1972 OMC Scallon Cup

Posted in 1972, Archives by January 24th, 2021
Photo: Raymond Humphries
Wesley Abraham and Derek Smyth would take second in Class 2 in their ex-Works Cooper S.

Armstrong/McFarland Win Scallon Cup.

This article is reproduced from Wheels Magazine December 1972

Winners of Omagh Motor Club Scallon Cup rally, run over a demanding and compact route contained within a 10 mile radius of Omagh, were local men Ashley Armstrong and Ian McFarland with a loss of 10 mins., Cooper Ss taking the first four places.

The opening 20 mins. section from the start just outside Omagh saw six cars clean but Hugh O’Brien and Hugo McDaid got off to a bad start in their Escort TC when they missed Passage Control 3. This section also saw the first retirement when Ivan Caldwell and Roy Sloan broke a drive shaft in the ‘S’ just before the control.

On the 22 mins. section which followed, the pressure was really on with the roads proving very slippery, and best here were Mervyn Johnston/Austin Frazer (Cooper S) and White/Todd, both down 5, followed by last year’s winners Trevor Fleming/Brian Dorman. Armstrong and O’Brien all down 6 mins. Also down 6 here was the Dunlop/Gallagher Escort which went on to comfortably win the novice class.

After a short relaxed section along the Omagh-Dromore road, the pressure went on again with a 20 mins. section on the whites around Dromore forest where a soon-to-retire Fleming dropped 1 followed by Armstrong, Johnston, White and O’Brien all 2 down. Armstrong was clean into Time Control 5 but Johnston, 2 down here, was soon in trouble with several minor excursions off the road.

White, O’Brien and Irvine Tannahill/Victor Armstrong (Cooper ‘S’) were clean to TC 6 at Mountjoy while Armstrong, after dropping 2 here, cleaned the rest of the event. Johnston was soon in trouble again when he was penalised for going through a passage control twice, and the unfortunate O’Brien rolled, losing 26 mins. on the last competitive section of the event to Time Control 9 at Gortin Glen.

From here, a main road run took the remaining 27 cars (from 50 starters) to the finish back in Omagh where it was generally agreed that Clerk of the Course, Harry Johnston, had laid on an excellent route, despite using a very small area.

Class 1 .

  1. Ashley Armstrong/Ian McFarland (Cooper S) 10;
  2. Will Farren/Mike Hart (Cooper S) 15;
  3. Leslie White/Drew Todd (EscortTC) 30.

Class2

  1. Ian Wright/Robert Heslip (Cooper S) 14;
  2. Wesley Abraham/Derek Smyth (Cooper S) 25;
  3. Irvine Tannahill/Victor Armstrong (Cooper S) 31.

Class3

  1. R.W. Dunlop/Fred Gallagher (Escort) 31;
  2. Ronnie Hurst/John Beatty (Cooper S) 51;
  3. Gary McKibben/M. McDonald (Anglia) 60.