The Prologue

The 3rd Rally of the Tests got underway on Thursday with scrutineering at the Cheltenham Park hotel, but even before reaching the start bad luck struck the Dutch crew of Jan and Hugo Veening. Their TR3 blew the head gasket on the way from the ferry. Many phone calls later a local specialist garage was found and the car was left for repair. Hopefully they will have better luck when they tackle the Winter Challenge in January.

All other cars passed scrutiny without problem - though the local motor factors did a good trade in fire extinguishers, as crews replaced outdated extinguishers.

Thursday evening was taken up with a variety of tests and regularities at an MOD establishment near Tewkesbury. Superb co-operation from Alan Lavery and Linda Burn at the site plus Clerk of the Course Fred Bent using his creative talent to design routes that had cars weaving around the buildings and in some cases in and out of the actual buildings. Newcomers were soon realising that "private road regularities" don't always need speed tables as simply maintaining the set average can be quite a task. One section was run as a Regularity and then repeated as a Time Control section - numerous Passage Controls adding to the excitement. In between sections refreshments were being served up in the Officer's Mess.

At the end of the night competitors returned to the Cheltenham Park Hotel where over an excellent meal and several glasses of wine tales were told about wrong tests and heroics to try and visit all PC's.

Several competitors were already experiencing car problems, Vincent and Oliver Fairclough retired their MG TC with engine problems, Tom and Kieron Hayes had an intermittent lighting fault on their Mustang and missed part of the evening tests - great to see so many Father and Son teams out on the event - perhaps we should have a special award for them - any suggestions for a name?

As a foretaste for flagging the cars away in the morning Garth and Rita Barnes, Mayor and Mayoress of Cheltenham attended the evening meal, they were delighted to see cars out that they had used in their youth. Perhaps we can tempt them out on our next event!

Much of the Rally of the Tests results are calculated on a class basis and at the end of the night the lead was held by Peter Joy and Alistair Singleton in a Lotus Elite, the similar car of Jocelyn Williams and Janet Lloyd-Jones was not faring so well having suffered electrical problems for much of the night. They were in sixth place in the Clubmans category - this category is new to this event and is aimed at giving a slightly easier event for both newcomers and those with older cars. In joint second place were Neil Wilson in a Porsche 356 and Richard de la Roche in a Mini Seven. 2002 winners John Rondeau and Dennis Greenslade were down in 9th place but many changes are expected by the time cars reach Buxton tomorrow evening.

Day 1 - Cheltenham to Buxton

It was bright and sunny as the cars were flagged away from the Pittville Pump Room by the Mayor of Cheltenham, Councillor Garth Barnes, The strong winds were however signs of things to come and later in the day the sunshine was to give way to heavy rainfall. There had been rain overnight, and this together with the autumn leaves led to the early retirement of Steven Swift and Colin Day, after a small accident. Following a couple of tests in the Gloucestershire countryside competitors met up at the Prodrive Live venue and undertook four tests utilising many of the specialist facilities here.

Arthur Senior, accompanied by former works co driver and Top Gear presenter Tony Mason was kept busy between tests at Pro-Drive with a blown head gasket. Tests at this site included a regularity consistency test and a slalom test on a skid pan.

From Pro-Drive competitors headed off to Curborough for a circuit consistency test on the sprint circuit. Once this was out of the way a "night" section in Derbyshire was to bring many changes to the leader board, The rain had been getting heavier as darkness fell and the wind was building up, not only had the fords been getting deeper but many roads were also under water. Electrical problems were the bane of many crews as overworked dynamos tried to satisfy wipers, lights and heater motors. Anthony Ward and Peter Aitken-Quack set off back for home in the Aston Martin DB4 with dynamo failure, Michael and Richard Moss were struggling with no wipers, Ian Willamson had to withdraw the Aston Martin Speed as this to had lost it's ability to charge, The slippery conditions also led to a few minor offs, no injuries other than to drivers pride! Amongst those taking an early bath with body repairs to undertake in the near future were Chris Rees and Malcolm Heymer, Ford Anglia, Brian Toswe and Andrew Isherwood, Austin Healey 3000.

The Palace Hotel at Buxton was the HQ for the night and the kitchen staff did very well with food being provided as soon as competitors arrived. The wine again flowed as the radiators steamed away with many competitors drying out from the earlier rain. The sweep crews were busy late into the night resolving problems so that cars can start Leg from Buxton to Harrogate.

Frank Fennell / Kevin Savage, Mercedes-Benz 300SE have a good lead over James Warner / Colin Francis in a Triumph TR3A, Neil Wilson and Alan Smith have dropped one place back to third and are just four marks behind so nothing is decided yet. Historic rally newcomer Jim Smith is up into sixth place, his Riley 1.5 being navigated by Andrew Duerden. Andrew is one of the regular officials on our European events but is proving that he is an equally capable competitor. Mickey Gabbett and Michael Jackson have got their Peugeot 404 up into 10th place, Mayoress Barnes was less than impressed by Mickey's choice of car - even though the latest Mayoral car is also a Peugeot. Mickey was another who had been visiting the scenery and this followed on from the drama of cracking a wheel at the Ashchurch tests on Thursday evening.

Leading places on the Clubman's route are being held by Ian and Margaret Coomber, ex Monte-Carlo rally Vauxhall Cresta, following them was Birthday boy Grant Cratchley and Martin Jones - his car number gives you a guide as to what he was celebrating! Both these crews were participants in a recent Willy Cave Rally School proving that Willy still knows how to teach the novices to succeed.

Day 2 - Buxton to Harrogate

After a good nights sleep competitors woke up to a dry morning in Buxton, the severe weather of the previous evening was soon forgotten.

A busy day lay ahead for the 72 cars on the restart list. Thirteen tests and three regularities were planned, varying from farmyard tracks, the Leyland test track, a sewage works (thankfully nobody fell in!) and various MOD sites. In the evening a section through North Yorkshire using the old 1" maps with Fred using various means of defining the required route. One method was a copy of the actual maps used on the 1954 RAC Rally.

Some crews were not going to see this action as several cars remained in the car hotel park after the morning restart marshal closed his control point. Tom Callanan was still suffering with a dynamo problem, likewise the Lotus Elite of Jocelyn Williams, now fondly known as Penelope Pitstop. They missed part of the mornings route but caught back up later in the day - their luck was short lived and they had to be rescued in the evening when the lights failed. Our usual sweep crews being supplemented this evening by Steven Swift and Colin Day, competitors who retired early on.

It was good to see Hugo and Jan Veening reunited with their TR3, they claimed the car was running better than ever, it's just a shame that they are not able to compete.

Knut Hallan and Bjorn Lie brought their Morgan all the way over from Norway via the Morgan factory in Malvern for some emergency repair work to the car - does this make him a Works driver? Knut had further problems at Catterick, including a puncture - when the tyre was removed at Harrogate a bullet was found penetrating the tyre carcass. Nobody was brave enough to pull it out!

At the start of the day Frank Fennell had a slender lead, by the end of the day this lead had increased to 115 marks, Neil Wilson and Alan Smith in a Porsche 356 have moved up to second place with Geoff Breakell and Nigel Raeburn, Jaguar Mk 1, now in third. Jim Smith and Andrew Duerden are putting in an excellent performance in fourth place. Nigel and Christine Gray are keeping their heads down and have made it up into the top ten. James Warner and Colin Francis, Triumph TR3A suffered a 100 mark penalty for missing one of the PC's deep in Catterick garrison, dropping them from last nights second place to sixth. Richard Fenhalls and Heather Milne Taylor have dropped to ninth place.

In the Clubmans section the lead is still held by Ian and Margaret Coomber in their Vauxhall Cresta, it's a slim lead though as Grant Cratchley and Martin Jones, Rover P6, are only 15 marks behind. Tony and Sue Bell in an Austin Healey 100/6 are in third and just eight points further adrift is the Sunbeam Talbot of John and Tim Hodges.
 

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