HAMILTON GETS IT RIGHT IN BRITISH FORESTS

Barbados Rally Club (BRC) chairman Mark Hamilton enjoyed his first experience of forestry stages when he was among 66 drivers contesting the final round of the British Historic Rally Championship, at Trackrod Rally Yorkshire, in the north of England last Saturday (October 6).
Highlight of the weekend was clocking the fastest time in his class on the purpose-built half-mile stage at the Pickering Showground, and finishing second overall on that stage to the veteran David Stokes (Ford Escort MkI), who went on to be crowned British Historic Rally Champion at the end-of-day prize-giving. Stokes clocked 40.1 seconds, with Hamilton just one-tenth of a second behind, and exactly half-a-second quicker than the next car in his class, the Escort RS1600 of Jason Lepley.
Driving a VK Vodka Kick Ford Escort MkII, similar to the machine he has campaigned locally, he finished 24th overall (of 51 finishers) and ninth in the hotly-contested D5 class, despite battling against a broken brake disc for more than half the distance; his co-driver was the experienced local ace 'Plug' Pulleyn, who has been to Barbados twice navigating for Fred 'the builder' Davidson.
Davidson was among a large contingent of Rally Barbados regulars and their families, led by Kevin Procter, who turned out in support; Dave Bellerby, Kenny Hall and Paul McMullan were also on hand, as were Dave and Jeanne Crawford, both well-known figures in Bajan rallying. All had helped in Hamilton's preparations, while the Escort came from the stable of Steve Perez, who finished fourth in Rally Barbados this year. Hamilton said: "I've had a ball, and I can't thank Steve, Kevin, the service crew and everyone else enough for making it such an enjoyable experience."
Trackrod Rally Yorkshire is a one-day event, based around a central service park at the Pickering Showground, 20 miles north-east of York. It is a round of the British Rally Championship, but also includes a number of other events, including the Mitsubishi Ralliart Evolution Challenge, the British Historic Rally Championship, the Trackrod National Rally - Perez comfortably won that section of the event in his 2003 Ford Focus WRC - and the Land Rover Challenge. In all, more than 160 crews started, of which nearly one-third retired.
The British Championship, currently led by the Subaru Impreza of reigning champion Mark Higgins, makes full use of the event's 11 stages, totalling just under 100 stage miles. All the other sections of the event cover less mileage, however, and the historic cars tackle 53 miles in six stages, a fair percentage of it at close to maximum speed on long straights joined by unforgiving corners.
The team went testing a couple of days before, with seven runs on a 2.1-mile forest loop, trying out two types of tyre and allowing Hamilton some seat time. He said: "The car feels very similar to mine, apart from the driving position; we've moved the seat, but I'm still a little higher up than I am accustomed to".
Of the conditions in the forests, Hamilton noted: "To be honest, the forest tracks are not that much different to driving through the cane, except that there is a distinct crown to the road - if you're not careful and start sliding off that, it can drag you down and make it hard to get back up."
The crew was lying 25th overall and 10th in class after Gale Rigg and Cropton, the first two stages run prior to service, which was followed by the half-miler in Pickering Showground; being such a short stage, the class win did nothing to affect their position, and then the right rear brake disc and calliper broke free before the high-speed runs through Langdale, Staindale and Givendale.
Hamilton described the braking experience as "interesting", while Pulleyn was full of praise for the way in which his driver coped with the situation: "It was a privilege to sit alongside him, his car control is fantastic. Many a time we were sideways and approaching a gateway and I was thinking we're going to clip it, we're going to clip it . . . then suddenly, he did whatever it is he does, and the car just snapped back into shape and through we went!
"I've never rallied in a really good MkII Escort before, and I'm glad I did it with Mark. Bearing in mind he had never driven here before, and he did more than half the event with brake problems, I think it was a brilliant day."
Victory in the British championship event promoted Guy Wilks (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX) from fifth to second place in the series, ahead of the double points-scoring final round, Wales Rally GB; fresh back from his trip to Barbados, Higgins finished second, giving him a cushion of 16 points over Wilks, while his brother David (Subaru Impreza) was third, ahead of Wilks's team-mate Gwyndaff Evans.

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