Autosport 19th October 1978

Special Stage

Castrol clinches G1

The Castrol 78 was the penultimate round of the Castrol/Autosport championship and several of the classes have now been sewn up. The overall placings in the series are still wide open though, with just four points separating Malcolm Wilson, and Jim McRae and then a further ten points separating McRae and David Stokes. In theory, any one of these three could still win the series outright. Stokes has the least chance and would need a win on the Wyedean with neither Wilson nor McRae finishing. McRae will have to finish more than four championship-contenders higher than Wilson in order to clinch the series. If there is a tie, it will always go in favour of Wilson who has the most number of wins. The G1 category has now been settled in favour of Peter Clarke who has scored consistently all season with his A&C Paint Factors backed Escort RS2000. Peter now has 92 points and leads from John Cleary, Godfrey Jones, David Jones and Terry Kaby. Second place in the category is still wide open and even Kaby could score enough points on the Wyedean to pull up to second place. Howard Scott is the winning G1 co-driver. In the various classes Rob James has won the up-to-1600 class with his Avenger, despite having a very fraught Castrol 78. He collected a maximum penalty on the second special stage after a fuel line became blocked and then the Avenger rolled gently onto its side on the second Dyfi stage. In the course of the roll a small fire started. Ken Rees was actually seen to move quickly something which has been observed for many years, and the fire was soon put out. Martin Watson has won the 1300cc class with his Mazda (see separate story) and John Saint has clinched the 1600cc class with his Toyota Corolla. Predictably enough, the Huxfod Liberated Ladies series has been won by Chrissie Ashford with the delightful Christine Coward as the winning co-driver. Most of the class winners are entered in the Wyedean, if only to have a good run without the pressures, and there should be a tremendous battle up at the front.

Mixed day for Irish

It was a day of mixed fortunes for the two Irish crews out on the Castrol 78. Freddy Patterson and Martin Reilly in their Escort RS1600 were having a good run until their engine failed on the Dyfi 2 stage. They were towed out of the stage by the Rally rescue brigade and commented afterwards how friendly they had found everybody and how much they had enjoyed the smooth stages. John ‘Biggies’ Scallon and Ronan MacNamee made it to the finish in their Parker Plant backed Escort RS2000 and would have been classified sixth G1 finisher; not a bad result for the first time in the British forests. However, there was one black cloud. John’s service crew had decided to go spectating at the end of the event, after all their servicing was over. They took the service van with them and, although there was no question of them actually doing any work on the rally car, there were very strict rules about service vans being seen off the service route issued by the organisers. The club stuck to the rules and Scallon was excluded for a breach of service regulations. Two or three other competitors were similarly penalised. John too was very happy with the stages and commented that he hoped to be back in England with Parker Plant again in the future. He didn’t think that he would be coming to the Castrol 79 though.

Nicol looks good

One of the more impressive drives on the Castrol came from John Nicol, the winner of the Escort 1300 championship. John had the use of a David Sutton Escort RS2000 as a result of winning the first half of the Escort series earlier this year. Although he hadn’t even sat in the car until the night before the rally started, John adapted quickly and eventually finished third in Gl, just behind Peter Clarke. “It took me three stages to get used to the car,” he commented.” At first I arrived at every corner far too fast — but I thoroughly enjoyed myself and am looking forward to some more runs next year.” John’s only problem was a puncture on the first special stage; apart from that he drove sensibly and steadily throughout the day.

Watson wins Mazdas: now — next year?

Martin Watson won the Mazda Hatchback section of the Castrol 78 and, in doing so, won the Mazda Hatchback Challenge outright. He wins £500 as first prize and Mazda have announced that they are looking to support him in a works car in next year’s Sedan Products Open Championship. We understand that they will be entering Martin in one of the G1 categories of next year’s series and that the car used will not be a Mazda Hatchback. It will, of course, be some kind of Mazda. David Palmer, Mazda’s PR man, told us “We rate Martin very highly; he has approached the season in a very professional way. At the moment we are trying to sort out some sponsorship money but we certainly hope to have a car for him next season. It should attract quite a bit of interest. ” Martin now has 60 points in the series compared with Fred Almond's 48 and Paul Appleby on 46. The battle for second place is still on. In fact Fred was leading the Mazda category of the Castrol 78 for most of the rally. He built up a 30 second lead in the first half of the rally which Watson then started to eat away at. Eventually an Avenger spun in front of Almond on Hafren 2 and Watson was through to win. Both crews went into the last stage with clutch problems which added to the excitement. Watson will be running in this weekend’s SKF-Telford Stages and then will also be out on the Wyedean. Paul Appleby, who spent most of the Castrol with a misfiring engine, and Fred Almond will also be there.