1973 Coleraine Snowplough

Report reproduced from WHEELS Magazine, report by Peter Scott.

LOCALS WIN SNOWPLOUGH

For the first time, in 1973, Coleraine and District MC’s “Snowplough” rally was an N.I. Rally Championship round and deserving winners were local crew Irvine Tannahill and Victor Armstrong, who had a quick and steady run in their Cooper S. Second, four minutes behind the leaders, were top seeds Leslie White and Drew Todd in their Escort TC. Mid-Antrim MC crew Sammy Kyle/Tommy Speers had their best result to date, taking third overall in their Cooper S but the most talked-about performance was that of David Agnew and Robert Harkness who took their standard VW 1302S into fourth overall, taking the lead in the newly-started Group One Championship.

At the start, White/Todd led away followed by Trevor Fleming/Brian Dorman (Cooper S) and Sean Campbell/Peter Scott in the Lindsay Cars Escort RS1700. Gerry Campbell/Derek Smyth were at four in the Laing Cooper S, while Terry Harryman and Paul Phelan completed the top five in the former’s NSU TTS.

The Brook Garage in Coleraine was the start venue and many crews – especially the novices – were not happy with the one hour”s plotting time (a new RAC ruling). A short run-out led to the first tight section on the fast roads of sheet one. Poor Terry Harryman had only covered a mile before the electrics on the NSU packed up making Paul Phelan’s journey from Dublin seem rather pointless.

Campbell/Scott immediately piled on the pressure, passing the Fleming/Dorman Cooper just before the first time control. The Newry driver also took the fastest time on the fast, loose and bumpy first selective in 1m. 35s., followed by Hugh O’Brien/Pat McCullough on 1m. 43s. and the Russell brothers on 1m. 50s. The last-named stopped soon afterwards with a holed radiator, while Fleming and Dorman retired on the selective with a broken gearbox.

On the way to Torr Head Campbell/Scott had severe navigational problems (he means he got lost Ed.) losing nine minutes and missing a route check, thus putting them out of the running. On Torr, the first two cars to arrive, White/Todd and Campbell/Smyth, were given an unlikely clean run while Tannahill/Armstrong dropped 1m. 59s. and Campbell/Scott 2m. 20s. As if to emphasise this, the two unpenalised crews both dropped a minute at the next control though the rest of the field had five minutes in hand.

The first petrol halt followed, and positions at that stage were: Campbell/Smyth 4m. 54s.; White/Todd 6m. 55s.; Tannahill/Armstrong 7m. 01s.; Kyle/Speers 8m. 37s.; and Nutt/White (Cooper S) 10m. 11s.

Paul Martin/Mickey Thompson dropped a lot of time on Torr with a loss of oil from their very quick new 1800 cc engine. The next selective was at Managher outside Kilrea and Gerry Campbell was in front here losing one minute, with Tannahill next in line. Sean Campbell finished the section with a broken crankshaft and naturally retired.

Three more selectives followed on the run through North Derry after the selective on Slieve Gallion where Jimmy Ogg‘s Cooper was fastest. Nutt/White were fastest on the first of these, Kyle/Speers on the second, and Nutt again on the third. Campbell/Smyth dropped out of contention here when they went off the road and damaged the steering.

In spite of this, however, the eventual winners (Tannahill/Armstrong) extended their lead on the road sections in between the selectives and when the results were announced at the Brown Trout, Aghadowey, the semi-expert crew were declared winners, much to their surprise. In all an interesting and generally well-organised event.

RESULTS

Surprise win

This report appeared in Autosport Magazine January 18, 1973.

Surprise winners of the Snowplough Rally, the first round of the 1973 Northern Ireland Rally Championship on January 5, were the semi-expert crew of Irvine Tannahill and Victor Armstrong who brought their Cooper S home to a convincing 4 minute win in a tough event. Only a third of the 65 crews managed to finish the 200 mile event which included seven selectives.

Tannahill and Armstrong became the first non-expert crew to win this event, run for the third year by the Coleraine and District Motor Club.

The restricted event, which started in Coleraine and finished in Aghadowey, attracted some 75 entries but only 65 crews started. It was soon discovered that it was going to be a fast event though some fog was experienced in the latter half of the night causing several crews to have problems!

At the halfway stage, Gerry Campbell/Derek Smyth (Cooper S) were leading but they dropped out in the second half with mechanical problems. Tannahill had been impressive with some fast times on the selectives and he completed the event with the loss of 41m 35s, a clear 4m ahead of Leslie White/ Drew Todd (Escort TC), who were one of only four expert crews to finish.

Third overall came another Cooper S in the hands of Sammy Kyle/Tommy Speers, who dropped 49m 34s while fourth spot was clinched by David Agnew/Robert Harkness (VW), on 52m 47s. Completing the leader-board were two more semi-experts in the form of Jack Adams/Roy Sloan (Escort 1600), who dropped 53m 49s, with Dessie Nutt/John White (Cooper S) sixth on 64m 16s.

In the novice class, the winners were Dessie Boyd/Fergal McKelvey in their Cooper S on 319m 31s with Sidney Harkness/Alan Hill (Minor 1000) second on 336m 53s. The event was the first round of the John Pringle Group 1 NI Rally Championship and the winners were Agnew/Harkness who were the only Group 1 crew to complete the route.

The following report appeared in Ireland’s Saturday Night, January 13, 1973.

QUITE A FEW eyebrows rose in surprise when the results were announced after last week-end‘s Snowplough Rally. Nobody, however, was more shocked than the winner himself, Irvine Tannahill, a 26-year-old Macosquin farmer.

Irvine (right) and his navigator Victor Armstrong, running in the semi-experts class, took the overall award ahead of several bigger names, including the favourites Leslie White and Drew Todd.

“We thought we had a chance of a good placing when we heard how many cars were out by the second petrol halt at Draperstown,” said Tannahill, who prepared his 1275cc Cooper S himself. “We just, tried to keep it going smoothly to the finish, although some of the selectives towards the end
were very rough.”

“I can tell you I was surprised when they told us we were the winners.”

Irvine’s previous best placing was in a Belfast——Bangor—Newtownards club rally when he took third place overall, but he has had several good performances in class two in other events. He built the car for last year’s, Circuit of Ireland (which was cancelled) and installed the new 1275 engine.

His next outing is in the Northern Lights in which he took third-place in class two last year. This time he will be driving as an expert in class one!