may 2007

WHITEDIALS STAGES 2007

Ludlow Castle Motor Club members were out in action on the recent Bank Holiday weekend at two different venues

The first event was the Whitedials Stages, named in memory of Dave “ Whitedials “ Williamson, who died while competing on this year’s Wyedean Rally in February.

Dave was a member of the Whitedials Stages organising club, Wolverhampton & SSCC.

The event took place at Desborough Airfield, Wilbarston, in Northamptonshire and the 50 plus competitors faced a very wet 60 miles over 10 stages.

The conditions were so bad that aquaplaning was the order of the day with cars overshooting junctions, hitting straw bales and occasionally disappearing into rape seed fields.

The event was won by last year’s winners Ian Savage and Ian Heslop in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6.

Richard & Gareth

The highest placed LCMC members were Richard Davies and Gareth Wilcox who brought their 1400cc Ford Escort Mark 2 across the finish line in 7th place O/A and 2nd in Class. This result earned Richard and Gareth valuable points in the Web Benefit 2007 Heart of England Rally Championship, of which this was the third Round.

John & Lee

John Moule and Lee Jennings finished 31st O/A in their Skoda Felicia despite overshooting some junctions.

Not so fortunate were Jim Jones and Steve Gould in another Skoda Felicia.

Jim & Steve

Despite surviving head more than one head on collision with straw bales, Jim and Steve were forced to retire with a blown head gasket.

The next Round of the HOE Rally Championship will be the Nuneaton based Rally of the Midlands on 22nd / 24th June.

THE 2 WHEEL DRIVE STAGES RALLY 2007

This event was based in Twyford Woods near Grantham in Lincolnshire, and was open to 2 wheel drive, non – turbo charged cars only.

The 74 starters also faced very wet action on a 50 mile mixture of concrete and forest tracks.

The event was a Round of both the Peugeot 205 and RWD Challenges.

The outright winners were Warren Fairbairn and Derek Miller, last year’s RWD Champions, in their BMW 325.

Ludlow Castle Motor Club’s Richard Preece and Anthony Gluyas were competing in the 205 Challenge and had a day full of problems.

Apart from going off the road on one stage due to the atrocious conditions, they suffered mechanical problems on every stage, including the gearbox mount breaking and the induction kit coming loose.

In addition to these problems which caused Richard and Anthony to lose time, Anthony had to put up with water splashing into the car and going down the back of his neck all day.

They finished the event towards the back of the field, but Richard earned valuable points for the 205 Championship.

LCMC’s Rob Holloway and Jo Stone were also taking part in the 205 Challenge but were effectively put out of the rally on the second stage of the day when the fuel pipe worked loose. They were allowed to continue the event purely for fun and were not included in the final results.

REPORTS by KEITH GLUYAS
PHOTOS by RALLY ACTION PHOTOGRAPHY