|
The Return of Ditton
The Milward Contractors Ditton Priors Stages Rally
Sunday the 1st of November saw the return of the popular single venue stage rally at Ditton Priors, in Shropshire.
The event was organised by Telford Auto club and sponsored by Milward Contractors of Shrewsbury who have jointly been redeveloping the site over the last few months.
The rally attracted nearly a full entry of competitors who tackled 9 special stages covering a distance of approx 35 miles on tarmac roads, in woodland and open farmland. The Ditton venue is a very technical rally and you have to know how to drive it. With clean driving and consistent stage times you should be in for a good result.
Ludlow Castle Motor Club members were out in force on the event, and their results are as follows.
A wet and dismal morning greeted competitors as they started the first stage at 9am. In car one, Oliver Davies, winner of the event last time it was ran in 2006, got the rally under way with co driver, Ben Innes. Due to the power of this car and the very slippery conditions Davies couldn’t find any grip at all, with standing water on many junctions adding to the problem. 
What made matters worse was the fact that he got caught and overtaken by Dave ‘The flying farmer’ Brick and Rob Woodhouse on that first stage.
Brick entered in his Subaru Impreza, which turned out to be a very wise choice as the car seemed suited to this event, with four wheel drive helping no end. The last time Brick did this event was 15 years ago in his Darrian kit car.
The first two stages claimed some victims; there were a lot of competitors going off the road due to the weather and perhaps driver error as well.
Mark Kinsey, co driving for Tim Baker, had a very good day finishing 4th overall and 1st in class, but it wasn’t without drama. They had a puncture on Stage 2 which they changed in service, but on Stage 4 they had a moment when the car went out of control in the slippery conditions. 
They recovered to find themselves heading for a barn, but managed to drive straight through the building losing no time and keeping the car undamaged. Clearly Baker’s auto test experience paid off.
The weather did improve slightly by the afternoon and as the cars got more grip, the pace got quicker.
Jay Stanley finished 3rd overall, in his Ford Escort.
Oliver Davies/Benn Innes were on a massive charge in the afternoon and worked their way back to 5th overall.
.
Duncan Edwards/Colin Stevens came in 6th place overall in spite of their exhaust coming loose on the second stage.
Simon Atkinson/Ben Nixon were 8th overall after a trouble free day of steady driving and Richard Jordan/Robert Beamand finished 16th.
Trevor and Chris Ridge brought their Vauxhall Nova home in 21st place after a steady, consistent drive.
Ken Lloyd, co-driving for Alan Pritchard in a Fiat 131 finished in 25th position.
Jim Jones co drove for Steve Gould in their Vauxhall Astra. Gould was getting used to the car after fitting a new limited slip diff and they had a couple of slides as they struggled for grip. They clipped a few of the curbs that line the roads, but no damage was caused and they finished 28th.
Overall winners of the rally were Dave Brick/Rob Woodhouse winning the event by approx 1 minute.
Other LCMC members competing, but didn’t finish, were Jon Scott, co driving for Nigel Gibbard in a Darrian T90 kit car. They spun on Stage 1 and had a high speed off into a field so decided to retire and not risk damaging the car. As they only had tarmac tyres which were not working at all in the wet conditions, this was a wise choice.
Tim Cains retired his Peugeot 309 Mi16 on Stage 2 with a broken driveshaft after setting top ten times. Matt Basford/Simon Stevens went off on Stage 1in their Peugeot 205 GTi, ending their rally early. They hit a large post bending the co driver’s door, roof and roll cage, but both driver and co driver were unhurt.
Report by Rusell Kenhard and Keith Gluyas
Photos by kentonphotografix
|
