Events : London-Cape Town, day one

Words: Keith Adams Photography: Gerard Brown

MG ZR and MG Maestro in endurance rally one-two…

Participants on the London to Cape Town World Cup Rally were flagged off from the Houses of Parliament on a cold and wet New Year’s Day, and created a spectacle. And it was fitting that at the end of the first night’s competition at Dover, Austin Rover and MG Rover teams lead the way with Owen Turner and Matt Fowler of the Rover Centre in St Albans in first position, ahead of our very own Jane Edgington and Gill Cotton.

The margin that the MG ZR led our MG Maestro was not inconsiderable, at 5m42s – but even day one is a long haul, with teams pressing on non-stop to Beaune in Central France before taking a break. Next up are Actman/Elcomb, Blunt/Duck, Guliker/’t Hart and Bayliss/Carter.

Sad news of the night was the demise of the Triumph 2500 of Chris Butcher and Sean Moriarty who fell off the road, and were then damaged further after Andy Actman’s Toyota clouted the rear end of the Triumph – which is unable to continue.

Hundreds of people had turned up to see the entire London-Cape Town line-up at the New Year’s meet at Brooklands. The paddock of the Clubhouse has been packed with spectators for most of the day. ‘We clocked up the 2000th ticket just before 12,’ said Brooklands manager Donna Hopton. ‘The rally cars look amazing… I wish I was going with them!’

Overall Results at Dover – TC22
Pos Time Year
1 33 11m 41 1 B Owen Turner GB Matthew Fowle GB 2002 MG ZR 1589
2 15 17m 23 2 B Jane Edgington GB Gillian Cotton GB 1986 MG Maestro 1598
3 14 17m 53 1 E Andy Actman GB Andy Elcomb GB 2010 Toyota Hilux 3000
4 23 18m 26 2 E Steve Blunt GB Bob Duck GB 2006 Subaru Impreza 1994
5 17 21m 15 1 D Renger Guliker NL Pim ‘t Hart NL 1985 BMW M535I 3406

More from: www.londoncapetownrally.com

 

Keith Adams

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