The YSTRA Targa Rally on Sunday 31st July was split into an Interclub and a Clubman event and attracted a full entry of 60 crews from around the UK. The Targa Rally cars were all 2-wheel drive road rally specification vehicles with a minimum of modifications, meaning that the cost of the rally cars was very much reduced and the damage to the roads was less than would be the case with a stage rally.
The rally route was based around 4 loops of the Grafton venue which provided 10 different special tests, finishing with the 8.4-mile test known as the Big One. The first loop of 3 tests set the pattern for the event with the top four crews completing the test in very quick times. Car 3, John Davies / Nick Bloxham (Puma) went into an early lead on Test 2 with a time 16 sec ahead of everyone else, and that was a lead that they never relinquished.
Initially their nearest rivals were Car 1, Ethan Davies / Dafydd-Sion Lloyd also in a Puma but they made their only error on Test 2 by failing to ‘stop astride’ which incurred an additional 30 sec penalty. The second and third loops of 3 tests followed a similar pattern with the leading four crews keeping up the pressure and separated by only a few seconds. During the day each of these crews set fastest or joint fastest times and this culminated on the final long test where they were the only crews who managed to beat the bogey time.
Father and son Gary and Bradley White (BMW 318), one of the many family crews on the event, were consistently quick throughout the day and finished 2nd overall, with Steve Retchless and Cath Woodman (Escort Mk2) 3rd overall. Despite all their efforts during the day, Ethan Davies / Dafydd-Sion Lloyd could not quite recover from their 30 sec penalty, and eventually finished 4th overall. The awards for the highest placed Dukeries MC crew went to Dave Baines and Ian Faulkner.
The YSTRA Targa Clubman Rally used the same route and timing but was aimed at less experienced crews who hold a Motorsport UK Clubman RS Competition licence (free) and who have to be members of the organising club. The Clubman event was won by Jeff Sharp and Reece Davies (Peugeot 205 GTi), over a minute ahead of John Peterson / Kevin Ablitt (Vauxhall Corsa) with Jon Crook/ James Crook (Vauxhall Astra) a further 2 seconds back in 3rd overall.
On the face of it there does appear to be a significant number of penalties incurred on the event, but that partly reflects the challenge of having to try and follow a demanding route whilst driving quick enough to achieve the 30 mph target on each test. That meant there was constant pressure on both members of the crew to work together to complete the tests correctly in the fastest possible time. One location where lots of penalties were incurred was at the end of Test 6 where many crews were tempted into following the ‘line’ created on Test 3 and did not realise that the defined route between the penalty markers had changed for Test 6.
The final results for both events can be found at https://www.rallies.info
The event was very well received, especially by the competitors, and you could not help but notice the smiling faces at the end of the Tests. [ A good ‘smiles per mile’ ratio ☺ ] The YSTRA Targa Rally was a huge challenge to devise and put on by the organising team led by Clerk of the Course Paul Rees, but this is certainly an event that Dukeries MC will want to run again next year.