while the other Category 1 class went to Bob Bean and Mike Curry (Ford Lotus Cortina).
Cree said of the Mini: “It always makes you smile when you drive it.”
Robin Shuttleworth/ Malcolm Smithson (Ford Escort Mk1) topped C2 while C3 spoils and a great 10th overall was the Escort Mk1 Pinto of Josh Carr and Richard Wardle. Dave and Jamie Forrest just edged Welsh visitors Neal James and Kevin Jones for D3 in a battle of the Pintoengined Ford Escort Mk2s. It was a first rally in Yorkshire for James as he moved closer to the class title in the BHRC.
D4 victory was just reward for Ben Jemison and Dave Jackson (Vauxhall Chevette HSR) after completing the engine from a bare block just three days before the rally.
The class for FIA Appendix K cars went to James Slaughter and James Whitaker, back together after a fouryear gap for Slaughter’s first gravel rally in 12 months. Once Slaughter remembered that he was a rally driver and not a racing driver on this occasion, the pace got better and better.