St Wilfrids Rally
ST WILFRIDS CLASSIC RALLY
2014 EVENT
3rd AUGUST 2014
Event Winners: John Ruddock/Andy Pullan courtesy of Tony North Photography
John Ruddock andAndy Pullan in their Ford Escort, pipped 2013 winners,Matt Warren and Cath Woodman, also in an Escort, by 4 seconds to win the 2014 St Wilfrid’s Classic Rally, after a late line penalty robbed them of a second victory. Warren/Woodman were best on all the regularity sections, dropping only 37 seconds to Ruddock/Pullan’s 1minute 20 but Ruddocks superior performance on the 14 special tests secured the victory. Third overall were current HRCR Clubmans Championship leaders Steve Entwistle and Bob Hargreaves in a Mini 48 seconds behind the winner.
Starting from Thirsk Auction Mart at 08:30 Crews immediately tackled two tests at the Auction Mart where the dubious honour of first retirement fell to Roger and Leigh Powley when their Porsche suffered suspension problems on the second test. Following the Thirsk tests crews faced three regularity sections to the north and east of Thirsk, passing through Bedale skirting the military training area near Catterick via a coffee break at Downholme village then turning south east to three tests at the Yorkshire Dales Autograss Club, before going to the lunch halt in Masham, where interim resuts showed Ruddock leading Warren by 3 seconds with Darrel Staniforth/Les Mcguffog in a mini 2 seconds further back in third. Not making it to lunch were Andy and Ross Simpson in their MGB which met up with the only piece of ARMCO barrier in the grass track field. Doug Smith and Brian Hughes had a near miss with the same ARMCo when their big Mercedes 280S refused to go in the direction the wheels were pointing on the muddy grass. From Lunch another Regularity took crews via Healey, Grewelthorpe, Dallowgill before arriving at Potgate quarry for 5 further tests. Another short regularity then took crews to three tests at Barkers Industrial estate, but the regularity didn’t count when the markers for the section start were removed after the passage of the first few competitors. A final regularity back took competitors via Cundal, Kikby Hill and Dalton to a final test at the Auction Mart where competition finished before a relaxed drive to the Angel Inn in Topcliffe for dinner whilst results were determined and awards presented..
A big THANK YOU from both the organising team and all the competitors to all the Marshals who played a vital part in ensuring the event ran smoothly, your support was an essential contribution to the success of the event.
A complete downloadable set of results can be found here
a copy of the Road Book including Handouts can be downloaded HERE, and for those who want to compare their routes with the Organisers route copies of the Regularity maps are HERE
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2013 EVENT
Event Winners Matt Warren / Cath Woodman
Matt Warren partnered by Cath Woodman emerged victorious on the 2013 St Wilfrid’s Classic Rally, after scoring consistently throughout the day to lead home the similar Ford Escort Mexico of Martin Neal and Andy Gibson, closely followed by the Austin Mini 1275GT of James Griffiths and James Howell.
Starting from Thirsk Auction Mart at 08:30 Crews immediately tackled two tests at the Auction Mart where the dubious honour of first retirement fell to the Alfa Guilia Sprint of Andrew Buzzard/Rob Lyne who arrived at the end of the second test without any brakes. Following the third test on the old airfield at Dalton crews then tackled the first of two regularities, where a number of crews, including one of the pre event favourites John Ruddock/Andy Pullan, were caught out on a not as map junction losing time that they were unable to recoup during the day. A series of tests at the Yorkshire Dales Autograss Club and a further Regularity took competitors to the Lunch halt where results showed the Warren/Woodman pairing establishing an early lead. Having professed before starting the day just going to ‘trundle around’ Suzanne and Tyler Barker in a Hillman Avenger were surprised and delighted to find themselves in 9th place at lunch.
Whilst the bulk of the morning action took place on the western fringes of the Hambleton Hills and the Vale of York the afternoon route was in the eastern foothills of the Pennines with two long regularities preceding five tests at the Melmerby Industrial Estate. Accuracy in plotting the route on the two regularities was at a premium and this caught out a number of crews who missed visiting two route checks dropping them down the order.
A final regularity back in the Vale of York took competitors back to a final test at the Auction Mart where competition finished before a relaxed drive to the Angel Inn in Topcliffe where results were declared.
Final results:
A complete set of results can be found here
A number of competitors expressed interest in seeing copies of the route of the regularity sections, we are pleased to make these available here. (Right click on the link and choose 'save link as' to save a copy to your computer)
Photographs of the event taken by Matthew Rudd can be found here
