EXPRESS and STAR NATIONAL RALLY
Wolverhampton and South Staffs C.C.
Protests and Appeals Complicate a Splendid Event
A high quality entry totalling 170 cars set off from five starting points, Wolverhampton, Liverpool, Hereford, Oxford and Nottingham, from 6.30 onwards on Saturday evening. The starting routes converged on the Heather Brae Cafe and Garage, north of Church Stretton, where the catering facilities, although excellent for coping with a restricted rally entry of 50 or so cars found great difficulty in dealing with 170.
Sealed watches were issued, all set to give standard time for each car. Within half a mile of the start Julian Easten/Graham Robson lost a wheel on a tight right-hand bend, causing great distress to a dozen or so cars following, who were forced to make a detour involving the loss of a few minutes. The second section was a 15-minute one going around the Long Mynd on a white road that appeared to be new to a number of people. A further 15-minute section followed to control 3 and then three sections of 6.6 and 5 minutes.
The route so far was proving to be a mixture of white and yellow roads in approximately equal proportions and was skilfully avoiding almost every sign of habitation. The time schedule eased off slightly for a while, going in a “letter S” loop to Hopton Castle, where a 10- minute section entirely on white roads woke everybody up again. A main road section followed, skirting around Knighton and then another 10-minute white road section over Reeves Hill. Skirting Presteigne, the route then turned westwards to Control 18. where the marshals were making an almost irresistible effort to win the prize offered for the most efficient control. Whilst the road book was signed and the lights cleaned, a charming young lady in blue came round to the driver, opened the door and enquired, in a voice that took minds off rallying, whether the screen needed cleaning.
Three more tight sections led to Control 21 and then a five minutes’ allowance was given on the next section for the driving test which took place at 129/470696. This consisted of a 190- yard sprint, including a hairpin turn to the right, followed by a steep 50-yard descent, then a sharp left-hand turn and a short straight to the finish, the whole road being covered with a very slippery film of mud. The fastest time was recorded by Bobby Parkes in his ex-works Austin-Healey 3000.
Section 22 to 23 was a longer one but was followed by a two and a half mile dash to Control 24, which caught out a lot of people as the section started by turning immediately left through a gate on to a white road. By now the pace was beginning to ease up and the remainder of the route back to the Heather Brae Garage consisted of a series of 10-minute sections which caused little difficulty to drivers or navigators.
The rally was now virtually over, but even the main road run to the finish was not without incident. One particular right-hand bend on the A458 will be remembered by many crews for a long while to come. Apparently no worse than any other main road bend, it was for some reason treacherously slippery. One unknown Mini-Minor failed to negotiate the bend and vanished up an escape track backwards. Vic Elford and Mike Butler arrived shortly afterwards in another Mini-Minor, slid gently to a stop with the car up the bank, whereupon the car slowly toppled over on to its side, and an Austin-Healey Sprite
which was following close on their heels spun and clouted the bank in avoiding them. The Mini was set the right way up again and apart from the loss of some oil it was found that the only damage was a broken door handle. In the space of the few minutes while the cars were being sorted out, Ann Hooper and Mrs. Edwards came very close to emulating the trick in their Sprite.
The finish was at the T.A. Centre at Wolverhampton, where the facilities were somewhat spartan and later numbers had a considerable wait for breakfast.
The night’s incidents started coming to light then and apparently the five-minute section from Controls 17 to 18 had given trouble to many cars. At one point the road went sharp right between two buildings and those unfortunates who missed the turning found themselves ploughing straight into a very deep ford, with dire consequences in many cases.
From our car, little was seen of incidents during the night, although D. Blankstone/F. Pickering had managed to upend their SAAB at one point, balancing it on its roof on a bank and just leaving room for other competitors to pass underneath, whilst a deserted A40 was seen way off the road and upside down near a hairpin bend. Paul Steiner had the misfortune to suffer a cracked distributor cap on his A40.
Individual markings were published very soon after each car finished and provisional results were available shortly after the last car arrived. These named R.A.C. Rally Champion, Bill Bengry and Dave Skeffington in a VW as winners, but a protest was lodged concerning the use of a road which was headed by a red and white pole part-way across it bearing a road closed notice. Many competitors immediately made a detour, with a resultant loss of time, whilst those who looked first, found that it was, in fact, passable. At the time of going to press it is understood that the protest has been upheld, thus bringing Brian Harper/Ron Crellin in a Morgan up to first position, but an appeal has been lodged against the decision.
Despite a tremendous downpour of rain on the run-in section to the central meeting point, the weather was generally good and possibly accounted for the clean sheets of Bengry/Skeffington and P. Astbury/K. Binns in a Triumph Herald. The route was carefully chosen and although many unmetalled roads were used, they were all of a truly “non-damaging nature”, although often covered in a film of mud.
Provisional Results
1, B. Harper/R. Crellin (Morgan); 2, Miss P. Moss/S. Turner (SAAB); 3, equal, A. E. Bengry/ D. Skeffington (VW) and A. T. Fisher (Austin). 1,300-2,600 c.c. Open: G. D. Grimshaw/B. Melia (Triumph). Up to 1,300 c.c. Closed: P. Astbury /K. Binns (Herald). 1,300-2,600 c.c. Closed: R. A. Clift (Triumph). Over 2,300 c.c. Closed: G. H. F. Parkes (Austin-Healey). Ladies Award: Miss A. G. Hooper/Mrs. P. Edwards (Sprite).