Pirelli British Rally Championship 2002 round 2: Rally of Wales. Story by www.brcweb.co.uk, images by Mark Sims - RallyingOnline.com.
This time it was the turn of the Caernarvonshire and Anglesey Motor Club assisted by the Potteries and Newcastle Motor Club, to host a round of the 2002 Pirelli British Rally Championship. Jim Jones, Dafydd Edwards and the team did an excellent job, and provided competitors, spectators and Greenlight Television with a format that ensured plenty of action and excitement from start to finish.
With Gateshead winner Mark Higgins away in Argentina preparing gravel notes for Ford, the winner's laurels almost naturally fell to first round runner-up Jonny Milner, who drove a storming rally, overcoming mechanical problems that at one point had dropped him down to seventh overall. For most people, 13 is a no-go number, but for Yorkshireman Milner his 13th year of rallying has provided him with his first International win and a combination of Team Dynamics and Toyota Corolla WRC that obviously at last fulfils his considerable potential. It's also fitting that co-driver Nicky Beech, although now living near Oxford, was born and bred in Wrexham, and even admitted that he had once graced the North East Wales Institute stage, where prize-giving took place, as a youthful pantomime star.
Group N/Production Cup honours fell to second overall finisher David Higgins in his Impreza, who had fought an event-long battle with third place overall and fellow Group N protagonist Tapio Laukkanen. Works Peugeot 206 driver Justin Dale blitzed the 1600 Category, finishing over five minutes ahead of Ford Junior Puma drivers Guy Wilkes and David Henderson by the time to event finished at the podium in Wrexham town centre.
What a difference three weeks makes! The first night nerves from Gateshead had vanished and everyone arrived in Wrexham anxious to get out into the forests again and resume hostilities (sporting ones of course). The contrast between the man-made expanses of Kielder and Mother Nature's mid-Wales forests of Clocaenog, Hafren and Myherin, together with the open expanses of Sweet Lamb, was obvious, suiting a smoother driving style plus technical ability and assisted by good pace notes. Power and grip away from tight uphill corners was another factor, and the front-wheel-drive1600 cars in particular suffered in this respect.
Leg One seemed like a leisurely start to the event - on paper at least. A 5pm Saturday afternoon start from the town centre in Wrexham, followed by a reasonably short run down to Clocaenog for two stages totalling 19 miles. Then back to Wrexham for parc fermé by 9pm. But, of course, there's nothing like a leisurely start to an International rally. Marcus Dodd set the overall pace, the loss of his boot lid and spoiler not seeming to hamper his performance at this point, and finished Clocaenog-Mid 2.5 seconds up on the hard-charging Swede, Johann Kressner. Off to a flying start was local man Charlie Jukes, driving a "proper" car for the first time, although it was an old-spec Group A Impreza and not at all comparable to the latest S7 WRC versions. Jonny Milner and Austin McHale were next up, ahead of leading Group N man, Tapio Laukkanen. 'New boy' Katsuhiko Taguchi, driving a Team Mitsubishi Ralliart-entered Group A Lancer on his first PBRC event, was eighth, just behind David Higgins. In the 1600 category, Justin Dale's liking for the Welsh stages was apparent, as he flew round in the works Peugeot 206, finishing 1.5 seconds up on Gwyndaf Evans' potent-sounding MG ZR.
On to stage two, Clocaenog-East, where Kressner turned up the pressure, but Jukes was still surprising the pundits, finishing only four-tenths of a second behind. Marcus dropped back when his engine stalled at a hairpin and took over 20 seconds to fire up again. Laukkanen was still upholding Group N honours, ahead of Austin McHale, with Justin Dale leading the 1600 Category ahead of Rory Galligan and Guy Wilkes, as Gwyndaf slowed with oil from the engine leaking on to the clutch. Back at the finish of Leg One, there were several reports of battle damage: Milner had hydraulic problems with his centre-diff, giving him intermittent 2- and 4-wheel drive; David Higgins had transmission trouble; Steve Petch had a broken drive-shaft, which had given him a roller-coaster ride on Clocaenog East; Taguchi had a massive moment when he went over a crest at 180kph, realised that there was a hairpin rather closer than he thought, and was forced to use up almost 60 metres of escape road (his description of this incident back at Wrexham proved that his swearing in English is absolutely fluent); Gwyndaf arrived at the ramp with the rear of his car covered in oil and the rear diff- guard scraping on the road; and McHale (suspension), Natalie Barratt (no rear brakes), Leon Pesticcio (lost five minutes when he had to stop and change a puncture) Elsmore (spin); and Svedlund (spin) all had their own problems.
An illustration of how good luck occasionally prevails over the bad concerned Justin Dale's 206. Worried about a gearbox whine at the Saturday evening podium, he asked the mechanics to check the box over. When they removed the plug to drain it, only a thimble-full of oil trickled out, so a new one was quickly installed at service.
The excitement resumed at 5.30am on Sunday morning, as the bleary-eyed crews headed south to Hafren, Sweet Lamb and Myherin, via Newtown. A fourth place on the first stage of the day propelled Charlie Jukes into first overall, surprising even more people (but not those who know of his ability) with his pace. Gwyndaf's car was running perfectly after some repairs the evening before, and he took advantage of a punctured 206 to move ahead of Justin Dale. James Thompson's rally came to a premature end on the first Hafren stage when he wrecked a wheel and the front suspension after leaving the track and ending up in a culvert. Up to that point he had been enjoying himself, adapting to the different challenges of stage rallying compared with his more normal circuit racing. Oscar Svedlund also retired his Evo 6 with broken suspension, and Robert Woodside retired after knocking a wheel off. Unfortunately, Harry Dodd had to be taken to hospital with a broken hand after rolling his Impreza. This news added to Marcus's other woes (mainly brake-related), but the latest bulletin suggests that Harry is already recovering well.
Jonny Milner was a man on a mission after the problems of the previous day, only a bad tyre choice preventing him from setting five consecutive fastest times. Having finished Saturday in seventh position, he gradually hauled in Kressner, Laukkanen, Jukes, Higgins and Dodd to take a well-deserved first International win by the end of the day. David Higgins was also on spectacular form, having recovered from centre- diff problems, and was beginning to challenge Tapio Laukkanen for the lead of Group N. The battle ended in Higgins' favour when Tapio lost all but third gear on the last stage. Alastair Ginley and Nik Elsmore had steady runs in their Evo 7 and Evo 6 respectively to finish third and fourth in Group N; Phil Morgan was wishing he could match the pace of team-mate Laukkanen; and Leon Pesticcio found that the five minutes lost the previous day was too great a deficit to make up.
There's always a sting in the tail of most events, and this was particularly true in the 1600 Category, when Gwyndaf Evans retired his MG with engine problems mid-way through the day after a tremendous battle with Justin Dale's Peugeot. This left Dale in an unassailable lead after Ford Junior drivers David Henderson and Guy Wilkes dropped back with various problems, and Peugeot team-mate Rory Galligan retired with a split fuel tank on the last stage after having a good run, working his way up to second place in the Category. McRae Scholarship/S-Mac driver Kris Meeke had a dreadful time when not one, but two, broken drive-shafts dropped him well out of contention, and Martin Sansom's 106 Maxi's gearbox failed completely on the penultimate stage.
In fact the gods must have been smiling on Dale over the weekend, because his replacement gearbox threw a wobbly at the start of the last stage, forcing him to drive the whole 14.8 miles stuck in third gear. However, in spite of this handicap, he still managed to beat the other 1600 contenders to the finish by 1.6 seconds.
As far as Championship points are concerned, Milner now leads with 16, ahead of Dale with 13 and Guy Wilkes with 12. Gwyndaf Evans and Mark Higgins share fourth place on 10 each. Peugeot leads the Manufacturers Championship from MG by 20 points to 10.
The full results and Championship positions can be viewed on the official PBRC web site, www.brcweb.co.uk.
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