Wilson’s testing victory
FORD TOOK A BREAK IN ITS RAC RALLY TESTING TO CONTEST SATURDAY’S MIDLAND RALLY. KEITH OSWIN WATCHED MALCOLM WILSON LEAD ALL THE WAY
Malcolm Wilson was concerned on Friday night that the car that he had been assigned for Saturday’s Midland Rally was the one he’d used to win the event last year. He said: ‘I’d hoped for something a bit newer.’ The rally was unimportant save for its value as a test exercise before the RAC Rally, a chance to test the engine and transmission specifications the team had been trying in the forests. But you know what rally drivers are, the merest hint of competition and it all becomes deadly serious!
The Wolverhampton and South Staffs CC event was once the final round of the national series and, later, the international. It is about to return to the former title hunt, but it will always be more important as a chance to try out the Welsh forests before the ‘big one’.
Which is why Ford was there, represented not only by Wilson but also by Francois Delecour.
As a national event, the entry looked pretty healthy, but the international class that preceded it was decidedly curious. Delecour and Wilson aside it comprised Paul Dyas and Brian Lyall (both in Escort Cosworths, Lyall using Wilson’s British series car) plus the Mini of Robert and Michael Plant.
The twins were seeking crucial mileage before the RAC (their 40th birthday present to each other), but inevitably struggled against the power machinery and were seriously hampered by punctures. Had they won, Rover would have had to part with a £5000 bonus. They might have been best advised to do a deal for their four rivals to hang back and then split the profit.
Wilson topped Delecour by a second on the first run at Dyfnant but was over nine minutes quicker than the Frenchman for the second. Both Fords had stopped in the stage with crank sensor problems. But Wilson simply flicked the switch to the spare and continued. Delecour, it seems, didn’t know about the switch... Wilson was fastest on all but one of the seven stages, Delecour going 20 seconds faster over Pen- Lan. His tally also included 2m40s of road penalties incurred while the team worked on the car between the stages. Even then, he still beat Dyas by 5ml3s. It would have been even more had the works Fords not cleaned all three runs at Gartheiniog, such was their pace and the super-smooth nature of the stages with dust clouds trailing the cars.
Both Fords were trying out hydraulic centre diffs which gave variable torque splits and, on occasion, dramatically variable handling. Both, also, were fitted with sequential gearshifts, which proved frustrating when Wilson spun late in the day and had to change all the way down the sequence before he could get going again. That’s where Delecour beat him...
Dyas just enjoyed his day, beating Delecour the big bonus. Lyall was out on only the second stage, the fact that he was far quicker into the comer second time around somewhat academic when the Escort rolled and caught fire. Low sun had temporarily blinded Lyall and he never knew where he was until it was too late.
The problems for Ellis-Jones let ‘Mad’ Mick Jones into the lead with his Mitsubishi Galant VR-4, but he then punctured, letting the venerable Sierra 4x4 of Iwan Roberts into the lead. It was prone to dramatic understeer at times but all became clear when his brother John, who shares the car’s use, pointed out that the tyres were now on their third forest event...
Jones launched a frantic bid to topple Roberts on the final stage. He was 11 seconds quicker, but it was still not enough, by 2 seconds.
After overnight fog, Wales had dawned bright for the RAC Rally curtain-raiser. Whether the dusty stages prove to be the same when Auriol and Sainz duel for the sport’s biggest crown remains to be seen. It will be deadly serious when the RAC hits town but, last Saturday, it was all about fun.