october 2007

2007 BRITISH POST HISTORIC RALLY CHAMPION

Ludlow Castle Motor Club member, John Worthing from Orleton just outside Ludlow, is proof that persistence pays off in the end.

In his seventh year of trying John was crowned 2007 British Post Historic Rally Champion Driver after the Yorkshire based Trackrod Rally, the last Round of the Championship.

John’s involvement in rallying started in 1962 when he watched Leominster’s Bill Bengry in action in Radnor Forest, and had the great pleasure of seeing Roger Clark win the 1972 RAC Rally.

At the age of 49 he decided to have a go himself and went on to win The Welsh Historic Championship in 2000.

John has competed in the BHRC for the past seven years in his JT Foam & Fibre 1600 Mark 1 Escort Mexico.

The Mexico is affectionately known as “bent box” because of its registration, BNT 8OX, but luckily John and his co-driver, Bill Robertson from Dolgellau, managed to avoid bending the car this year.

Apart from retirement through engine problems on the Pirelli Historic Rally, “bent box” has proved reliable enough to give them various class wins throughout the season.

When their nearest rival, Vince Bristow, went out with ignition problems on the Trackrod Rally they saw that the Championship Title was in their grasp.

Not wishing to back off the pace with the possibility of losing concentration, John pushed as hard as was safe to do so in the Mexico and crossed the finish line with a huge smile across his face.

John would like to thank all those who have helped him win the Championship, Bill, his co-driver, his wife, Mary, team-manager and driver of the service van and Nigel the mechanic.

REPORT & PHOTOS by KEITH GLUYAS

Wozencroft is awarded Pirelli Star Driver for Rally Yorkshire

Ludlow based Junior rally driver and British MSA Rally Elite member James Wozencroft was named as the Rally Yorkshire’s Pirelli Star Driver finalist by the judges at the finish of the rally in Pickering this weekend.

The current British Super 1600 Rally Champion was playing catch up from stage 1 where he emerged at the end of the 14 mile forest test in 9th position over 90 seconds off the leader. The reason was no first or second gear but with the problem solved in service, James and co-driver Chris Ridge were free to push to make the time up. A string of very fast times in the high speed Dalby stages meant the Suzuki Swift ended the rally second overall.

The 23 year old, Dealer Team Suzuki GB works driver will now go forward as the fifth selection and will be one of the six Pirelli Stars to attend the final shootout competition in December where all of the winning drivers will fight it out for a works drive in the 2008 Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship.

James has driven the diminutive Suzuki Swift Sport car in the very competitive British Rally 2 class all season against more formidable machinery.

Pirelli Star driver panel judge and former British Rally Champion Bryan Thomas said, “It was really difficult this weekend to single out the winning Star driver, but James performances against more powerful machinery stood out as one of the drives of the weekend.”

Suzuki Team boss Ian Robinson said “I am absolutely delighted for James and his family, we believe he is a real talent for the future and undoubtedly really deserves the recognition. He has done a fantastic job for our team this season and his performance for the Junior World Championship works outfit in Germany recently was excellent and earned him a lot of praise from the Suzuki Sport World Rally Team.”