Report from Autosport 16th November 1972
CASTROL/TIMPSON RALLY
Fairytale win for Ryan after Sclater's demise
Pat Ryan, from the Channel Isles, scored a fairytale win on last Saturday's Castrol-Timpson Rally in his Mini-Cooper S, tuned by Roger Smith of Gidley Bros/Blazespeed, by a tenuous 6 s advantage from John Price's Renault-Alpine and a further 9 s from Frank Pierson (Escort RSI600). The favourite, Chris Sclater, on his last event, entered by Withers of Winsford Team Castrol went off on the first stage for a maximum penalty and despite some fast times on later stages failed to make the top places. The Castrol-Timpson was the first non-international rally to use the fabulous Welsh forests in four years and provided countless clubmen with initiation into forest driving, with only isolated bad timekeeping detracting from an otherwise perfect day's sport. All top three placemen appeared to benefit from errors to the detriment of fourth man Ron Clift. Dunlop tyres were fitted to first, fourth, fifth and sixth placed cars with Kleber tyres fitted on second and third placed cars.
The clash with both the Hackle (Uniroyal/AUTOSPORT/RAC series) and the Timpson Hercock (forest) rallies naturally dampened the demand for entries, but still 130 entries were received from a wide area of England and Wales. An obvious entrant through the Castrol connection was Chris Sclater in the ex-Safari works Escort RS1600 in rhd form. Chris had rebuilt the diff after the Dukeries, which stopped most of the car's weaving on straights and had fitted a different type of gearlever for his ZF box many of which had given trouble on the Dukeries while in an effort to improve the braking he had reassembled the pedal box assembly. The engine was the works 1800 cc unit giving about 200 bhp, tuned by Terry Hoyle, while tyres were Dunlop MS type M. Another Team Castrol man John Bloxham was second in line with his Birmingham Post Saab V4 in the same form as -seen on U/A/RAC rounds with 1800 cc engine and 175 SP44s. Mike Marshall scratched his entry so next in line came Frank Pierson with his 1700 cc Escort RS bearing his own company Pierstune decals, and shod with Kleber tyres. At number 5 came 23-year-old Pat Ryan with his Mini entered by Cleveland Garages, Who are Austin-Morris distributors in Jersey and Guernsey. Roger Smith maintains the car in Birmingham with Ryan flying over for each event. Tyres were Dunlop SP44. At number six we were promised Andy Dawson's Clan Crusader, but as on the Plains we were thwarted its expectation, for the Woolworth's sponsored car had its engine go woolly at Cadwell rallycross the day before, and despite working on the car until 7 am at John Lloyd's in Birmingham, they could not rectify a broken cam carrier. So next in line was Jeff Churchill in his Escort 1800 with ex Sclater Terry Hoyle engine.
At number eight was Malcolm Patrick with the ex-Rivimaki Escort 1800 prepared by AVJ Developments, after a panic the night before with a faulty propstoaft. John Price followed with his Bengry Motors Alpine, now red after its refurbishment following a Manx accident. The car was ex-Peter Smith, who in turn entered 'his ex-Nicholas TAP car which Peter found was still not properly set up. Peter was unhappily using Micheljn Novas which had a very hard compound, while Price was another Kleber user. Ron Clift started number 10 with his Talk of the South sponsored Escort TC with Bruce Rennie built 1800 cc engine. Of all drivers few have had as many frustrations in the past as this Southend man: a changed head gasket 'the night before doubtless made him wonder if his usual ill-luck was holding. Jerry Dodd had his 1600 cc David Wood RS, while Eric Davies appeared in the ex-David (Cilwendeg) Lewis Escort TC which Eric eventually finished preparing at 5.45 am on the morning of the start, after head gasket and water pump failure.
Within the entries were many faces well known in other rallies, like Brian Dennis reappearing in his Old Forge Garage Cooper S, rebuilt after his '71 Welsh accident at Radnor, now with a '61 shell and a 731 cam. Vaughan Bond had his Ledar-engined 1760 Escort TC, and at 33 was Terry Brown, three times national Jalopy champion, in his ex-Churchill Escort, now with pushrod engine built by EW Speed Conversions of Carmarthen. There were two G3 Datsun 240Zs for Charles Dodd and Ian Lawless, while Peter Kingcaid had his modified 240Z.
Eleven stages formed the Timpson route, spread out in a curving line away from the Carmarthen start through the lunch halt at Machynlleth and then after a loop to Dolgellau back across to the finish at Shrewsbury. The start was in fact the least imposing feature of the rally, being held in a field some way out of Carmarthen, but only a few miles away from the first stage, at Brechfa. Strange things happen at Brechfa when the Wolverhampton club run stages there, this year involving one classic firebreak bend. Sclater was first along, and made no attempt to take the corner. He stalled, and was still trying to restart when Bloxham arrived only slightly slower and ended up nearby, but with engine running he was able to drive out. Sclater restarted only to go off again later, when the front brakes locked up fractionally and this time it was a lengthy recovery job by enthusiasts from the Black mill MC before he was able to continue. But back to that firebreak: they were all going off there! Jeff Churchill who must know Brechfa as well as anyone went off and stuck: along came Patrick and could not miss the fellow red car. Edwards' Escort TC went off and it took 25 men to restore the car to the track. York retired his Porsche 911S with a broken driveshaft while Goodall's Escort TC went off -and ran out of petrol.
It was peaceful by comparison at Llambed and Ystwyth, the latter having a previously unused loop at the eastern end of the forest, which stages Sclater won. Ryan spent a long time mending a broken alternator plate which broke at Brechfa, but a long main road run to Llambed kept him within the maximum lateness of 30 m. At Myherin a loop seldom used after the infamous havoc on the '65 Shunpiker was used, and both Patrick and Graham Lepley punctured tyres on the stony stretches, though uncertain times denied true results. Eventually the clock stopped altogether, and the finish marshal gave competitors times from another watch. The final stage before lunchtime was at Taliesin which started from the Nant-y-Moch road, and on a sudden left-hander near the start many crews, including Watson-Smyth's Capri, went off. Keith Aslett retired here when his Cheltenham Stages winning Escort's gearbox broke, and Ryan and Woodcock had punctures. Times here again were suspect, for despite Ryan's puncture he was still given a quarter-minute's benefit over Price, Sclater and Bloxham who had clear runs, while Pierson another half-minute quicker still! It was this benefit which gave Frank third place. Taliesin is the famous downhill stage, always exciting in the damp, and the original steady man Jerry Dodd came oh-so-near going over an edge. John Jago (Escort 1300 GT) lost 2 m here in doing the same, to add to his broken engine mounting troubles.
Amid random showers the rally cars arrived at Machynlleth, and service crews strove to keep the cars in the running. Sclater set about mending his second broken wheel stud of the day, John Bloxham started worrying about a badly leaking gearbox oil seal, Brian Dennis pondered an erratically sticking clutch- Kingcaid pondered a spate of thrown fan belts, Jeff Churchill wandered around gloomily wishing for 100 less horsepower and tyres of half the width. Jalopy king Terry Brown was lying sixth despite a broken gearbox and a crank knocking on the sump. Roger Platt had his rear exhaust come adrift in his Escort 1600GT, while Tim Walton was enjoying a trouble free run in navigator Anne Bertram's Mexico, though Tim's service, car had a rock thrown through its windscreen. Earnshaw retired his Sprite with a holed petrol tank and Farlow his Lotus Cortina with a broken anti-roll bar. Provisional places after the hour break showed Pierson, Price and Clift separated by only 8 s, in that order. Timing was much better in the second half, though Jago acquired unexpected fame (and wealth) by beating Sclater by 17 s with the engine resting on the sump guard ! at Pennal where Ryan made an error and spun off at a sudden hairpin. Up the road from Pennal lies, Dovey, everyone's favourite, everyone except perhaps for Bond and Lepley who went off. Peter Mcllveen punctured halfway through the long stage and limped to the end. The Coed-y-Brenin stages kept to the east of the river, the first being the one up the side of the valley, -right up to the hairpin,- but the second was quite new: further up the road from the short one used by the Gulf. The latter was rocky in the middle for a short stretch, but otherwise was a classic. Then came Dyfnant, surely the fastest of them all, but this time the weather descended with rain and sleet shooting down. Bloxham now had oil pouring on to his windscreen in addition to add to the natural hazards. Pierson had his alternator fail, causng for some while an untraceable loss of power but when the cause was known he rushed ahead to the final stage at Kerry, in the hope of tackling this in some daylight. Roger Platt also used only headlights here and went off and stuck for a while.
A run through to the finish at Shrewsbury was all that competitors now faced and at the finish great work was done to produce speedy results. It was perhaps inevitable that certain difficulties would arise, since it has been so long since a comparable event was held, though under David Stephenson's guidance these were surprisingly few. Ryan earned £150 for his win, while Sclater (by virtue of four best times of the day) earned £95.
MARTIN HOLMES
1, Patrick Ryan/Mike Nicholson (1.4 Mini-Cooper S), 1204; 2, John Price/Mervyn Gerrish (1.6 Renault-Alpine), 1210; 3, Frank Pierson/Colin Francis (1.7 Ford Escort RS1600), 1219; 4. Ron Clift/Peter Valentine (1.8 Ford Escort TC). 1273; 5, John Bloxham/Richard Harper (1.8 Saab V4), 1294; 6, Malcolm Patrick/Neil Wilson (1.8 Ford Escort RS1600), 1381: 7. David Roderick/Mike Woodward (1.6 Ford Escort RS1600), 1475; 8, David Ewles/Jeremy Denny (1.7 Ford Escort RS1600), 1476: 9, Roger Platt/Bob Coates (1.6 Ford Escort Mexico). 1493; 10. Ray Evans/Les. Watkins (1.6 Ford Escort TC). 1503.
Stage results
S1 Brechfa (10 m bogey): 1, Bloxham, 144 s pen; 2, Terry Brown/Ed Morgan (l.6 Ford Escort GT), 148; 3, Price, 160: 4, Pierson and Peter Smith/Paul Russell (1.6 Renault Alpine), 164; 6, David Wood/Paul Davies (1.3 Mini-Cooper S), 167.
S2 Llambed (2 m 45s): 1, Chris Sclater/Martin Holmes (1.8 Ford Escort RS1600), 40; 2, Bloxham, 42; 3. Ryan, 44; 4, Patrick, 46; 5, John Woodcock/Colin Goler (1.3 Mini 1275 GT), 50; 6. Roderick, 51.
S3 Ystwyth (7 m 30 s): 1. Sclater, 73; 2, Ryan. 107; 3, Price 120; 4, David Stokes/Stuart Bennett (1.6 Ford Escort TC), 121; 5, Patrick and Clift, 122.
S4 Myherin (4 m 30 s): 1, Price, 10; 2, Pierson, 39; 3, Ryan, 56; 4. Patrick, 64; 5, Colin Fleld/D. Bunker (3.5 Rover 3500S), 70; 6, Ewles, 71. Note: Watch was faulty, but penalties were included in results.
S5 Taliesin (6 m 30 s): 1, Pierson, 55; 2. Vaughan. Bond/Tony Beddoes (1.8 Ford Escort TC). 68; 3, Ryan. 93; 4, Price, 107; 5, Sclater and Bloxham, 108.
S6 Pennal (3 m SO s): 1, John Jago/Duncan Spence (1.6 Ford Escort GT). 71; 2, Sclater, 68; 3, Bloxham. 96; 4, Price, 99; 5, Smith. 105; 6, Roderick, 106.
S7 Dovey (8 m): 1, Sclater, 142; 2, Ryan, 170; 3. Bloxham, 178; 4, Patrick, 185: 5, Pierson, 196: 6, Price and Clift, 202.
S8 Coed-y-Brenin East (2 m 30 s): 1, Sclat.r. 68; 2. Patrick, 73; 3, Ryan, 75; 4, Price. 79; 5. Pierson, 80: 6. Smith, 84.
S9 Coed-y-Brenin North-East (2 m): 1. Sclater, 114: 2, Ryan and Patrick, 125; 4, Pierson, 129- S Bloxham, 131; 6, E. Huxley/N. Swain (1.6 Ford Escort RS1600), and Peter Kingcaid/R. J. Jarm-an (2.4 Datsun 240Z), 135.
S10 Dyfnant (6 m 45 s): 1. Sclater, 115; 2. Patrick, 121; 3, P. R. Lefevre/P. Thomas (1.3 Ford Escort GT),131; 4, Ryan, 134; 5, Pierson and Price, 138.
S11 Kerry (5 m): 1, Sclater. 93; 2, Ryan, 108: 3, Price, 112; 4. Bloxham. 114: 5. Woodcock. 119: Ewles