DIXIES HISTORIC CHALLENGE 2016 - 1st May Epynt Ranges

This is just a brief report as the ranges are not a favourite of mine with constant blind crests, typical Welsh weather (Wet and windy and cold), and scrutineering starting at 6 am!!

Having failed to finish last year (broken drive shaft) I felt obliged to make a go of what is the 2nd round of the Old Stager Championship. Similar to the last round there was a full entry of 75 cars of which Minis made up 20 cars, even more than on the AGBO Stages last month.

The most exciting entry was the Ferrari 308 GP4 Michelotto to give it its full title, driven and prepared by Kevin and Lee Jones, winning its class and finishing 9th overall.

At least there was no fog this year but the stages were alternately wet and damp as the rain showers came and went during the day.

Clive King was the top seeded mini followed by Adrian Kermode and they finished in this order, with Clive best mini by over 2 ½ minutes.

We were seeded third mini at car 40 in our MiniSpares Cooper S “277BRX”and got off to a good start, taking 10 seconds out of our main class rival Adrian over the first 4 stages.

However our day deteriorated as the engine started losing power progressively with what seemed like an engine limiter cutting in at less than 6000rpm.To be fair to the engine it has done 3 hard seasons rallying but it was made worse by handling that did not like the crests and on return home it was listing to one side suggesting something had broken. We persevered to get 6th mini but we now need a major engine out rebuild.

With cars starting at 30 second intervals and despite the short stage length we were surprised to be caught by the MG ZR running behind us on SS2, however looking at the results they finished an amazing 5th overall ahead of EVO’s and Mk2 Escorts !

Graham and I resplendent in our new MiniSpares corporate gear !

Adrian got faster after some work on the brakes and was setting consistent times to finish 2nd mini.

A small selection of other interesting cars

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).