Paul & I had entered the rally on and off since 2002 and, having decided to try and do more Classic Rally events in 2016,once the regs were out it became THE rally to enter in 2016. So Paul put an entry in for the MGB’s 19th event since Paul bought it in 2012.
A very good, competitive entry was achieved this year with just under 60 starters. Potential winners were Paul Crosby and Ali Procter in the green 911, John Ruddock and Roger Burkhill in the venerable Escort and Dougie Humphrey and Chris Loudon in the very quick Cooper S. Lots of other crews would be snapping at their heels should they have any problems though.
The entry list also included several crews who are regulars to this event – the Allard of the Loveys, and the Gray brothers in the Swallow Doretti and TR2.
The event started at 17.00 on the Saturday evening from Tweedmouth service station in Berwick and took in two regularities and then two tests before the overnight halt at about 19.00.
The overnight results showed us to be in 17th overall – an improvement on the start we had recently on the Ilkley Jubilee when brain-fade set in early and I missed the first PC on the first regularity !!
Paul Crosby was in front at this point, but retired on the Sunday.
We had a good evening meal with John & Lynn Haygarth who had come up to marshal, then an early night to be ready for the morning.
Leg 2 started from Torness Power Station, just below Dunbar and a wet and very windy morning greeted all the runners and marshals.
Stuart Bankier had put together a really interesting route for the Sunday run with 3 regularities and another 15 tests, using some interesting, very quiet and challenging roads that we had not been on before. The regularities ran on a mixture of public and private roads with some speed changes, keeping the navigators on their toes.
Once again, the tests were superb, being a decent length and always flowing well.
We had a good run on the Sunday, not missing any controls or doing “wrong-tests” – we did have a couple of moments on the slippier tests though when trees and gates got very close !!
The finish this year was at East Lincs Park in Dunbar as the venue used in previous years had closed down. We got there at about 17.00 and had a good meal with results being announced at 19.30.
The car had run well all day and final results showed us to be 14th overall and 4th in class – our best result since 2003 and quite respectable in view of the quality entry.
The overall winner was John Ruddock with John Bertram 2nd in the Mexico. Richard Goodacre/Peter Birtles won our class with 3rd overall in the Volvo Amazon
Our thanks go to Stuart Bankier and his team who always put on a superbly enjoyable event, and thanks to all the marshals, without whom no event could run !
In fact, Paul & I both thought this year was the best of all with well-balanced navigation, interesting roads and superb tests – roll-on 2017 !
Mike Fox
