Bailey and Lacey Take Opening Asphalt Win
Click on the Gallery tab for images from the Covington Stages courtesy of Paul Lawrence.
A high-quality historic entry tackled 80-stage miles over six stages each day, and even though a couple of late non-starters reduced the 17-strong entry, the slickly-run event was a fitting start to the second year of the Fuchs Lubricants R.A.C. Historic Asphalt Rally Championship.
At his local venue, Bailey set a cracking pace from the start and ended the opening day with a 40s lead over Williams. Despite a late scare on Saturday when he had to change a gearbox after the day’s final stage, Williams set a scorching pace in the rain of Sunday morning and clawed the margin back to 19s after a compelling pursuit. “That’s alright for an old farmer,” said Bailey after ending a run of bad luck since switching to historics.
Out of luck in Category 3 at Bovington were brothers Simon and Alister Crook with an early engine failure and Barry Stevenson-Wheeler/John Pickavance with a fuel leak and small fire. Instead, third in Category 3 was the mighty Triumph TR7 V8 of David Kynaston/Andy Russell.
Moran was a strong third historic overall and won Category F while the Capital Construction Category 2 delivered a well-deserved victory for the Escort Mk1 of Graham Muter/Colin Watson after a very strong performance. Another star of Category 2 was the immaculate Datsun 240Z of Graham Patten/Pauline Hale, which retired late on day one with a broken rocker. Jim Valentine and Jonathan Lodge were next up in Category 2 on the first rally for their Saab 99 since 2013.
The Category 1 entry was topped by the Porsche 911 of championship newcomers Dessie Nutt and Geraldine McBride and they had a fine weekend as they got used to a rather different style of event. Second in the Vintage Car Radiator Company Category 1 was the Saab 96 of Nick Pinkett/Hugh Myers as Pinkett rallied for the first time in 18 months. Sadly out with gearbox failure went the MG Midget of Bob Seager/Simon Hannam.
