Longmoor Loco Stages 2003 review. Story by Mark Welch, images by Mark Sims - RallyingOnline.com. 05 January 2003
This was the second running of the Loco Stages, an innovative event for 2 wheel drive cars only. With the success of the inaugural rally held in February last year, the organisers opened the entries up to include cars over 2000cc, as well as turbocharged vehicles provided they were all 2 wheel drive.
The driving was committed all day despite a misty, icy start with a thrilling 3-way battle for the lead that started on SS1 and continued almost to the final 8th Stage.
Seeded at 1 was local driver Guy Wigley/Bruce Coate-Bond in their ex works RS2000 front wheel drive Escort, at car 2 was the impressive Mini of Rob and Henry Hall with Dave Holland / John Calverley at car 3 in a superb Escort RS 1600 Mark 1. Just to prove the organisers knew their stuff, these first 3 cars were locked in battle for overall honours until Holland's retirement on SS6 with a crank sensor fault.
The family Holland made a long trip south en mass and would feature all day, with Andrew Holland competing in another RS1600, and the 3rd Holland, Michael in a particularly smart Escort Mark 2.
SS1 saw Wigley take a 4 second lead from Andrew Holland/Rhona Calverley with the Hall's 3rd fastest time one second further in arrears. Guernsey based Paul and Mandy Trebert in their smart Escort G3 were 4th, and Dave Holland after ominous crank sensor problems, limped round taking 13th fastest. However, with his problem sorted for SS2, he took fastest time by 8 seconds from Hall, and Wigley joint 3rd 3 seconds back sharing the position with the Trebarts and Andrew Holland.
After 2 more stages and the halfway point, things were very close indeed, with Hall leading Wigley by 1 second, Dave Holland recovering well 1 further second behind, Andrew Holland lay 4th 18 seconds adrift of Dave. 5th was the Trebarts, 3 seconds back and in turn 1 second ahead of 6th placed Lyn Llewellyn in his Nova and unbelievably only 1 second behind him was 7th placed Haydn Morgan's Astra!
The event had not been without incident as car 19 driven by Roy Blencowe came to grief in the trees with a small fire breaking out afterwards which was thankfully quickly extinguished.
SS5 saw 11 crews going wrong at the split and this effectively removed Morgan from the fray. Dave Holland moved into the lead at this point, as Andrew retired from the action with mechanical problems.
However, Dave's glory was short lived as a crank sensor malfunction stopped them on the penultimate 7th stage - that's rallying!!
At the finish it was Guy Wigley/Bruce Coate Bond who took the honours after a super battle with the Halls flying Mini. The Trebarts journey from Guernsey proved worthwhile with 3rd place.
Roger Binyon and Nick Bray in their Daihatsu Avonzato won class A by 10 seconds from Simon and Kerry Birds Mini.
Class B went to the spectacular Alan and Helen Thompson in their Avenger.
Class C was taken by Les Skeet and Yarl Griffiths in a rear wheel drive Peugeot 205.
The 3rd Holland, Michael, driving MY old Mark 2 Escort, won class D! Well done that man!! Look after that car...
Mark Sims has photographs of every competitor for sale. Send him an email to discuss your requirements. Alternatively, visit his own site, www.rallygallery.com
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