CUMBRIA and Nuneaton were the latest destinations for members of the Ludlow Castle Motor Club where they competed in the historic section of the Pirelli International Rally and the Horiba D’Isis Stages Rally.

The Pirelli Rally was the second round of the Fuchs Lubricants MSA British Historic Rally Championship and covered 45 miles in the infamous Kielder Forest.

Three Ludlow crews took part, all in Mk II Ford Escorts – former winners Joe Price/Chris Brooks running at six with Alan Walker/John Connor and Simon Webster/Jez Rogers directly behind them.

By the end of stage two there was little separating the crews who had improved to third, fourth and fifth. But the following stage proved the undoing of both Price and Walker, the latter having a big accident on a left-hander but thankfully both crew members escaped without injury.

Webster/Rogers climbed to third and were hopeful of a podium finish but just two miles from the end, Webster lurched across the road into a ditch and rolled, the culprit being a broken track control arm.

On the D’Isis Stages Rally, held at the Motor Industries Research Association proving ground near Nuneaton, Roger Titley/Michele Petrie were seeded 22 in the BMW with Steve Davies/Lucy Wilding at 30 in the Renault Clio and John Petrie/Helena Mayall at 33 in a Peugeot 106 Gti.

It was a first outing in a while for Davies/Wilding and with torrential rain from the start, they were pleased to finish 17th and sixth in class. Titley/Petrie finished 16th with Petrie/Mayall in 19th.

Ian Clare/Antony Elkes travelled to the Epynt Military Ranges with their Mini to take part in the latest round of the Mini Sport Cup, the Dixies Challenge.

They were concerned that the car wasn’t revving as it should be and therefore loosing top end speed, however, that didn’t prevent them from moving up the leaderboard throughout the day eventually finishing 23rd, an impressive second of the 1400cc crews and first in their class in spite of a very sideways moment over the flying finish of the last stage.