The 1997 Regis Rally, co-promoted in October by the M.G. Car Club and Bognor Regis Motor Club was the seventh round of the Speedsport Design Clubman's Rally championship and despite promising skies at the Chichester start, scarcely had the 48-strong field set out than rain began, for the rest of the 135 mile route through Sussex and Hampshire lanes, torrential rain and standing water pervaded, writes Julie Eaglen.
As the crews headed towards East Hampshire, already on the first leg, hopes of a win were being dashed: Alan Tice's Healey 3000 blotted its otherwise excellent copybook well before the event reached the first rest halt, and several other crews collected fails.
At lunchtime, first and second places were held by the two near identikit works-liveried MGBs of Chris Hunt-Cooke/Dave Kirkham and Gill and Richard Dix. But fortunes changed soon after the restart. A misplotted map reference among a series of six took the Dixes on an excursion route, and lost a surprise nine minutes reaching the time control. Two sections later, a major problem beset Kirkham, ("circular herringbones - I hate those things!") and 10 minutes lost put the current Speedsports Champion down to third place.
On the homebound route, rain affected just about everyone. Ken Kimber was unlucky enough to have his windscreen wipers fail. This twice former Regis winner was giving his newly acquired, one owner from new MG1100 its maiden competition outing. He wasn't so lucky this time, but at least he was equipped with enough spare electrical wire to set up a manual rig to keep the screen clear.
At the start of the final regularity, a notable retirement was that of Paul Channon and Robin MacLachlan. Improbable, given the weather conditions, that anyone could suffer overheating through water loss. But their usually reliable MGA Twin Cam went for the absurd option, and they missed out on what seemed a likely place in the top five.
The final section, defined by intermittent tulips and out of order map references, took the field towards Goodwood and a brief halt before the final driving tests of the day. Navigational problems affected the aspirations of many more cars. Adding insult to injury, some accrued additional penalties for failing to notice - and stop at - a notified "give way" junction. But meanwhile Derek Skinner and Tony Pettie in their Austin A35 trundled on regardless of all that Clerk of the Course Mick Briggs could throw at them.
The last challenge on the road came from Nick Robinson and Dave Broxham. Making up for time lost in the morning, they pulled themselves up from fourth at lunch with an excellent afternoon and some of the fastest test times of the day. On paper they came home ahead of the A35, though as a post historic entry they failed to qualify for the overall win.
Scratch pairing of Mark Appleton with Susan Judd, teamed up just 12 hours before the start, helped Susan take home the Roden Plate for best lady. John and Chris Burton were thrilled to win the Brown and Gammons award for best novices on the first event they had finished in their borrowed Riley One-Point-five.
Hearts went out to the two crews driving with umbrellas by way of rain protection, and also to the redoubtable 1951 K2 Allard drowned in standing water at midday, for a while blocking the tail end of the rally's progress through to the lunch halt.
Hunt-Cooke/Kirkham and their close rivals, the Dixes, both failed to compensate for their errors early in the afternoon, coming home third and fourth overall, behind the A35 and Healey 3000 in first and second. With high points scored for both MGBs, the battle for supremacy in the Speedsports Championship between Hunt-Cooke and Gill Dix is going right down to the wire.