Tom Hutchings loses out to the Yorkshire forests
On Sunday 1st November 2009 Tom Hutchings partnered up with Philip Wilkes in a 1300 Ford Escort to contest the MEM Malton Forest Rally. Disappointment followed though, with retirement on SS3.
The rally was the Teamwoodspeed member’s debut in the forests, and it was to be a spectacularly wet one. As Tom explains, this was all about experience:
“This was the first forest rally Phil or I have competed on, and the car was relatively unproven too. We were hoping for a finish, and to get some valuable experience on gravel, but it proved more difficult than we thought!”
The rally was based in North Yorkshire at the popular Pickering Showground. SS1 was around the showground service area; a spectator special, designed to break the cars in gently before heading off for the first forest stage in the Langdale forest complex.
The first stage went well, but Langdale would bring with it an interesting problem. At junction 6, Phil lost his way on a left hand bend and it turned out the crew had missed out 20 junctions, after joining the wrong part of the stage following the confusion. Tom said:
“Our time for that stage must have confused a few people at time control, and we ended up ahead of 10 cars on the road too – if we were looking for an experience, we certainly got one!”
Unfortunately, the pair's time for stage 2 would be irrelevant as the alternator belt failed following the stage. Dave Weston Jnr and Ieuan Thomas were the overall winners in their Subaru Impreza.
As Tom’s own Ford Ka rally car takes shape, we’ll update you on his progress over the coming weeks and months.
Harewood Hillclimb Yorkshire Trophy 6th August
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