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Joe Price Supplies Haye Park Rally Time Trial
On Saturday, 20th February, Ludlow Castle Motor Club ltd (LCMC) held their annual Rally Time Trial in the Haye park complex of Ludlow’s Mortimer forest.
The event was postponed from its January date due to bad weather, but still attracted an entry of 23 cars.
At 8.30 the procession run started, this is where the drivers have their chance to take mental notes along the way, as this is a rally trial with no co driver alongside them reading the notes.
The stage was a shortened version of the Woodpecker Rally stage and was run 6 times, all in the same direction this year due to very icy conditions on some hills, making it too dangerous to run downhill.
Stalybridge Rally Driver and LCMC member Alex Allingham had intended just to use the Rally Time Trial as a shakedown event for the Ancro Championship season opener, the Rally Sunseeker, on the 26th/27th February. However, to his surprise he emerged as the event winner after 6 stages.
Allingham, backed by Workwear4you, Richard Allingham Cars, McCrash Rally Media and Brokenpencil.co.uk had intended to take it easy and not risk damaging the car, due to the Sunseeker only being one week away. However, due to the extreme icy conditions Allingham’s lesser powered GpN Subaru Impreza was more suited to the treacherous conditions. Coupled with a steady consistent drive this allowed him to beat local ace Shaun Gardener by 52 Seconds. Gardener, the event favourite, started as car 1, having won the event twice before. He drove consistently all day despite a few close calls with the scenery, finishing 1st in Class, and 2nd Overall.
Gardener was a further 1 minute 14 seconds in front of the Subaru Impreza WRC driver Paul Walker in 3rd place.
Allingham is now starting his preparation for Rally Sunseeker and will be travelling to Bournemouth on Thursday afternoon. More information can be found on Alex and his rallying at www.alexallingham.co.uk
Rob Holloway in his Peugeot 205 GTi had a very impressive result, finishing 4th overall and 1st in class
.
6th place went to Jay Stanley in his Ford Escort, again proving that consistent driving will give a good result.
Event sponsor Joe Price (JPS Supplies of Ludlow/Presteigne) entertained the spectators as usual with his flamboyant driving style in the powerful Voodoo Escort. Price had a few problems with grip, as did every competitor, but also had a couple of spins on the ice, clearly out to enjoy himself. He finished 8th overall and collected the prize for Maximum Attack of the day for the third year in a row.
Unfortunately for most of the day there was only one Voodoo Escort running, as Henri Grehan in the second car, newly sponsored for this event by Phil Wilkes & son, suffered fuel pump problems before the event. This was fixed by the service crew, but a broken oil cooler caused him to retire, ending his day.
Top Ten Results. :-
1) Car 2 Alex Allingham ..Subaru Impreza ............0:27:25
2) Car 1 Shaun Gardener ..Mitsubishi Evo 5.9 ...... 0:28:17
3) Car 6 Paul Walker ..Subaru Impreza ................. 0:29:31
4) Car 36 Rob Holloway ..Peugeot 205 Gti ............0:30:46
5) Car 8 Alan Walker ..Ford Escort....................... 0:31:26
6) Car 7 Jay Stanley ..Ford Escort Mk 2 ............... 0:31:51
7) Car 12 Martin Wyles.. Ford Escort Mk 2 ..........0:32:15
8) Car 4 Joe Price.. Ford Escort Mk 2.................... 0:32:29
9) Car 22 Jamie Coxhill ..Ford Escort Mk 2.....0:32:32
10) Car 19 Martin Davis ..Peugeot 306 S16 ....0:32:36
A FULL LIST OF RESULTS INCLUDING STAGE TIMES CAN BE FOUND ON THE GRAVEL SPRINT SECTION OF THE WEB SITE.
Report by Russell Kenhard and Keith Gluyas
Photos by Russell Kenhard ( kentonphotografix ) & Marcus James (Rally Media)
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