SEVEN Ludlow Castle Motor Club (LCMC) crews headed down to the very snowy Forest of Dean for the 34th running of the Get Connected! Wyedean Forest rally.

The pace of the rally was more like a procession than a rally on the first stage, Sallow Vallets.

After the 1400s and Historic cars had passed through the stage, the four-wheel drive cars entered. The stage was not cut up at all, just the top layer of snow removed leaving sheet ice. This was more like the Rally of Sweden.

The first four-wheel drive car was Lyonshall’s Andrew Burton in the awesome Peugeot Cosworth, although still struggling for grip the pace was a lot faster now.

Shaun Gardener and Ben Innes in the Mitsubishi Evo 5.9 were the first Ludlow crew through, followed by Hereford’s Roger Chilman Jnr and LCMC member Andrew Sankey.

The Voodoo Escort crew of Henri Grehan and Chris Ridge had been desperately getting the new car up-and-running again after the engine failure on the Red Kite stages four weeks ago. They had fitted a brand new Millington 2ltr engine into the mark 2 Escort, producing around 250 horse power, but struggled to get any of that power down through lack of grip in the icy conditions.

Joe Price and Chris Brooks of Ludlow, also struggled for grip in the other rear wheel drive Voodoo Escort.

Burton led the rally to start with, but consistent driving by Forest of Dean local Nik Elsmore made him the eventual overall winner.

All crews were affected by the severe conditions, some more than others.

LCMC member Andrew Bowen in his Escort G3 retired on the first stage after going off the road, braking the steering.

The final stage of the day was Serridge, this was the only part of the forest to be used twice, and was starting to get cut up on the tight hairpin corners. Grip was still an issue, most drivers had run out of snow tyres and some didn’t even have any to start with.

Highest placed LCMC member to finish was Andrew Sankey with Roger Chilman Jnr in the Subaru Impreza at 13th overall and 3rd in class.

Shaun Gardener / Ben Innes finished 18th overall 6th in class.

Adrian Allen and Michael Wilding finished 48th overall and 7th in class in their Opel Manta, despite quite a few spins and bending the rear axle after hitting a pothole on the second stage.

Henri Grehan / Chris Ridge brought the first Voodoo Escort home in 55th overall and 7th in class.

Joe Price/ Chris Brooks in the other Voodoo Escort finished in 69th overall and 11th in class.

Gary Scott / Mike Scrimgour brought his Vauxhall Corsa home in 73rd overall and 5th in class.

l Report and photo by Russell Kenhard (kentonphotografix)