The Classic Rally Association -2009 Poppy Rally 21/22 March

Over 60 classic rally crews travelled to Ypres on 20th March to enjoy a fantastic rally around the tight roads and farm tracks in the most famous rallying territory in Belgium. The mainly British entries were mixed with a dozen crews from Belgium and Holland , and were to tackle a total of 565 kilometres over the 2 days and a night. Several Mini crews were entered - Dick and Mark Appleton at 16, Philip and Carol Swain at 17 , myself and Anthony Preston at 18 all in 1965 Cooper S’s. Kevin Haselden and the evergreen Dave Kirkham were at 31 in a 998 Cooper and at 37 the Belgian crew of Serge Daels and Julien Hoorweghe in their 1975 Cooper 1275 sporting the largest light pod you could fit on a mini, which would be terrific at night but not great for the aerodynamics ! Cars 16,18 and 31 entered for the Team award under the imaginative name of “Team Mini” , thanks Kevin.

All the competitors stayed on Friday night at the Novotel in the centre of Ypres and after the cars were scrutineered in the adjacent school playground , we re-acquainted ourselves with the Leffe blonde (Beer!) in one of the many bars around the square in the centre of Ypres by the Cloth Hall before an excellent meal in the “Vivaldi”. I retired “early” from the Hotel bar at 12.30 leaving the rest still enjoying the Belgium hospitality.

Leg 1 Boezinge to Boezinge 247 km

Leg 1 started from Boezinge at 09.30 on Saturday morning made up of 6 regularity sections and 8 tests on a mixture of closed and open road sections , all timed to the second, with lunch ,and afternoon tea halts in Watou ,finishing with supper at Boezinge at approx.18.00.

Cars were led off thro’ the start arch by Martin Sharp navigated by his brave 14 year old daughter Hannah in their 1948 Bentley MkVI special ,all open top and thankfully the weather was bright blue skies all day. The route went via Zonnebeke ,St Julian, Reningelstand and Pau to lunch back in Watou.the results of the first 3 tests and 3 reg. sections showed the pre-event favourites of Bert Dolk and Yves Neulanders in their beautiful sounding 1972 Escort RS1600 in the lead with only one second dropped followed by several crews only separated by a few seconds..

After lunch there was a short test round the cobbled square in Watou where we could watch in awe at the silent antics of Tony and Bella Covill in their 1977 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow II , how they negotiated the the very tight coned chicanes on the other tests is a mystery. We then headed off into France via St Elooi to Houtkerque, bambeque, Herzeele and St. Laurent back for tea at Watou. It was noticeable the much improved road quality compared to Belgium, altho’ I doubt they noticed in the Rolls.We did 5 tests and 4 regularity sections to the supper halt back in Boezinge.Bert Dolk and Yves Neulanders in their beautiful sounding 1972 Escort RS1600 were in the lead on 23 seconds dropped, followed by myself and Anthony on 49 seconds and our team-mates Dick and Mark in Mini number 16 on 59 seconds. Not much difference after 8 hours driving.

Leg 2 Boezinge to Ypres 194km

The section started just after 8pm as it was getting dark and comprised 5 regularity sections one which lasted one and a half hours , and 9 time controls. The route instructions on marked maps were issued 30 minutes before we set off allowing the more diligent navigators the chance to transfer the route onto their own maps making it easier to draw the route at the multitude of tricky junctions where slots were difficult to find and decipher from the many similar looking and inviting farm tracks.

The cars started in reverse order based on the positions at the lunch halt which meant we were running in front of the rapid Escort of Bert Dolk, so we spent the first few sections with a keen eye on the rear view mirror.

Our night started badly when we missed a tricky slot through a farmyard and then an overshoot where we discovered the reversing light had stopped working ,all this on the first regularity round Zuidschote resulting in the loss of a valuable minute. The escort was also going wrong here dropping more than a minute at the first control.

The first time controlled section caught me napping along with most of the other crews as I had not realised how quick we had to go and dropped another 30 secs , Dick and Mark cleaned it just and were the only crew not to drop time.

We reversed the honours on the next tight section to Watou which we cleaned along with the TR3A of Michael and Lorna Harrison, the rest all dropping one to four minutes. By the next regularity the quicker crews were catching the slower cars who were finding the route very tricky in the dark and causing some to get baulked in the process.

The next timed section before petrol my spot lights packed up and I was struggling to see the tight corners and missed a 90 right and ended up in the field but still managed to be the only car to clean the section with most crews dropping one ,two or three minutes.

At petrol I took off the “works” Perspex headlight covers and this improved the lighting a bit. There were many tales of cars going in all directions and some queuing at controls.

After petrol we headed off from Poperinge for the long 90 minute regularity with a number of speed changes and 8 timing points. Dick and Mark got severely baulked and dropped a minute to us on this section alone. This route used some of the best roads used as stages on the international Ypres rally ,round by Westouter, Loker, Dranouter and the famous Heuvelland.

At the next timed section through Hollebeke all crews dropped time with the quickest being Howard Warren in the 911 with the famous Porsche man Brian Goff on the maps, followed by Paul and Matt Heal in the MGB GT and the Harrison’s TR3A.We all headed back to Ypres arriving between 1.30 and 2.00 in the morning after a superb nights road rallying , only to find the Hotel bar was closed , but some went off into town to find further Belgian hospitality . I went to bed!

Leg 3 Ypres to Ypres 124km

The night section left us with a narrow lead over our team mates Dick and Mark Appleton which had they not been baulked may have been the other way round , but we did have our wrong slots - the what if scenarios in rallying are endless ! The third members of Team Mini, Kevin Haselden and Dave Kirkham were in a healthy 5^th overall ,giving us a commanding position if we could all survive the Sunday run.

The Cooper S of Philip and Carol Swain did not have a good night and were in 41^st place , with the Belgian Mini Cooper moving from 40^th before the night leg to 33^rd obviously the light pod had come into its own !

Sunday started cold and misty but this soon cleared to another fine day and we resolved to try and make no mistakes and have no heroics on the tests.

There were 3 regularities then a test at the Linde forklift factory site , a 4^th regularity and a repeat of the Linde test.

The regularities took us round by Passendale ,Ledegem and Zilverberg to a time control at the Elckerlyc restaurant where coffee was available and preparations were being made for lunch.

The test at the Linde factory was a real blast on a mixture of loose and concrete .We were able to watch a spectacular display by Bert Dolk getting his Escort BDA very sideways and sounding glorious. We managed to pick up our only cone penalty of the weekend but otherwise were keeping it steady. The final regularity was straight forward with none of the top crews making errors after one more run at the Linde test we headed back to Eckerlyc for a wonderful lunchtime spread accompanied by the freshest frites as only the Belgians know how.

Best on the Sunday leg were Dick and Mark on 31 secs,next wee Richard Prosser and Andy Gibson in their very rapid Reliant Scimitar coupe on 42 secs, us on 43 secs , Howard Warren/Brian Goff in the 911 on 48secs,and Paul and Matt Heal on 49 secs.

So after a pleasant lunch we headed back to the main square in Ypres for the finish arch and celebrations.

Final results:

1^st Peter Horsburgh/Anthony Preston 6.01mins*

2^nd Dick Appleton/Mark Appleton 7.36mins*

3^rd Paul /Matt Heal MGB GT 11.14mins

6^th Kevin Haselden/Dave Kirkham 15.12mins*

32^nd Serge Daels/Julien Hooreweghe 37.29mins

38^th Philip/Carol Swain 49.04mins

Team Award -Team Mini *

Altogether a fantastic result for the Mini Coopers, and all credit to the navigators especially Anthony for a great performance on a very demanding two days and nights.