Trackrod Rally Yorkshire 2015

Trackrod Rally Yorkshire 2015 took place last weekend (25th/26th September) and with good conditions it made for an action packed event. The Rally HQ was based in Pickering showground, which was also used for central servicing with the competitors heading out to the North Yorkshire Moors forests of Cropton, Langdale and Dalby. The rally featured ‘The Trackrod Historic Cup’ totalling around 53 stage miles and ‘The Trackrod Forest Stages’ of approximately 45 stage miles and the event was organised by the Trackrod Motorclub.

The Mason/ Wild partnership steered their Porsche 911 home to victory in the West Wales Rally Spares R.A.C. Rally Championship in this the final round of the year however it was a close finish as they ended up a mere four tenths of a second ahead of the Mrk 2 Escort of Burton/ Capstick. Mason will not score championship points as he did not run championship livery on his car on this event. Burton/Capstick were confirmed as champions before the rally and won their open class by 39 seconds over the Mrk 2 Escort of Stevenson-Wheeler/Pickavance. The Ford Escort Mk2 of Potter/ Duck achieved maximum points in Category 3 and Stuart and Linda Cariss who had travelled from Mid Wales to compete, won the Category 2 Class in their Mrk 1 Escort.

Overall R.A.C. Category winners:

Category 2: Tim Mason and Graham Wild (Porsche 911)

Category 3: James Potter/Bob Duck (Ford Escort Mk2)

Category O: Phil Burton/Mal Capstick (Ford Escort Mk2)

The Trackrod Historic Cup formed part of the event being the final round of the Mintex MSA British Historic Rally Championship and the Mrk 2 Escort crew of Nick Elliott and David Price successfully took full points in category 3 following retirements by Matthew Robinson/Sam Collis and recently crowned BHRC Champions Jason Pritchard and Phil Clarke. Steve Bannister took overall victory but is not registered for the championship.

The John Perrott and Keaton Williams pairing claimed victory in Category 2, following a big battle with Warren Philliskirk/Nigel Hutchinson and Ernie Graham/Will Graham in their Mrk 1 Escorts. A mere 6 seconds covered the three teams at the end of the 1 hr stage.

Category 1 victory was taken by the BMW 1800 of Bill Douglas/Roger Nevitt after the retirements of both the Lotus Cortinas crewed by Bob Bean/James Whitaker and Paul Mankin/Desmond Bell.

BHRC Category winners:

Category 1: Bill Douglas/Roger Nevitt (BMW 1800)

Category 2: John Perrott/Keaton Williams (Ford Escort Mk1)

Category 3: Nick Elliott and David Price (Ford Escort Mk2)

BHRC Trackrod Special Award Winners

Simon Webster and Jez Rogers – Spirit of the Rally

John Midgley and Geoff Maybank – Best Improvement on Seeding

Matthew Robinson and Sam Collis – The Hard Charger Award

Full BTRDA results can be found here.