Ludlow Castle Motor Club's Grehan and Ridge battle through to be first in class at Quinton Stages Rally (From Ludlow Advertiser)

Ludlow Castle Motor Club's Grehan and Ridge battle through to be first in class at Quinton Stages Rally

8:20am Tuesday 21st July 2009

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)

LUDLOW Castle Motor Club members were hoping to follow in the footsteps of some distinguished predecessors when they took part in the Quinton Stages Rally.

Ludlow farmer Richard Gough (1982) and LCMC's Gary Smith and Phil Clarke (1999) as well as Smith, again, with co-driver Paul Spooner (2002) were all past-winners of the rally, which was based at the Castle Hotel in Llandovery.

It covered more than 40 stage miles on smooth gravel roads on and around the Epynt military ranges, on both MOD and Forestry Commission land.

At 9.50am on a dry morning the first of approximately 130 competitors headed for stage one, Halfway forest. As usual the 1400cc cars ran first making way for the clubman category, which was a mixture of both four and two wheel drive cars.

The first local crew through were Nigel Griffiths (Presteigne) and Josh Burton (Kington) in their Subaru, followed by Simon Rogers and Andrew Sankey both of Ludlow Castle Motor Club, in their Mitsubishi EVO.

They were followed by LCMC members Joe Price / Chris Brooks, one half of the Voodoo Escort team.

After SS1 Price found himself down in 20th place and second in class, quite respectable as Price had not competed since the Plains Rally in May.

He soon got back into the swing of things with his flamboyant driving style, entertaining the fans as usual.

The other Voodoo Escort members were LCMC’s Henri Grehan / Chris Ridge, and they finished the first stage leading their class and 13th overall in the Plas Lime-sponsored Ford Escort.

After a steady start, Price was putting in some good times and, by the end of SS2, he had climbed the leader board eight places, and was now first in class.

Although Price was having his share of slight errors, mainly caused by lack of grip and a wrong tyre choice on SS1, he was not losing much time as he gained another place on ss3, now lying 11th overall.

Rogers and Sankey also improved their position on SS3 moving up to 19th overall.

SS5, the second run through Halfway, was not a good one for Price, although his speed and improving stage times would probably have put him in the top 10.

By mid-stage, Price had picked up a puncture. As the next few corners were left-handers, he failed to notice this until he took the next right-hand bend when the tyre came off the rim and threw the car off the road.

The crew were very lucky to keep the car on all four wheels, avoiding a drop of about 30 feet. Both crew members were unhurt but were unable to get the car out from the undergrowth and they were towed out at the end of the stage, but ended up going out of time.

They did, however, finish all remaining stages running at the back of the field and they used this as a test for the car.

Grehan seemed to have adopted a smoother driving style, perhaps not looking as fast as usual but he was certainly having a good battle with the more powerful four-wheel drive cars which sandwiched his two-wheel drive Ford Escort.

All the cars were eating tyres all day on the sharp gravel stages and Grehan was struggling for grip with rear tyres only lasting about four miles.

After SS7, in Crychan forest, he was 13th overall and still first in class.

On SS8, the last stage of the day, Rogers and Sankey gained places to finish 15th overall and third in class. Grehan was locked in battle with Mick Jones who put in a very fast run through the stage which he thought Grehan would not beat.

But Grehan had not been driving on the limit all day so still had a bit in reserve. He took seconds out of Jones with an even faster run and held on to his position finishing the rally 13th overall and first in class.

Overall winners of the rally were Will Nicholls and Nick Broom in their Subaru Impreza, making their trip over from the Isle of Wight worth while. They led the rally almost from the start, enjoying a good battle with last year’s winners Hugh Hunter / Andy Marchbank in their Ford Focus WRC.

Other LCMC competitors to finish were Duncan Edwards / Colin Stevens who brought the Ford Escort home 47th overall and fifth in class, and Tim Cains / Richard May who finished 56th overall and seventh in class.

Report and photos Russell Kenhard (kentonphotografix)

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)