SAINT WILFRID'S ROAD RALLY

by Pete Noad

The Saint Wilfrid's Rally, organised by Ripon Motor Sport Club in North Yorkshire, was a new event in the HRCR Championship and it was a combined modern and historic night rally. The historic entry was strong on quality, with most of the leading nocturnal challengers eager for a good night's sport, but the total number of historics was disappointingly low.

There are two points I would like to make. One is that HRCR members turn out in good numbers for the famous 'big name' events, such as the Gremlin and the East Anglian and the Targa, but seem to be rather shy of trying new or lesser-known events like the St Wilfrid's. All those who didn't go to Yorkshire on August 3/4th missed a superb rally - a first-class no-nonsense traditional Northern thrash.

My second point is that nearly all the historic entrants came from south of Luton - from Kent, Middlesex, Berkshire, Surrey, Hampshire, Dorset, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Cornwall. With the honourable exception of Pam and Shon in the Land Rover from Macclesfield, we all travelled 200, 300 or more miles each way to the event. Where were all the Midland and Northern HRCR members? Nobody can complain if the championship appears to be southern-biased.....

It's wonderful how road rallying can roll back the years. A gentleman came up to me at the start in Ripon and said he remembered me competing on the Stocktonian Rally in a VW Beetle. Hey, I thought, that was in 1965! Then, at the driver's briefing, the C of C, Adam Roper, explained that the marshals would be on the right road but they might not be as far along as we would expect, or they might be a bit further along than we expect. I smiled because this means it was going to be like the good old days - the spirit of the Sixties lives on....

Ripon MSC's St Wilfrid's was in the same style as Matlock's AB Motorsport/CARS, but with the added bonus of the superb Yorkshire roads. Fog on the high ground added to the fun and there was plenty of that on the sections between Wensleydale and Swaledale. The roads over Stainton Moor and Harkenside Moor provided truly classic sections and proved how competitive the 30 average can be on the right sort of roads!

Apart from this excursion on to map 98, most of the 110 competitive miles were on map 99. There were lots of nice little lanes, a flooded road near Sutton Howgrave, and just a couple of whites - the muddy one through 1980 and one with tall grass in 2879 - plus the white-sided triangle in 1594 (did the NE approach to SH268 catch anyone?).

Navigators had to work hard but it was all straightforward. The handout that caused our biggest time loss was an all-roads herringbone. Despite helpful 'look closely' annotations, we had to stop to plot (as did Andy Gibson with Peter Baker in the Lancia). We then wrong-slotted and then had to go back for a codeboard we had missed. We then found ourselves behind Pam and Shon in the Land Rover, who had started five minutes behind us.

Diagrams were given to show where the codeboards were situated at the LWR triangles, but on a separate sheet so navigators had to be well-organised with the paperwork. Drivers were helped by caution boards before particularly hazardous bends.

A cracked exhaust slowed Dave Hughes and Richard Dix in the Volvo Amazon - Dave had to ease off the loud pedal during the second half to avoid exclusion for noise. A modern Peugeot reversed into the Mini of Phil Shingler/Eric Richardson and squashed the Mini's spotlamps but they managed to repair them at petrol. I had a problem with the choke linkage on the Audi's carburettor, which had become detached and sometimes jammed the throttle closed, impairing progress somewhat. I was able to tie the offending part out of the way at the rest halt in Leyburn.

At the start, Terry Pickering jokingly asked if Peter Cox and I would come second again. At one stage this seemed unlikely but, in the end, we succeeded in maintaining our record - helped, I have to admit, by Dave Hughes's exhaust, Wes and Bernard's fail {for a codeboard?) and Dick Appleton/Mark Gray's fail for making up time in a neutral. Terry, navigated by Paul Robinson, scored another emphatic victory with the rapid TR3.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable rally - superb route, sensible navigation, friendly organisers and marshals, excellent breakfast and speedy results. Thanks to Ripon MSC and St Wilfrid (wherever he might be) for a first-class addition to the HRCR calendar; an event that's not to be missed in 2003.

 Peter Noad