NO FLAP FOR BIRD ON NARROW JERSEY LANES
Frank Bird and Jack Morton were the toast of Jersey over the weekend when they dominated the Jersey Rally in their Ford Fiesta Rally2.
The GT racer and sometime rally driver was in Jersey for the first time and on his first rally since June and delivered an utterly compelling performance on the narrow, tight and twisting island lanes.
Bird ended the rally nearly two and a half minutes clear of Richard Fishleigh and Jason McCullough while best of the local crews in third were Jeremy Baudains and James Ollivro in another Escort Mk2.
More than 80 cars lined up in Jersey for this year’s instalment of one of the best but leastknown closed-road rallies in the UK. A schedule of 26 special stages and 105 competitive miles, between lunchtime Friday until Saturday afternoon, delivered a fantastic challenge. Jersey has its own atmosphere with tight lanes, nearly impossible hairpins and high walls, hedges and banks waiting to punish those who step even a little out of line.
After the recce, Bird said:
“It’s even more narrow than I was told. But there’s no pressure and I’m looking forward to the challenge,” knowing that he had to be inch perfect in the Rally2 Fiesta to keep it away from anything solid.
The action started on Friday afternoon with three stages repeated and it was Fishleigh who set a searing pace on the opener to head Bird by a couple of seconds. But immediately Bird showed his pace by chasing the Fiesta Rally2 of Dom Buckley team-mates
Lee Vivian and Will Rutherford into stage finish, having started the 3.7-mile Maufant stage 30s after them.
Two stages in the opening leg were cancelled after two leading crews crashed out on the same stretch of road on Maufant 2. Top seeds Ross Le Noa and Domonic Volante and Sam Touzel and Aaron Nicolle both went out, costing Le Noa his chance of a third win in four years.
Six stages in the dark of Friday evening set the seal on Bird’s victory as he dominated with six fastest times in a row and by the end of Friday he had half a minute in hand over Fishleigh.
Saturday started with two stages run three times each in the morning, and two stages run four times each in the afternoon. Apart from a steady start on the opening Greve stage when he dropped a couple of seconds, Bird was in charge and won the remaining 13 stages. It was a stunning performance using the best equipment to incredibly good effect.
Cornishman Fishleigh, who had arrived on the island straight from the Chris Kelly Memorial Rally on the Isle of Man, turned in a fine performance to bring his 2.5-litre Duratec-engined Escort up to second, seeing off Baudains by just 12s after a long battle.
The Channel Islands Escort Mk2 pack filled out the rest of the top six, with Dave Oliveira/ Victor Nobrega, Dale Crowsley/ Steve Gulley and Robert De St Paer/Steve Hobbs all finishing strongly.
Next of the visitors were
Jim Munden and Andrew Frost in their Escort Mk2 in seventh, just two seconds up on the wonderful Ford Anglia Simon and Katie Le Noa. With its latest 2.5 Millington engine, the ‘Angry Box’ looked and sounded sensational.
Ninth overall, and best of the front-wheel-drive cars with a constantly attacking drive were Andy Corner and Adrian Camp in their Peugeot 205GTi. Sadly,
Andy’s son Dan had to switch to the Trophy Rally on Saturday after upending his 205 on
Friday afternoon.
Rounding out the top 10 was another of the drives of the rally as David Kynaston and Andy Conibear took their historicspecification Triumph TR7 V8 into a brilliant 10th in a car not always well suited to tight and narrow lanes.
Results
Organiser: Jersey Motor Cycle and Light Car Club When: October 7-8 Stages: 24 Starters: 84 1 Frank Bird/Jack Morton (Ford Fiesta Rally2) 1h49m27.6s; 2 Richard Fishleigh/Jason McCullough (Ford Escort Mk2) +2m28.5s; 3 Jeremy Baudains/James Ollivro (Ford Escort Mk2); 4 Dave Oliveira/Victor Nobrega (Ford Escort Mk2); 5 Dale Crowsley/Steve Gulley (Ford Escort Mk2); 6 Robert De St Paer/Steve Hobbs (Ford Escort Mk2); 7 James Munden/Andrew Frost (Ford Escort Mk2); 8 Simon Le Noa/Katie Le Noa (Ford Anglia); 9 Andy Corner/Adrian Camp (Peugeot 205GTi); 10 David Kynaston/Andy Conibear (Triumph TR7 V8).
Class winners: Paul Vibert/Richard Amy (Ford Escort Mk1); Paul Trebert/Jason Carre (Peugeot 206); Mark Syvret/Chris Fox (Ford Escort Mk1); Fishleigh/McCullough; Corner/Camp.