Clerk of the Course John Parsons
battled with very difficult conditions at Falcons Brickhill venue. There
had been a 4 WD event the previous week, followed by a lot of rain, making
the paddock and the big bank very muddy indeed. The first round caused a
few moans and groans amongst the rear wheel drive brigade as they really
struggled to get to hills three and four, let alone do anything special on
the hills themselves. Earlier the top FWD drivers had done much better and
Barrie Parker cleaned hill three and Robin Howard hill four. At the end of
the round Barrie had only dropped 18 with Neil MacKay on 23 in his Fiat
Panda. Falcon’s Robin Howard and Cliff Morrell were on 26 and 27
respectively in their Citroen AX’s, Robin running ballasted in class B and
Cliff un-ballasted in Class A.
The rear engined class was very close with Falcon’s
Simon Benoy and Richard Tompkins in their Imps and Dave Harvey in the
ex-Mike Stephens VW 1302S all within a point, and Mark Ibbotson only just
behind.
JP eased some of the more difficult hills for the second
round but they were still a problem as the muddy ground on the hills
leading up to the paddock became increasingly cut up. Again, the
conditions didn’t trouble the leading FWD boys too much and Barrie Parker,
Neil MacKay and David Holmes all went round in 10. Cliff Morrell slipped
back after his good start, dropping 12 on hill four and picking up a 9 on
hill seven where quite a few went clear.
Richard Tompkins had pulled out a nine-point lead from
Dave Harvey in the rear engine class, where Simon Benoy and Mark Ibbotson
were slipping behind with engine troubles with their Imp. Amongst the kit
cars Tim Lakin had a good lead in his Marlin, over Howard Blackwell in his
Liege. This wasn’t to last as Tim’s diff let go immediately after lunch
and he had to retire. Roger Dudley was having problems as well, getting a
puncture and bending the steering when his Marlin hit something a little
to hard.
Barrie Parker got straight down to business after lunch,
fighting off a challenge from Neil MacKay, who had an atrocious last
round. Barrie ended the day with the lowest overall score and best on
index. In class, B Robin Howard had an excellent afternoon to beat Chris
Smith.
Dave Harvey could not get to grips with his Beetle in
the afternoon and with Simon Benoy and Mark Ibbotson having continuing Imp
problems Richard Tompkins ran out the Class C winner.
When Tim Lakin retired that put Howard Blackwell in the
lead of the kit cars. However, John Ludford started to go better and
better in his Marlin and overtook Howard on the last round to win the
class in his Marlin.
