Crook and Standen star in WWRS R.A.C. Rally Championship

Filed under: Classic News,Racing |
Simon and Alister Crook and Grahame Standen/Jane Edgington were the major victors on the second round of the West Wales Rally Spares R.A.C. Rally Championship, the Viking Motorsport/Links Electrical Mid Wales Stages (Sunday 1 March). The Crook brothers were highest R.A.C. finishers in their Open Category Opel Manta, while Standen turned in a superb performance to finishing leading historic runner in his 1600cc Ford Escort Mk2. The Mid Wales Stages was the second round of the R.A.C. Championship season and attracted a number of crews making their 2015 debut. Great credit is due to all the marshals and officials out on the stages for keeping the event running smoothly in challenging weather conditions. On a day when slippery stages and the occasional blizzard delivered a real challenge for the crews, the Crooks moved ahead in the Open Category when the Escort Mk2 of Phil Burton/Mal Capstick slid off in Hafren and got beached. Burton had set a mighty pace among the Open cars to take a big lead after two stages despite this being his first experience of these stages. However, in the 16-mile Hafren stage, he slid off the road and the car was beached so any chance of a good result was gone. Burton eventually got going again with the help of some other crews and made it to the finish. While the Crooks moved ahead in the category, there was misfortune for Barry Stevenson-Wheeler and John Pickavance (Ford Escort Mk2). They lost over four minutes off the road in the Hafren stage and then had to finish the final stage with a puncture. Standen, meanwhile, was one of the stars of the rally with his pace in the 1600cc car and he finished ahead of the more powerful Category 3 Escort Mk2s of James Potter/Bob Duck and Leigh Armstrong/Chris Armstrong. Once again, Standen’s self-prepared car ran faultlessly. Potter, meanwhile, was pleased to get his rebuilt car to the finish on its first run after a major accident on the Trackrod Rally last September. In Category 4 Will Midgley and Jonathan Driver (Toyota Corolla) were on top after a very good run but had a scare when the alternator failed on the run to the first service halt. Other RAC category winners were Gwilym Roberts/Don James (Lotus Cortina) in Category 1 and Bob Bean/Malcolm Smithson (Ford Escort Mk1) in Category 2. Bean made a late change of car after his Lotus Cortina was sidelined by gearbox failure on the previous weekend’s Riponian Rally. Roberts, meanwhile, had a big early drama when the wheel nuts sheared and his Cortina lost a wheel. Fortunately, while a spectator retrieved the wheel from a river, the driver found some spare wheel nuts.Tags: