Report from Old Stager of December 2004

Bulldog Historic Rally - 29 October

Report and photos by Mike Hally

Tuthill’s Day Out

The wettest day of this year’s championship by a very long way, but another great day’s sport with two remarkable winning drives, one predictable, the other rather a surprise. Richard Tuthill came out for his one event of the year, in a different car from last year and with a different co-driver, but was as committed as ever in taking the post- historic rally by a couple of minutes. Stuart Rolt, who’s not really threatened on gravel the way he has on asphalt, swapped his 3-litre post- historic Porsche for Francis Tuthill’s 2-litre 911 and found it much more to his liking, out-pacing the champions to win the histories. A clean sweep for the Porsches.
Rolt has had a succession of co-drivers this year, but this time was re-united with Richard Pomfret, doing his first rally since May 2003 when this pairing won the Welsh. Rolt found the car brilliant and he threw it around confidently to win the rally comfortably by over half a minute. Dessie Nutt and Geraldine McBride’s dream of winning all nine rounds evaporated on an event that has often been unkind to them, those big airy drops not encouraging a flat-out fightback.
Neil Calvert and Arlene Cookson revelled in the wet and muddy conditions claiming that this is what real rallying is all about, and their Lotus Cortina behaved impeccably too. They got away with a huge high-speed spin in Pantperthog and arrived at service to find just six seconds covering them, Chris and Hilary Green’s Lotus and the Gales GT. They ended up taking third place by almost a minute from the Greens.

Post-Historic Overall

Richard Tuthill threw the powerful 3-litre Porsche around with commitment that stunned everyone and drew spontaneous applause from spectators in the Dyfnant amphitheatre, they trounced the rest of the class, and outran Stig Blomquist (in the Classics) for good measure. They set fastest time on every stage, even the one where they slid into a ditch and put the car temporarily on its side before it fell back onto its wheels. Dominic Frattaroli/Wyn Thomas were less fortunate, second quickest on Sweet Lamb, but caught out by a freshly re-graded section in Dyfi, the Datsun going so far into the trees only the headlights were visible, though with little damage.

Steven Smith/John Nichols’ RS2000 briefly took second but after three stages David Stokes/Den Golding's RS 1600 was in the runner-up slot. There they stayed all day, but were shocked to find themselves shown as OTL on the results. Their time at the final control showed them as 20 mins late, impossible but that was what the paperwork showed and neither protest nor appeal could change it. A sad end to a fine drive that both had thoroughly enjoyed. So Smith/Nichols took second, with their fellow RS2000 challengers James and David Young in third place.

Historic Classes

John Parker/Robert Harrison may have had a lonely drive as the only starters in B1 with their Saab 96, but certainly not an uneventful one. They came across Gwilym Roberts/Bili Robertson half-off the road at a hairpin and while negotiating a way round they somehow agreed to try and pull them out. Robertson had the tow-rope on the Saab's front bumper before they could think better of it and summoning all the power of the mighty two-stroke they soon had the Cortina on its way, that sporting gesture costing them around a minute.

The 1300 class had a healthier look to it than of late, though only three of the five starters were BHRC registered. James Stait/Marcus Cartwright returned having spent thousands on the Midget during the summer so were devastated to suffer an early recurrence of the driveshaft pulling out of the diff - that put them out of the Mutiny on the first stage. Mike Barratt/Michelle Calvert were looking forward to a carefree run with the pressure off, having secured the championship class anyway, but when they came to restart the Mini at the start of Dyfi they found the engine had seized without any warning. Non-BHRC crew Paul and Dave Goodman also retired their Mini after just a stage, so another unregistered crew Matthew and David Pearce won the event class. Alison Lock/Jeff Brown took the BHRC class points, after a frustrating run when the engine went onto three cylinders through the Sweet Lamb ford and never ran smoothly for the rest of the event.

Jonathan Gale/Graham Gale again showed impressive pace in their Cortina GT in the 1600 class, until what looked like a puddle turned out to be a flooded ditch, the resultant spin and bank encounter slowing them down a touch from then on. They still won the class comfortably from Ronnie Roughead/Andrew Roughead, while Neil White/'Polly’ took third on the event (but are not registered this year). Philip and Barbara Smith were out in their Cortina and took the points for third in class. Peter Quinton/Dennis Turner’s Mk2 Cortina was the only retirement, with stub axle failure on a road section Calvert/Cookson and the Greens took 1-2 in the ever-competitive 2-litre class, with Paul Mankin/Desmond Bell third - the latter reckoned they could have been caught for the championship class if they had failed to finish with Calvert/Cookson achieving this result. So they took no chances and their only drama was a time-consuming front puncture in Dyfi. Behind them were Hugh Currell/Mike Gamlin entertainingly sideways on their way to fourth in class. Gwilym Roberts/Bill Robertson's problem at that tricky hairpin cost them a stage maximum and they unsurprisingly finished last in class.

With only Rolt/Pomfret and Nutt/McBride in B5, they took 1-2 in the class just as they had done overall.

Post Historic Classes

Dave Dyer/Graham Wride put in another stunning drive in their Mexico screamer to finish a minute and a half clear of a hard- trying Ken Forster/John Stanger-Leathes, despite the Dyer/Wride car running on three cylinders for a while with a burnt-out plug. They also survived a two-wheeling moment, and another moment through the logs on Dyfnant, but achieved their aim of securing the C2 championship class. Forster/Stanger-Leathes are now planning to find at least another 12 bhp over the winter (with the generous advice of Dyer). John Worthing had his usual co-driver’s son Nikki Cadwallader in the left-hand seat and they started with the wrong tyres, compounded by a puncture on Taliesin, but a change to Kumhos improved things and they brought their Mexico home in third, ahead of Don Simmons/Kim Baker. The only non-Mexico crew in the class, Nigel Kelsall/Peter Davies, took fourth in the Fiat 124 Special T, while Lawrence Green/Andy Turner, after a good close dice all day with the Fiat, fell back on the last stage with a puncture to finish fifth.

Smith/Nichols won the 2-litre class, with the Youngs second, and non-BHRC crew Jesse Shakespeare (another one-rally-a-year driver)/Adrian Jay third. Chris Nixon/Joe Jones rounded off the finishers, taking BHRC points for third, the crew showing no ill-effects from their rather alarming experience on the Trackrod.
The over-2-litre (non-multivalve) class was won by Richard Tuthill/Nick Kennedy, with Francis Tuthill/Flip Golding second in Stuart Rolt’s (3-litre) car. But the gap was over five minutes and indeed Rolt/Pomfret were much quicker in Tuthill’s usual 2-litre 911, giving both drivers much food for thought. Paul Drinkall/Roy Brown took third in class a mere 1.5 seconds ahead of Graham Wilson/Steve Dear, a “hiccup in the notes” on the second stage more than accounting for the deficit, while Peter Lythell/Gill Cotton again lived dangerously on their way to fourth, all three in Porsches. Willi Polesnig/Peter Stark weren’t BHRC registered but deserve a mention for bringing the car from Austria and for the startling colour scheme of red and yellow flames.

Finally the BDAs had a rather undistinguished event, Chris Browne/Liz Jordan winning the class in fifth overall, followed by Mike Hibbert/David Cabena, John Lloyd/Pauline Gullick and Craig Salter/Preston Ayres third (after a fraught event where early watersplashes caused a misfire then broken wipers - for the rest of the event). However as the latter two crews were using the event as a shakedown for the Roger Albert Clark Rally and not registered for points, the BHRC points for third and fourth in class went to Neil Parsons/Chris Parsons and Ray Bellm/Andrew Bargery, the latter dropping five minutes with a puncture early in Pantperthog. Graham Samuel/Tony Phillips rounded off the championship crews, their run also wrecked by a time-consuming puncture, this time in Dyfi - problems with the jack cost them six minutes (with Mark Butler/David Holmes last in the event class). Along with Stokes/Golding’s unfortunate exclusion, the only other non-finishers were Anthony Ward/Carl Williamson.

PS: For anyone else wondering about Ernie Graham’s ‘Monte Carlo or Bust’-style spare wheel mounted on the top of the bootlid - the car has a Safari fuel tank and only room for one spare inside the boot, so that’s the only place for the other one!