DONINGTON PARK RALLY 2023

MORRIS TAKES THE TITLE IN DONINGTON FINALE

Overnight snow had made the opening stage at Donington extremely treacherous, but it didn’t faze Ash Furlong/Fiona Crump’s Renault Clio, not only heading the 21 HOE contenders, but third in the overall rally.

“We just went for it,” said Furlong, as he finished the stage 20 seconds up on Paul Morgan/Sam Stafford’s Honda Civic. Tim Baker/Neil Hallworth were a further 12 seconds back in third, “we were all over the place though, it was so slippery,” said Baker.

“We had a big spin on the Craner Curves, 360 at 100mph,” Morgan, but got away with it,” Morgan added.

Matt/Adrian Walk’s Fiesta, George Clarke/Stephen Moyses’ Mini Cooper S and Stefan Morris/Chris Ridge’s Escort completed the initial top six.

With conditions improving quickly for stage two, Furlong and Morgan continued to increase their advantage at the top of the leaderboard, but Morris was into fourth and only six seconds off Baker, with Michael Bowle/Izzie Lawrence’s Renault Clio into fifth, having done much of SS1 with the tailgate open.

Furlong managed to complete stage three, but it was game over. “A gearbox bolt sheared and snapped an engine mount,” he explained.

He was still second at that point, with Morgan 17 seconds in the clear, but Morris’ charge had stalled. “We stalled off the start, had 2 1/2 spins and a tankslapper, then got stuck. But the car felt better after taking the anti-rollbar off,” he reckoned.

It was Bowle now on charge, into second place by the end of stage four, with Morris playing catch up in third, from Baker, Walk and Harry Pinchin/Colin Jenkins’ Citroen C2. “We had one spin on the first stage in a handbrake turn, but great after that,” said Bowle. “We just left our braking too late into a chicane and were on the grass,” Baker admitted, which earned him 30 second penalty.

Morgan sailed through the final pair of stages to take his win by well over three minutes, “apart from visibility and misting up, it was fine,” he said.

It was Morris that snatched second though on the final stage, as Bowle lost out to both him and Baker in the darkness.

Walk and Pinchin completed the top six ad both dominated Classes and A and B respectively. Glyn/Owain Thomas’ Peugeot 106 Rallye was second to Walk in Class A. “We were sideways at the first corner, that seemed to set the tone,” said Glyn.

They were followed by James/David Palmer-Smith’s Corsa, while Ray/Arjun Kainth’s Peugeot 205 Gti and Graham/Jennifer Bartl’s Peugeot 206 were both classified too. Kainth took a last stage maximum and Bartl managed to re-appear after a roll on stage two.

Connor/Gary Powell’s Citroen Saxo VTS were seventh best HOE contenders and followed Pinchin home in Class B, with Richard Fletcher/Cassy Romeo’s Citroen C2 VTS third. “The heated screen and intercom failed on the first stage and after that we played catch up,” said Fletcher.

Class C went to newly crowned Champion Morris, after he spent the first half of the rally chasing Furlong. Eifion/Ioan Thomas’ Peugeot 206 Gti was the only other Class C finisher.

Top HOE contender Morgan proved unbeatable in Class D, but second place went down to the wire with Baker having led until stage four, only to snatch it back from Bowle on the final run.

Class F was a duel between Lee Sellars/Michelle O’Connor’s Triumph 2.5 and Bill Douglas/Dave Tearl’s Alfa Romeo GT Junior. “I think we did more laps around Redgate on the recovery truck than under power,” said Douglas, after drowning out more than once on the infield.

In the Classics Simon Tattersall/Reece Brookes’ Escort ran strongly all day and was eighth best HOE crew too. Andy Yeomans/Jon Shepherd’s Escort made the finish too, but picked up a penultimate stage maximum.

Neither of the Class T Mini’s made the finish. Clarke went out after four stages when a fuel line burnt through from a blowing CAT, while Mark Norwood/Thomas Marriott were a last stage casualty.

Andy Brinkley/Helena Mayall’s BMW M3 was the only other retirement, after being recovered from the Redgate gravel on the opening stage.

Published by Peter Scherer for Heart of England Rally Championship (AWMMC) December 5th 2023