BHRC / RD8 / WOODPECKER RALLY 2024

23/09/2024 Off By admin

WORDS BY ANDY COOK (XLERATE.MEDIA) | PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDY COOK, ANDREW SCOTT & NIGEL PRATT

After three back-to-back Asphalt events, the Motorsport UK, FUCHS Lubricants British Historic Rally Championship would return to gravel for the eighth round of its 2024 season. With the return to perhaps the Championships favoured surface, The Phil Price Memorial Woodpecker Rally would also see an increased level of participation across the field, as the series now heads into the business end of the championship.

Organised by the Sixty and Worcestershire Motorclub, the event has undergone some turbulence of late, not just amongst its organising team but also regarding the rally’s location. Coaxed out of retirement and returning to the helm of the event, Alan Corns, Clerk of the Course as far back as the late eighties, would take on the task of relocating the event from Ludlow to its new home in Newtown, Mid-Wales.

Formed from the joining of two clubs (The Worcestershire and The Sixty Motor Club) in 1969, the organisers of the Woodpecker cut their teeth running popular single-venue rallies. The Woodpecker itself, as a multi-venue stage rally, would be born in 1983, starting from Bells Garage in Kidderminster and finishing at Craven Arms, in Shropshire, the event was won by Andy Miers & Steve Jones in an MKII RS1800 Escort.

Flicking through the history books, Herefordshire farmer Andy Burton has recorded the most wins on the event, weighing it at ten in total. Beginning in 1989 with his mid-engined Alfa-Ferrari beast, and throughout the nineties and noughties until 2011, where his last victory recorded was in the formidable Peugeot 306 Cosworth before being outlawed.

After a brief spell as a two-day event between 1997-2000, the event returned to a one-day format and had its rally HQ at Ludlow Racecourse up until last year. “The Woody” has used some fourteen separate forests over the years, including Radnor, Hopton, Haye Park and Wyre, but this year would entirely be held in Mid-Wales. With stages run in Ceri (on the outskirts of Newtown), along with Hafren Forest and the Sweet Lamb rally complex near Llangurig, Powys, as the stages on the Anglo-Welsh border (Haye Park, Hopton and Radnor) were off the menu.

BRITISH HISTORIC RALLY CJHANPIONSHIP 2024 / ROUND 8 / WOODPECKER RALLY

Once again supported by The Phil Price Rally School, the event’s new Rally HQ would be situated in Newtown at the Britpart facility and would feature eight stages (four of which are repeated). Covering around 45 competitive stage miles, Xlerate would also be supporting the event by sponsoring the Sweet Lamb Stage.

Last year, George Lepley & Dale Bowen took the British Historic honours in the stunning Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 and the pair would be making their return to the series at this year’s edition of the rally. Having not put in an appearance in the Championship since Rally North Wales back in March, where their rally ended very prematurely on the opening stage of the event; Lepley & Bowen would therefore line up at this year’s Woodpecker with very little seat time under their belts.

More than a month had passed since the Championship’s last round on the Tarmac at the Tour of Epynt Rally, where Mark Higgins peddled the Triumph TR7 across the military ranges for a stunning victory on his first-ever crack at this iconic Welsh rallying venue. However, leading the overall driver’s standings coming into the Woodpecker was Seb Perez, who would have his regular co-driver Gary McElhinney back beside him in the Porsche 911 this time out.

LEG 1 | STAGES 1-5

The day broke under a thick layer of mist and fog, which would add to the jeopardy out on the stages. With the day’s play beginning with a six-mile test in Ceri Forest, situated right on the border of England and Wales, George Lepley & Dale Bowen would waste no time in getting back up to speed in the Galant. The pair recorded a blistering fast stage win here, which was some fourteen seconds quicker than Seb Perez & Gary McElhinney in the Porsche 911.

Photo: George Lepley & Dale Bowen | By Andy Cook (Xlerate.Media)

“It’s great to be back”, “Mentally with the fog, it makes you a bit nervous, but it was good”, “I think we could have gone better; we’ve gone a bit too hard with a closed pattern but I think everyone is in the same boat”
George Lepley

However, for the second fastest man Seb Perez, his main goal for the day was to ideally win, but more importantly, to stay in front of Mark Higgins in that TR7, which was vital for his overall Championship fight. Perez had begun the day on the right foot, getting the better of Higgins and Co-Driver Carl Williamson by just two seconds.

Photo: Seb Perez & Gary McElhinney | By Andrew Scott

“I had a few issues in there to be fair, that tarmac is slippy”, “Just a bit clumsy and a few mistakes. I think even without the fog it’s a tricky stage anyway, but we gave it a go and hopefully, we haven’t lost too much time”
Seb Perez

It was only the first stage for the rally, but you already got the impression from Higgins that he wasn’t quite getting “The Feeling” on the loose stuff right away.

“Very tricky in there, no grip at all, it felt like you were on ice. Didn’t feel like we could move forward but a clean run and no mistakes”, “I’m just not committed in the fog, it wasn’t fun at all, it’s a lovely stage but I just couldn’t get into it”
Mark Higgins

The times on this opening stage were tight, Nick Elliott & Dave Price were back in the stunning Fiat Abarth 131, having scored a DNF last time out in an MKII Ford Escort. They were just a further second behind Higgins in fourth; with Rudi Lancaster & Guy Weaver, also a second down on them and rounding out the top five.

“It’s been a few months (since being in the Fiat), and I’ve forgotten what to do and it felt like it in that stage” “We’ve got probably a slightly too harder tyre on (The mediums), it’s like driving on ice a little bit, it was a soft stage”
Nick Elliott

The crews then headed for Hafren Forest for two stages, but the fog and mist remained and showed no sign of lifting. Also showing no signs of lifting, Higgins opened up the throttle on the V8 beast, picking up his first stage win in the longest stage of the rally through the northern side of Hafren Forest (SS2 Cwymbiga). It was only a second faster than Elliott & Price in the 131, but crucially, they were also some eight seconds quicker than their championship rivals in Perez & McElhinney; they had therefore leapfrogged them into second place behind the rally leaders Lepley & Bowen.

Photos: Mark Higgins & Carl Williamson | Nick Elliott & Dave Price | By Andrew Scott

Higgins & Williamson were not the only ones to pass Perez & McElhinney in this stage, Elliott & Price who recorded the second fastest time would also slipstream them into third. Perez would, however, respond in the very next stage (SS3 Severn Way). Winding its way through the southern edge of Hafren Forest, Perez & McElhinney would take their first stage win by a single second, beating both Lepley & Bowen and Elliott & Price, who stopped the clocks on identical times. The margins were again small, but Higgins had just dropped five to Perez and four to Elliott, which would see the Fiat 131 pilot move into second, switching places with Higgins.

“I think the weather has just thrown a bit into the mix into it all, we dropped a bit of time in stage two, more than what I wanted to, so we had a big push in the second Hafren Stage, hopefully it’s enough”
Seb Perez

Xlerate Sweet Lamb was the final stage of the morning loop, it was a short blast through the popular Sweet Lamb Rally Complex at just under two miles in length. Lepley was back on the money in the Gallant, securing his second stage win over Perez, we would therefore see Perez and Higgins change places yet again, as the event reached half-time.

Photo: George Lepley & Dale Bowen | By Andy Cook (Xlerate.Media)

Lepley & Bowen were relatively happy and would hold a 17-second lead over both Elliott & Price and Perez & McElhinney as their overall times were identical.

“It’s just been tricky, but generally ok”, “I just need to crack on this afternoon”, “It’s good to be back out, it’s been like six months since I was last out and what ionic stages to do it on”
George Lepley

Elliott appeared to be struggling with the conditions and the tyre choice but actually was doing pretty good; taking Lepley’ s Gallant out of the picture, level pegging with Perez in the Porsche was a decent morning’s work.

“I’ve struggled, tyres are critical with this, and we’ve probably thrown away a second a mile just with the tyres really”, “We are here, and we can make our mind up this afternoon and probably go with a softer compound”
Nick Elliott

Photos: Nick Elliott & Dave Price | Mark Higgins & Carl Williamson | By Andy Cook (Xlerate.Media)

Just a further two seconds back and well within reach, Higgins & Williamson would hold a decent enough gap of around twenty seconds to Championship returnees, Ben Friend & Cliff Simmons, who would round out the top five as they headed in for a service halt.

But Higgins would still not be entirely happy.

“Nothing’s flowing or working really, I just can’t get into the stages, it’s quite difficult”, “We’ve got a bit of blue smoke, so I just backed off on the previous two and then I didn’t have a good run through Sweet Lamb”
Mark Higgins

Outside of the top five, Rudi Lancaster & Guy Weaver were best of the rest in their MKII Ford Escort RS1800, just a further seven seconds off the pace of Friend & Simmons, who had dropped the position to them in the third stage of the morning.

Photos: Ben Friend & Cliff Simmons | Rudi Lancaster & Guy Weaver | By Nigel Pratt (Black Mountains Media)

LEADERBOARD AFTER SS4

POS	LEADERBOARD	CAT / CLASS	TIME
1	#202 G.LEPLEY / D.BOWEN	CAT 4 / F3	25:30
= 2	#203 N.ELLIOTT / D.PRICE	FIA / G1	25:47
= 2	#205 S.PEREZ / G.MCELHINNEY	CAT 2 / C5	25:47
4	#204 M.HIGGINS / C.WILLIAMSON	FIA / G2	25:49
5	#207 B.FRIEND / C.SIMMONS	CAT 3 / D5	26:09

LEG 2 | STAGES 5-8

Back out for the afternoon loop and there were some signs that all the mist and fog was trying to clear but the weather was not the main story to come out of the repeated run through Ceri. George Lepley & Dale Bowen had failed to emerge from the test, the Mitsubishi Gallant would again retire from the lead of a rally, this time with failed transmission. Having waited so long between events to record another DNF, that’s two in three events now; the disappointment was not just coming from within the cockpit of the Gallant but was also emitting from the fans out on the stages.

Photo: Seb Perez & Gary McElhinney | By Andy Cook (Xlerate.Media)

With Lepley out of the picture, Seb Perez who had a good clean run in Ceri, would take up the position at the top of the timing sheets, recording his second stage win in Ceri 2. The gap was now also, not over a somewhat baffled Nick Elliott, who had dropped some eighteen seconds in the stage, but was now over Higgins who would have just three more stages left to go after the Porsche 911.

“We don’t know what went wrong in there for us, we thought we were ok, but our time is poor”, “It seems odd, it’s on the clocks and on Dave’s watch, so it must have been somewhere”
Nick Elliott

Photos: Nick Elliott & Dave Price | Mark Higgins & Carl Williamson | By Andy Cook (Xlerate.Media)

Higgins yet again was not feeling the Ceri Stage, complaining of a lack of grip which had resulted in no traction going forward, yet he did not change the tyre compound from the morning loop and remained on a medium! “We probably could have gone softer to be fair, I didn’t expect it to be so wet in there, obviously we’ve got the other stages, so we have to go with a compromise” Higgins admits.

The Manxman would, however, grab the TR7 by the scruff of the neck and force it to his second stage win in SS6 Cwmbiga 2, clawing back six seconds from Perez to close the gap down to just four heading into the penultimate stage of the rally.

Photo: Mark Higgins & Carl Williamson | By Andrew Scott

By now, Elliott & Price in the 131 were beginning to drift back from that battle for the win, possibly something was up with the car as they were now some 18 seconds down on Higgins and also perhaps were having to start thinking about settling for the final spot on the podium.

Photos: Nick Elliott & Dave Price | By Andrew Scott

The penultimate stage through Hafren South (SS7 Severn Way 2) was perhaps going to be the last stage of the event that had any length to it, for which could make a difference for Higgins. Alas Perez and Co-Driver McElhinney would again, get the better of Higgins & Williamson, recording their third stage win, all be it only by a slender one second. They would therefore find themselves heading into the final two miler through Sweet Lamb with a margin of just five seconds to protect.

Photo: Seb Perez & Gary McElhinney | By Andrew Scott

Given that the morning pass of Sweet Lamb would see a difference of just two seconds between Perez and Higgins, forgoing anything untoward happening to Perez, Higgins was unlikely to be able to make this time up.

Seb Perez & Gary McElhinney would sign off their Woodpecker Rally by adding the final stage to their tally of now four wins. Bringing their Porsche 911 RS home with a final margin of eight seconds clear of Mark Higgins & Carl Williamson in the Triumph TR7 and with it, securing the top step on the podium for Perez’s third time and McElhinney’s second this season.

“It was a good afternoon, but it was one of those. I was quite surprised by the time in Ceri, and then we just had to keep everyone close and in the mix. A lot of it was really muddy and I think it must have suited the Porsche”, “It’s really good for the Championship, we said we needed to come here and ideally win or at least beat Mark and we’ve done that”, “Things are looking good, so on to the TrackRod”
Seb Perez

Photo: Seb Perez & Gary McElhinney | By Andy Cook (Xlerate.Media)

Perez’s third win of the year, coupled with his consistent results since his first outing at Rally North Wales, sees him sitting pretty at the top of the overall drivers standing, with a 36-point lead over Higgins. Perez would also be leaving Wales with the 2024 Category 2 title, having recorded seven wins straight. He has proved untouchable in the category this season, to the point where it almost feels as if he has scared off any would-be competition from coming out to play.

Having won three out of the last four rounds, Mark Higgins would have to settle for being the Bridesmaid on this occasion. The TR7 didn’t seem to suit the conditions and tyre choice was perhaps also a contributing factor; the team know that there is some more work to do on the gravel development of the car also.

“He (Seb) had a really good run over Ceri. We’ve had a good rally and for us to be in the mix on gravel, we are really really happy. We’ve come a long way since the first event, we are great on tarmac, but we’ve got a bit to do but we are getting there. We’ve just got to sort out the traction, she’s a great car, and she is reliable, touch wood and the boys have done a great job to get us this far.”
Mark Higgins

Photos: Mark Higgins & Carl Williamson | Nick Elliott & Dave Price | By Andy Cook (Xlerate.Media)

Taking to the third step on the podium, Nick Elliott & Dave Price would find themselves limping through the final stage of the rally with front suspension failure.

“We had to limp through that one, we’ve got front suspension failure, so we’ve got a wobbly wheel and we had to struggle through in third gear. I think we dropped about ten”, “We’ve had a few technical issues and it just hasn’t all clicked for us today”
Nick Elliott

Issues aside, normally third would be considered a good result, but the truth of the matter is that a third-place finish on the Woody, isn’t going to cut the mustard in the overall standings. Even with drop scores taken into consideration, given that he sat out two tarmac rounds, the Manx and the Argyle mid-season plus the poor result at Round 3, the Severn Valley; his only outright victory was Rally North Wales. Elliott currently sits in sixth place in the overall driver’s Championship standings, he will need a strong finish on the remaining events. The TrackRod Rally Yorkshire and the new double header Anglo-Caledonian rally in November will need to deliver him some better results to end his season with.

Taking a last-minute Category 3 win, Rudi Lancaster & Guy Weaver would secure fourth overall in their MKII Ford Escort RS1800. They were gifted the position when Ben Friend & Cliffy Simmons made an error, checking into a time control too early, which resulted in being handed a one-minute time penalty.

“It hasn’t really felt it, but the result is good”, “We just kept plugging away and it felt pretty fast for the historics”
Rudi Lancaster

Irishmen, Adrian Hetherington & Ronan O’Neill were another crew to benefit from Friend & Simmon’s blunder and would be bumped up a place to round out the top five, they sit in fourth place in the overall driver’s standings behind Richard Hill.

Photos: Rudi Lancaster & Guy Weaver | Adrian Hetherington & Ronin O’Neill | By Andy Cook (Xlerate.Media)

FINAL RESULTS

POS	LEADERBOARD	CAT / CLASS	TIME
1	#205 S.PEREZ / G.MCELHINNEY	CAT 2 / C5	51:50
2	#204 M.HIGGINGS / C.WILLIAMSON	FIA / G2	51:58
3	#203 N.ELLIOTT / D.PRICE	FIA / G1	52:29
4	#211 R.LANCASTER / G.WEAVER	CAT 3 / D5	53:05
5	#206 A.HETHERINGTON / R.O’NEILL	CAT 3 / D5	53:35

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

POS	OVERALL	POINTS
1	S.PEREZ	197
2	M.HIGGINS	161
3	R.HILL	146
4	A.HETHERINGTON	143
5	R.LANCASTER	135

POS	CAT2	POINTS
1	S.PEREZ	140
2	P.HARRIS	69
3	B.SMITH	54

POS	CAT3	POINTS
1	R.HILL	110
2	A.HETHERINGTON	106
3	R.LANCASTER	102

POS	CAT4	POINTS
1	G.LEPLEY	20
2	B.JORDON	18
3	C.ROBINSON	16

POS	FIA	POINTS
1	M.HIGGINS	120
2	D.PEDLEY	72
3	S.WARD	66

NEXT TIME

The Motorsport UK, FUCHS Lubricants British Historic Rally Championship would head to North Yorkshire for the TrackRod Rally Yorkshire (Sept 23/24). The ninth round of the series will once again see the crews tackling the legendary Dalby Forest under the cover of darkness before restarting the next day with classic Yorkshire gravel tests.