Last Saturday on the 20th June, Steve Entwistle and the Orangebox competed in the 6th round of the HRCR’s Clubman Rally Championship. This season has shown great promise with Steve garnering some exceptional results throughout the previous rounds. For an oversight of the Orangebox and it’s involvement with the HRCR Clubman Rally Championship be sure to read our previous post here.
Following the Chelmsford Motor Clubs East Anglian Historic Rally, we spoke with Steve who gave us this comprehensive review of the day at Elsenham….
“Round 6 of the HRCR Clubmans Rally Championship was Chelmsford Motor Clubs East Anglian historic rally based at Elsenham near Stansted airport. We were seeded car 4 this time with my navigator Andy Ballantyne from Totnes in Devon, this our first event together. From a 9.00 start on Saturday 20th June It was straight into a long one hour long regularity were we dropped a total of 33 seconds, Andy, in his words ‘slightly rusty’. From here we headed to Wethersfield airfield for eight tests, four of them, all run twice.
These tests were superb long tests using every manner of road and were very fast. We recorded two fastest and two second fastest times, with us improving on our second runs on all four. After this we went into the second regularity of over an hour were we dropped a costly 95 seconds. This led to the lunch halt which showed us 9th overall. From lunch we went into another regularity slightly shorter but still 45 minutes long, Andy had got back into the groove and we dropped just 10 seconds, a short neutral took us to Wethersfield again for 8 more tests which were the morning ones run in reverse. We went well again, improving our times on the second runs through, by 20 seconds on one! Anyway we had 1 fastest time and in the top 5 on five of them and never lower than 8th.
From here we had two long regularities which went well with just 8 seconds dropped on the last one which led back to the start/finish venue. Fourth overall and a class win and best Mini was a good result, just one second behind 3rd!! The Mini Sport engine hadn’t missed a beat and the car was ‘flying’, we were second fastest overall on the tests over half a minute ahead of the very quick John Ruddock in the RS2000. Next round is the Ross on Wye based Ross Traders in July with Matt Fowle back on the maps with me.”
A great result from Steve and another success for Mini Sport. Be sure to check out the Mini Sport Facebook and follow the HRCR for more exclusive photos and details of the Clubman Championship. Next round: Ross Traders Historic Tour on the 18th July.
Photo Credits: M&H Photography (Andy Manston)
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