After 20 years of action in over 90 rallies I have decided to retire my faithful Mk1 Cooper S from competition. Two iterations of the car, an Austin from 1998 to 2006 when it was stolen, to its Morris replacement in late 2006 to the present have achieved great results including one HRCR Championship in 1999, 6 outright victories on road rallies and 7 Historic Stage class wins in UK, Belgium and Isle of Man.

I would have liked to finish on our favourite rally roads on Rally Isle of Man but that event was not to be so we entered the second running of the Corbeau Seats rally based on closed roads around Clacton and Tendring district. This year there was a class for Historic cars and we were pitted against the very successful Porsche 911 of Dessie Nutt/Geraldine McBride and the fellow Cooper S man, Henry Hardiment /Keith Pettit making a welcome return after a long lay-off, with a newly rebuilt engine. Seen before the start still sporting the trademark deerstalker!

The rally comprised 3 loops of 4 stages varying length from 2 to 6 miles, with servicing on the seafront in Clacton between each loop. As last year spectators were out in force, cheering us on throughout the day, and many families enjoying the close access to the cars in the service area. The Saturday scrutineering and Signing on went to plan and we spent the afternoon doing one pass of the stages in our road car to check the excellent Patterson pace notes. All cars went to a ceremonial start on the sea front before leaving overnight in the “parc ferme” ready for action on Sunday.

The day started dry for the first 4 stages the previous night’s rain having largely dried .Dessie got off to a flying start taking 14 seconds off us on the first 6 mile stage with Henry showing his lack of car time a further minute behind.

On stages 2 and 4 we matched the Porsche, but a delay when we caught an ailing car in the tricky farmyard complex on stage 3 cost us about 20 seconds. This gave the Porsche a lead of 50 seconds after only 4 stages with Henry getting back in the rhythm gradually about 2 minutes behind.

Back to service and only an annoying oil leak from the rocker gasket causing any concern. We set off with hopes of matching the Porsche , but as we headed out to stage 5 the heavens opened and we had a very wet run with aquaplaning on some of the shiny B road tarmac causing a few moments. This resulted in us dropping 40 seconds to the Porsche running 30 minutes ahead of us and missing the worst of the rain.

We took 20 seconds back on stage 7, but like us earlier they were probably held up passing a slower car. The difference after 8 stages was now 59 seconds, but we were enjoying the stages and having fun with Graham perfect on the notes as usual and the car going like a train. Henry was having some ride height problems with lack of competitive running there were always going to be issues.

We did have a clear run on the final loop of 4 stages 10 seconds quicker than Dessie who was probably easing off towards the end. Our reward was second in the small class of 3 pre-1967 cars and a nice final run before the car retires for a well-earned rest.