Round 1 – PaintWorX-AGBO Stages at Weston Park 20th March

A maximum entry of 75 cars included 18 minis competing for the Mini Cup part of the Old Stager Championship. The various minis
attending scrutineering on Saturday were assembled against the Weston Park scenery for a group photo. Is this the largest mini
entry for a special stage rally ever?

After a chilly and cloudy day on Saturday the weather brightened up on Sunday and thankfully the expected damp early stages were
dry and fast.

For a change we started on the pace on Stage 1 equalling Clive King’s fastest time and 7 seconds ahead of the rest of the mini
field. But our joy was short lived as the stage was scrubbed from the results due to some timing issues and while we held our pace
the rest of the field got quicker during the day.

The event attracted a lot of spectators both on the stages and in the service area where there was a great mix of historic cars
on view.

Unfortunately Shane Gamble was a casualty before the first stage due to the ring gear detaching from the flywheel. The top order
after three stages was extremely close with Clive King/Anton Bird on 10mins 01 secs, Jim Brindle 3 secs down and Adrian Kermode 4
secs down. Jim Brindles excellent run came to an end with a lack of brakes on stage 5 ending with the crew in the hedge and the front
nearside very bent.

Trying to catch the leading trio we attacked a large bale in the chicane after the bridge on stage 4 and proved that the new Wipac
plastic lens headlights are very strong !

Last year’s Mini Cup winner Andrew O’Hanlon in “577 PHW” had a high end misfire after stage 2 and without finding the cause went
into stage 3 only for the car to stop in the stage, resulting in maximums until lunch when a borrowed distributor got the car firing
properly for the rest of the day. Andrew was also fired up and set fastest mini times on the final 3 stages.

At lunch Clive continued to “cock a snoot “and a wheel at the rest of the minis with a lead albeit slender of 6 seconds over a very
relaxed Adrian Kermode.

The top 6 “mini” times at lunch were:
Clive King/ Anton Bird 13.47 (Class MC3)
Adrian Kermode/ Maurice Beckett 13.56 (Class MC2)
Jonathon Bennett/Nigel Bennett 14.07 (Class MC4)
Paul Price/Tim Cross 14.11 (ClassMC2)
Peter Horsburgh/Graham Carter 14.19 (Class MC2)
Pete Ellerby/Phil Swanborough 14.23 (Class MC2)

The class system for this year allows any mini not compliant with Historic rules to compete in MC4 hence Jonathon Bennett’s mini
is running an 8 port head and 13” wheels can run in this class and was showing good times until a mistake on SS8 cost around 40 seconds.

The organisers, Owen Motoring Club, made the maximum use of the available roads at Weston Park and changed the layout every 2 stages
generally after lunch using the opposite direction , and a typical map is attached below.

This illustrates the short but technical nature of the stage with many bales cattle grids and chicanes to challenge the driver and
co-driver and keep them on their mettle.

The afternoon was warm requiring fluid intake by Anton Bird to keep shouting at Clive!

A row of minis queuing for the first of the afternoon stages

Top 3 stage times were being shared by all the top 5 crews with the times still very close, but Clive’s Mini Sport prepared 8 port
Cooper S holding off the 5 port mini of Adrian Kermode, to come in first mini by 16 seconds after 10 stages.

Gordon Cameron/Sheila Grimshaw made a welcome appearance in their 970 Cooper S and took maximum Mini Cup points in class MC1, Adrian
Kermode maximum points in MC2 ,Clive King maximum in MC3, and Jonathon Bennett in MC4.

Final positions and stage times for all competitors registered for the Mini Sport sponsored Mini Cup listed below. At least we have
started the campaign with points on the board so now roll on the next round on May 1st.

Full results from the rally can be found at http://www.owenmotoringclub.co.uk/resources/Documents/AGBO20201620results.pdf

The next round of the championship is the Dixies Historic Challenge run by South Wales AC on the Epynt military ranges on the 1st
of May.

Pictures are courtesy of Kevin Baldwin at KPB Photography, Andy at www.xlerate.net, and the author.

Peter Horsburgh

Importation rules regarding vehicles are very specific: Only those over 25 years in age may be brought in to the USA without compilance to Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS).