Article reprinted from Autosport Magazine May 1965.
DUNGANNON MOTOR CLUB
MAY RALLY 1965
With the dust of the Circuit of Ireland just about settled, the less strenuous round of Summer rallies in Ulster started with a 75-mile navigation event organised by the Dungannon Motor Club. This attracted a good entry of 41 cars and showed that the idea, which is gathering strength, of dividing the entry into experts and novices is appreciated, for no fewer than 24 of these were novice category. Unfortunately, the well-planned route did not prove quite tight enough for the experts and the issue between seven clean crews was decided on two driving tests.
At the start near Coagh navigators were given five minutes in which to start plotting the 30 odd references which (defined the route between the 24 controls before setting off on three easy longish sections which brought the cars to the Gulter’s Hill area where three two-minuters caused Alan Boyd and Ralph Armstrong to lose 2 and 3mins. respectively. Control 9 lay at the foot of Slieve Gallion and Jim Rankin lost a minute at this and at control 10 as well.
From here the route ran along the edge of the mountain and few marks were lost until Control 22 where road works on the main road at Drum Manor caused a bit of confusion and Ronnie McCartney/Mike Hart dropped 2 mins. in their Sprite. One or two people omitted to approach a via reference between 22 and 23 from the right direction and the ever-vigilant Ted Hobson just happened to he manning a secret check here. Jim Stevenson / Frank Main, who were hobbling home with very noisy drive couplings in their Mini-Cooper, bought this one as did Jack Armstrong.
After the last control just outside Dungannon, came the two driving tests, where Robert McBurney’s best on aggregate gave him and Esler Crawford the premier award in the experts class, while Howard Lomax accompanied by that well-known novice, Ken Atkinson, won the novice class.
BEATTY CRAWFORD
Results
Experts:
1. R. McBurney/E. Crawford (VW1200) 60.2
2. R. White/Miss D. White (Mini Cooper S) 62.0
3. M. Acheson/J. Long (Mini Cooper S) 64.2
Novices:
1. H. Lomax/K. Atkinson (Mini Cooper) 74.5
2. G. Abernethy/A. Nother (Mini) 76.5
3. A. McCartney/A. Nother (Corsair) 81.2