HISTORIC RALLY FESTIVAL / 2023 / WESTON PARK / HATTON GRANGE
06/01/2024The last weekend of September saw the third running of Historic Rally Festival. Based in and around the grounds of the seventeenth century grade II listed Weston Hall in Weston Park, near Telford in Shropshire, this “demonstration rally” (untimed) attracted some big names to classic RAC rally stages with star attractions in the name of former British and World Rally Champions.
Set in over one thousand acres of landscaped parkland, with wide open vistas and its famous water splash, this classic, former “RAC Rally” stage was the perfect venue to host a display of classic rally machinery, but more of that later.
The event, ran by the Rallying History organisation, is the only multi venue MotorsportUK sanctioned demonstration rally in the country where cars run untimed at two venues. Previously held both at Weston Park and Ironbridge power station, this year welcomes a new venue with the event moving to Hatton Grange (from Ironbridge) for a bank of three stages on Saturday Morning.
PHOTOS: WARNER LEWIS & ANTHONY HITCHINGS | DOM BOOTH & KARL BOOTH | TIM ASHTON & HUGH CHAMBERS | BY ANDREW SCOTT
Hatton Grange
Set eight miles due south of Weston Park and eight miles east of Telford, Hatton Grange, with its TF Pritchard built manor house and gardens provided the perfect start to the event. For spectators, the new venue provided ample car parking, a static displays of historic rally Machinery plus the usual array of food, beverage and merchandise stalls. The spectator area provided two viewing spots, either in front of the main house or on approach to a tight hairpin near the start/end of the stage.
PHOTOS: DAN ELLMORE & IAIN DUNCAN | IAN HILL & CAROLINE HILL | BY DAN MORRIS
As an added Bonus, a PA commentary was provided by rally legends Louise Atkin-Walker, the first ever Ladies World Rally Champion, and Howard Davies, British rally championship winning Co-driver (to Gwyndaf Evans, father of current WRC star Elfyn).
PHOTOS: MIKE BARRATT & MEGAN BARRATT | ANDY WOOLDRIDGE & PAUL DAVY | JOHN PECK & JONATHAN BARRETT | HATTON GRANGE STAGE IMPRESSIONS BY ANDREW SCOTT
PHOTOS: KEVIN KNIGHT & SAM WELLER | MARK BUTLER & PAUL HOAD | TREVOR HANCOCK & JAMES HANCOCK | HATTON GRANGE STAGE IMPRESSIONS BY ANDREW SCOTT
The Star Names
The Rallying History organisation had gathered a wide spectrum of entries from its members, right across rallying history, both in terms of eras and classes. The service area was a plethora of big-name machinery and even bigger name drivers.
The star attraction was former World Rally Champion Stig Blomqvist driving the Hansport ex-works Audi Quattro A2 re-creation. The car was originally built by Schmidt Motorsport and was campaigned in the Middle East by Haile Aguilar. Hansport had taken this base and converted it to full works specification using original factory Parts.
The second big name to take part in the event was former British Rally Champion Gwyndaf Evans, and with former Co-driver Howard Davies on commentary, the only thing missing was their British Championship winning F2 Escort! In this instance, Gwyndaf was running an Escort, but of the Mk2 variety. The car itself previously used by Ford at Boreham to re-create the original running gear from the works Mk2 escorts.
PHOTOS: STIG BLOMQVIST & JOHN HANLON | GWYNDAF EVANS & STUART HORSFALL | BY ANDREW SCOTT
The Early Cars
Outside of these 2 star names, it was very much “the cars the star”, with entries spanning over 50 years of rallying history.
Earlier era entries ranged from the veritable Mk1 Escort of James Hancock and the ex-works Mikkola car (FEV 5H) of Steve Ward, a car with a significant completion history – Including winning the 1000 Lakes in Mikkola’s hands, and both the Circuit of Ireland and East African Safari by Clark (Roger).
PHOTOS: STEVE WARD | BY ANDREW SCOTT
Other older entries included, but were not limited to, Austin Healey, a Volvo p1800s, two Lancia Fulvias, one in the hands of MSA chairman Hugh Chambers co-driving for Tim Ashton, the other driven by Andy Bowns/Adam Dognini, and the VW 1500s of Bob Beales and Mike Leflay.
PHOTOS: IAN THOMAS & GERALD WILBY | TIM ASHTON & HUGH CHAMBERS | SARWJIT SAMBHI | BY ANDREW SCOTT
The 70s
The cars from the 70s ranged from the quirky to the classic. There was, of course, the normal range of MK2 escorts in various specifications including the ex-David Sutton Rothmans car of Alan Watkins/Tim Bloxham. A car Rallied by Malcolm Wilson in period.
PHOTOS: DAN GIBSON & GEOFF GIBSON | BY DAN MORRIS | ALAN WATKINS & TIM BLOXHAM | BY ANDREW SCOTT
The quirky started with the novel Clan Crusader of Dan and Geoff Gibson, a Lancia Stratos replica (Hawk HF3000 base) driven by John Rutter and Lorraine Nixon, and went right through to the classic Triumph TR7s, and Sunbeam Lotuses, all clad in replica works liveries. One of the Triumphs, that of Gary Gee/Chris Covill has even featured on the Bangers and Cash TV show!
PHOTOS: GARY GEE & CHRIS COVILL | JOHN RUTTER & LORRAINE NIXON | MIKE BARRATT & MEGAN BARRATT | BY ANDREW SCOTT
One of the major strengths of Historic Rally Festival is the variety of cars to compliment the usual contingent of Mk2 escorts, and leaves little room in an article such as this to focus on what is still the backbone of British rallying, but as you can imagine the Escorts were also in force, such as the Car of Jason Lepley pictured below, or the ex David Sutton Car of Alan Watkins. Lepley had originally planned to demonstrate his Mitsubishi Gallant, however his son George had broken the gearbox on the trackrod rendering it unusable this weekend.
Talking of works liveries, a genuine ex-works Vauxhall Chevette (Terry Kaby, 1980) was out in the hands of Dai Dot Davies and Steve Pugh.
PHOTOS: DAI DOT DAVIES & STEVE PUGH | JASON LEPLEY & SUSANNAH LEPLEY | BY ANDREW SCOTT
Group B
This brings us into the 80s and onto the Group B machines. Most Major group B Marques were represented with the exception of Lancia (although we had GrpA Deltas).
Of course, the star attraction was Stig in his Quattro, however, there were another four Audis on show, in S1, S2, and group 4 configurations. Other Group B cars included an Opel Manta, two genuine period Austin Metro 6R4s including the car of Dan Ellmore previously driven by famous names such as Richard Burns, WIll Gollop, Harri Toivonen and Craig Breen. Other cars included a Ford RS2000 in the hands of Nigel Mummery/Robbie Sandford (Converted from a canned Dakar project car), and a Peugeot 205 T16. The Peugeot, originally a press car had been converted to T16 spec by famous racer and track owner Klass Zwart (owner of Ascari Cars).
PHOTOS: NIGEL MUMMERY & ROBBIE SANDFORD | ANDY KRINKS & DAVE NICHOLSON | DAVE KEDWARD & TONY HART | BY ANDREW SCOTT
PHOTOS: ROBIN HAMILTON & VANESSA HAMILTON | ANDREW TRAYNER & TANIA SHORT | DAN ELLMORE & IAIN DUNCAN | BY ANDREW SCOTT
Group A
Despite the strong Group B entry – It was the group A, both in 4WD and 2WD form that were greater in number. The star attractions were the pre-WRC group A Machines from Ford, Subaru, Toyota, Mitsubishi, and Lancia.
The Ford contingent included both Escorts and Sierras. First up were the Escort Cosworths: An Ex-MWM car clad beautifully in 1994 Monte Carlo works livery (Mark McClelland/Gordan Laird). Unfortunately, this car only made it a few hundred yards before developing problems so we missed out on seeing on stage. The other three, all in equally iconic liveries including the ex-Johnny Milner Group N car (Nigel Hepburn/Alan Wilson), ex-Mike Taylor Developments car in Belgian Bastos colours, and the WRC variant resplendent in Carlos Sainz Repsol livery (David Bonning/Alex Young).
PHOTOS: MARK MCCLELLAND & GORDON LAIRD | NIGEL HEPBURN & ALAN WILSON | DAVID BONNING & ALEX YOUNG | BY ANDREW SCOTT
The Sierra contingent included a recreation of Colin McRae’s 1989 Swedish rally car, driven by Ross Clements/Chris Lear, and the Cosworth variant of Graham Brindley/David Evans.
The Toyota Celicas were out in force too, including Graham Capper/Chris White’s ST165, a TTE-built car running Bastos Livery, Stuart Deeley/Andrew Dobson in their Fina liveried equivalent. There was also a later works liveried Celica turbo GT4 (Warner Lewis/Anthony Hitchings).
PHOTOS: GRAHAM CAPPER & CHRIS WHITE | WARNER LEWIS & ANTHONY HITCHINGS | STUART DEELEY & ANDREW DOBSON | BY ANDREW SCOTT
The rest of the top-line Group A contingent was made up of two Subarus – A legacy and Impreza both in works 555 Livery, two Mitsubishis, an EVO 3 and EVO 6 both dressed in works clothes, two Lancias including Ellis Mendelson’s spectacular Martini liveried car, a Proton, and a Prodrive BMW M3.
PHOTOS: PHIL OWEN & LUCY OWEN-MOCZADLO | LEE KEDWARD & MARK NEWMAN | ELLIS MENDELSON & CHRIS KIRKHAM | BY ANDREW SCOTT
Of the remaining entries, we had works liveried 2WD F2 cars from Hyundai, Vauxhall, and Nissan including the Astra GTV of TV’s David and Jack Mathewson (Bangers and Cash), a Porsche 997 GT3 of Craig Pennington, and a Fiat Ritmo (Michael Covill/Howie Fowler) among many others.
Saturday
Arriving at Hatton Grange on a bright blue sunny early autumn morning, the crews were greeted with a Ceremonial start at 10 am, followed by an initial 1.1-mile stage and a further three 1.5-mile special run in both directions. The stage proved a challenging start for the entrants, running up through a tight hairpin past the crowded spectator area and across a narrow tree-lined access road via a baled chicane. Then, it opened out past the main house, before dropping down over a bridge which dissected the Abbot’s and Purgatory Pools. The stage finished with a tight uphill wooded area before a 90 right and fast blast to the finish.
As it turned out, the anticipated challenging start was just that, the first run getting held up by the ceased Escort Cosworth of Mark McClelland/Gordan Laird blocking the stage at the chicane. The resultant delay meant the expected four stages were reduced to only three. A shame, but as they say, “That’s rallying”.
PHOTOS: SIMON POWELL & YVONNE POWELL | DARREN MARTIN & DANIEL HURST | RUSS MASON & WENDY MASON | BY ANDREW SCOTT
PHOTOS: JAMES HANCOCK & JASON HENRY TAYLOR | WILL NICHOLLS & NICK BROOM | TREVOR HANCOCK & JAMES HANCOCK | BY DAN MORRIS
The event then moved back to Weston Park for the final 2 stages of Saturday evening and all of Sunday. Unfortunately, classic RAC rally weather (Rain) also arrived and in significant quantities, which became a recurring theme, specifically on Sunday!
The stage at Weston Park was run in slightly different configurations on both days, offering some variety for the entrants and spectators alike. A total of 3 different stage configurations ran both in both directions across the two days. The Saturday stages started at 6.30 running into dusk, with a full night run and Fireworks ending the Saturday night. Some spectacular photos were to be had by all.
PHOTOS: DAVID BONNING & ALEX YOUNG | BY ANDREW SCOTT
For these runs the stage started in open parkland with a fast blast towards the main Weston Park house and Granary restaurant (site of the service area). Hanging a 90 left past the railway and through a series of bale chicanes in front of the stables, the cars then headed over both a cattle grid and a narrow brick bridge taking crews back into a parkland setting in front of the main house. Much like Hatton Grange, there were plenty of merchandise stands, a bigger classic car and car club display, and the aforementioned duo on the PA. There is even a dedicated field directly facing the stage where you could park your motorhome for the weekend!!
With its greater scale, Weston offered a vast viewing opportunity across multiple corners of all shapes and sizes. If there was to be one criticism of Hatton Grange, it would be the lack of variety in the spectator viewing points but nothing that can’t be reviewed and improved on for next year.
The Weston Park stage continued downhill past the house to an open hairpin before blasting uphill through a quick zig-zag of hairpins taking the cars past the ornate glass orangery. Taking a 90 right the stage headed downhill towards the classic water splash and back past the main spectator area before disappearing uphill into the woodland to the finish.
Sunday
Sunday began overcast but dry and large crowds began to gather, specifically around the water splash and in front of the hous, all anticipating a great day rallying with six stages planned. A slight change of route from Saturday found the stage heading straight towards the main house – avoiding the stables area of the Previous Saturday night stage.
As things turned out, unfortunately, the weather was to play a big part in the day. The first two runs remained overcast but dry with some top commitment from all crews. Strong commitment was seen through the water splash from Dave Harris and Paul Sandford in their MK2 Escort – almost taking out the bank! And there was a surprise birthday cake for Paul Woodford of Special Stage, presented live on Stage by the Toyota of Warner Lewis and Anthony Hitchings.
PHOTOS: DAVE HARRIS & PAUL SANDFORD | WARNER LEWIS & ANTHONY HITCHINGS PLUS PAUL WOODFORD| BY ANDREW SCOTT
However, by the third stage, the rain had come. Given wet and slippy gravel-strewn tarmac and dry tyres, it was decided that for the sake of the safety of both spectators, crews, and priceless machinery it was too unsafe for the final runs to take place.
PHOTOS: A SOAKING GRAHAM BRINDLEY & DAVID EVANS | BY ANDREW SCOTT
All in all a great two days rallying, despite the challenges posed by cars blocking stages and the weather calling an early halt. An event that over the next few years is set to go from strength to strength and one that Rallying History can be rightly proud of. One to watch and one very much worth attending next year. Well done all despite the challenging conditions.
