Report by : Peter Scott
Photos by : Nigel Pratt of Black Mountains Media
Last year’s BHRC Champions Jason Pritchard and Phil Clarke started off 2016 in the best possible way with a 13 second win from the similar BDG engined Mk 2 Escort RS of Nick Elliott and Dave Price. Joe Price and Chris Brooke, really starting to get the hang of their Historic Escort, took third another 19 seconds behind.
Northern Ireland’s Paul Barrett performed miracles with his Pinto engined Escort on the first round of the British Historic Rally Championship, the Red Kite Rally based in Llandovery, South Wales at the weekend. Despite being 50 bhp down on the BDG engined Escorts Paul, co-driven by local man Dai Roberts, took fourth place only 46 seconds behind winner Jason Pritchard after 45 competitive miles in difficult conditions.
The event, based in the small town of Llandovery in south Wales used the forests of Crychan and Caio for the majority of the stage mileage with a 4.5 mile stage on the infamous Route 60 on the Epynt military ranges completing the route.
On the first stage in Crychan Pritchard started as he meant to continue with a time four seconds better than Elliott but in a remarkable third place was the incredible Paul Barrett from Northern Ireland with only a Pinto engine in his Escort, 50 bhp or so down on the 16 valve cars, two seconds slower than Elliott. Route 60 was next and Price showed his hand here with fastest time to move into equal second. It was Elliott’s turn to set the pace on the ultra-slippery Ciao with many slimy miles in between huge log piles and he and Pritchard were well ahead of the rest of the field. At the half way halt back in Llandovery Pritchard had a two second lead from Elliott, followed by Price and Barrett.
On the second run over Crychan Elliott lost 19 seconds to Pritchard and that effectively sealed the result and after another fastest on Route 60 Jason was able to ease off on the final run through Caio where Elliott excelled himself beating the field by 15 seconds but too little, too late.
Barrett’s remarkable pace continued all day to finish 4th and win theD3 class by a huge 4 minutes. Another Northern Ireland driver, Stanley Orr, with Guy Weaver in the passenger seat, took the C3 class in a Mk 1 Pinto and young Adam Milner from Yorkshire in a Mexico won C2 in a remarkable 13th place overall.
Matthew Robinson and Sam Collis were out again in the RSD Fiat 131 and were consistently 5th and 6th fastest but still 10 or more seconds per stage off the pace of the fastest cars but still managed 6th overall and their first finish in the iconic car.
Photo captions:
Bob Bean is 77 years of age and has been rallying 51 years. His Lotus Cortina has been rallying nearly as long. In the sixties and seventies Bob was one of the stars of UK National and International rallying and has lost little of his speed. He was having a huge battle with the Mk 2 Cortina GT of Bob Gibbons but an electrical failure on the last stage meant retirement from the Red Kite.
Winners of Cat One for pre-1968 cars was Bob Gibbons in his Mk 2 Cortina GT accompanied by son Dale. He was just in the lead of a day long battle with Bob Bean prior to Bean’s last stage retirement.
Class act! Winners and 2015 champions Jason Pritchard and Phil Clarke in the North Road Garage RS1800.
The pretty Kadette of Richard Phillipson and Stefan Arndt retired from the Red Kite.
Another retirement was the MG Metro of Trevor Hancock and Jody Watson. This must be the least expensive car in British historic stage rallying.
After a number of expensive retirements from previous Red Kite’s, Nick Elliott and Dave Price at last made it to the end in second place and but for a spin and stall on Crychan 2 costing about quarter of a minute might just have pushed Pritchard for the win.
With Cat One cars now banished to the rear of the field there are few Mini owners willing to take their cars into the rough forests but Phil Harris was the brave man to take his beautiful Cooper S out on the ‘Kite’ and made 43rd place.
Lee and Sean Sellers in their Triumph 2.5Pi were last of the finishers on the Red Kite but what a pleasure it is to see this unusual rally car in the forests.
