RallySport Magazine December 2016

More documents

Recommendations

Info

REPORT: SILVER FERN RALLY Derek Ayson won the Silver Fern Challenge in his Nissan-powered Escort. In theory it is a revival event, but in practice it is much more, as the winner of this year’s 2,700km odyssey in the country’s South Island, Ford Escort RS1800-driving Welshman Meirion Evans, confirmed on the final day. “It’s been an adventure, a challenge and overall just absolutely brilliant,” he said. The current run of events (which started in 2006) was created to commemorate New Zealand’s original Silver Fern Rally held in 1969. And this year 45 crews came from all over the world to sample its unique mix of sublime roads, state-of-the-art timing/ car tracking logistics and laid-back, ‘cando/not-a-problem-mate’ Kiwi spirit. History will record that Welsh pair, Meirion Evans and co-driver Iestyn Williams, won this year’s event by just 45 seconds from Aussie Stewart Reid and co-driver, Dave Neill, in what effectively is a sister car to the Evans/ Williams one. There was more – much more – to the story of this year’s event than that, however. Stuart McFarlane, Porsche 911 For a start, Challenge category winner Derek Ayson and co-driver Gavin McDermott from Gore in rural Southland were first home – by almost four minutes to boot. Their MK2 Ford Escort was outwardly virtually identical to the RS1800s of Evans and Williams and Reid and Neill, but ineligible for the main Historic class. The Ayson Escort has a well-worked FJ20 Nissan four-cylinder engine under the bonnet, so was running in the Challenge class against contemporary cars like Aucklander Dave Strong’s Honda Civic Type R, the Toyota 86 of Brent Taylor, and later model (but not quite) classics like Aussie veteran Ed Mulligan’s E30 BMW 325i. Reid and Neill were also quicker - on the road at least - than Evans and Williams. The trans-Tasman pair were second to the Mk2 RS1800 of 2014 event runner-up, Simon Tysoe and co-driver Paul Morris, after the first day, and led Evans and Williams at the end of the fourth. But it was always going to be an uphill battle for the popular Queensland ace after problems on the first stage on the second day saw him copping a 4m10s time penalty for arriving late at the start of the next stage. By the time Evans and Williams finally got, and managed to stay in front of, Reid and Neill (on the sixth day), only a crash or catastrophic car failure was going to change the result on the seventh. The Evans/Williams Escort led home Reid and Neill by under a minute, with the first local duo home, Allan Dippie and Paul Coghill from Wanaka, 10 minutes back in Dippie’s Porsche 911S. The Porsche 911s of Dippie and Coghill, and Hamilton father and son Stuart and Brad McFarlane (who Stewart Reid, Ford Escort 56 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - DECEMBER 2016
finished sixth), were the exceptions that proved the rule in this year’s event, dominated numerically and on the road by Mk 2 Ford Escort RS1800s Brit pair Phil Squires and Nigel Hutchinson were fourth, Aussie husbandand-wife duo Keith and Mary-Anne Callinan fifth (after losing out in a fight for third with the Dippie/ Coghill Porsche when a ball joint broke on the final day), and Brent Rawstron and co-driver Ian McKee seventh. Quick, but out of overall contention, were former national champion Brian Stokes and co-driving wife Anne, who ended up 13 th overall after a couple of off-road excursions, and 2014 event winner, Vince Bristow and co-driver Tim Sayer, who finished 17 th after a combination of mechanical issues and (spectacular!) trips off the road. No-one finishes an event as long and arduous as the Silver Fern without some sort of heart-stopping moment (or two), and for Derek Ayson and Gavin McDermott theirs came on the final day when a rose joint in the car’s rear suspension cried enough, forcing them to slow down for two stages before they could replace it at the lunchtime service. Once the rose joint and a wheel stud were replaced, they were back on the front-running pace, however, to claim line and class honours, just over half-an-hour up on the BMW of Ed Mulligan and Tony Brandon, and almost three-quarters-of-an-hour ahead of the Mk 2 Escort of Dunedin duo Brodie Anderson and Brad Lyon. 2016 Silver Fern Rally - Final classification Historic 1. Meirion Evans/Iestyn Williams (Ford Escort Mk2 RS1800) 9:48:03.4 2. Stewart Reid/Dave Neill (Ford Escort Mk2 RS1800) 9:48:49.2 +0:45.8 3. Allan Dippie/Paul Coghill (Porsche 911) 9:58:41.2 +10:37.8 4. Phil Squires/Nigel Hutchinson (Ford Escort Mk2 RS1800) 10:02:01.6 +13:58.2 5. Keith & Mary-Anne Callinan (Ford Escort Mk2 RS1800) 10:07:25.8 +19:22.4 Challenge 1. Derek Ayson/Gavin McDermott (Ford Escort) 9:44:09.7 2. Ed Mulligan/Tony Brandon (BMW E30 325i) 10:18:03.7 +33:54.0 3. Brodie Anderson/Brad Lyons (Ford Escort Mk2) 10:26:12.6 +42:02.9 4. Darryl Campbell/Phil Walker (Toyota Altezza) 10:32:13.1 +48:03.4 5. Charlie Evans/Sue O’Neill (Honda Civic 1800) 10:32:59.0 +48:49.3 Craig Salter, Ford Escort Mk1 Keith Callinan, Ford Escort RS1800 Dennis Green (BMW) passes James Shand (Escort). John Spencer was spectacular in his Datsun 1600, but things didn’t always go his way (right). DECEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 57
Page 1 and 2:
Issue #8 - December 2016 FREE EVERY
Page 3 and 4:
STMAS GIFT IDEAS RALLYSPORT MAG T-S
Page 5 and 6: CONTENTS - #8 DECEMBER 2016 FEATURE
Page 7 and 8: NEWS@RALLYSPORTMAG.COM.AU MINI PROG
Page 9 and 10: PICTURE PERFECT M-Sport’s 2017 Fi
Page 11 and 12: ALL FINNISH AFFAIR Toyota has snapp
Page 13 and 14: LING ected, although the man Sebast
Page 15 and 16: There were scenes of emotion around
Page 17 and 18: Esapekka Lappi scored a well deserv
Page 19 and 20: made us happy. Q: There was a lot o
Page 21 and 22: Baker’s Creek stage again before
Page 23 and 24: to win the Certina Timing Award for
Page 25 and 26: Story: TOM SMITH Photos: PETER WHIT
Page 27 and 28: applied to the Pedders Peugot for l
Page 29 and 30: BATES MASTERS KENNARDS KLASSICS The
Page 31 and 32: What does it mean to bring Les Walk
Page 33 and 34: RallySport Mag’s Luke Whitten wit
Page 35 and 36: in 2012 and give it another go, thi
Page 37 and 38: FOOTNOTE: Kelly Motorsport Merchand
Page 39 and 40: E DECEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZI
Page 41 and 42: To the winners, the spoils. Also do
Page 43 and 44: four days and somewhere in the regi
Page 45 and 46: So torque is similar to what we alr
Page 47 and 48: The grand father of Henry Ford III
Page 49 and 50: REPORT: INDIA RALLY Skoda’s Fabia
Page 51 and 52: REPORT: BEGONIA RALLY MUD MASTER St
Page 53 and 54: TRAVELLING MAN ... At the end of a
Page 55: Stewart Reid had Kiwi Dave Neill ca
Page 59 and 60: REPORT: SOUTHERN CROSS RALLY MORE
Page 61 and 62: Moss and Jenkinson on their way to
Page 63 and 64: DECEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE
show all

RallySport Magazine December 2016

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?