This report by Brian Foley is reproduced from Autosport Magazine – 22 February 1973

Boyd’s clean sweep.

The newly formed Lombard and Ulster Rally Team of Adrian Boyd / Dr. Beatty Crawford and Rosemary Smith / Pauline Gullick had a most successful outing in the third STP International Galway Rally, February 9-11, with the pair of R. E. Hamilton-prepared Ford Escort RS taking both outright victory and the Ladies’ Prize.  Boyd drove the ex-works car used by Timo Making last year, and now converted to right-hand-drive, and was never challenged throughout the three days, as several of the other fast cars dropped out with either mechanical trouble or by going off on the stages.  It was quite a tough event, superbly organised by the Galway Motor Club, and for the first time the results were computerised.

The entry list finally closed at 162, with the bulk of the competitors made up of 112 crews from the Republic of Ireland and 46 crews from Northern Ireland.  The troubles of last year are happily past tense, but it’s a great pity that only two English crews entered – John price / M. Gerrish in an Alpine-Renault, and Alan Jenkins / L. Jenkins in an Escort.  Red Dragon winners Nigel Rockey / Paul White did not take up their B&I Motorway reserved entry, but all the way from New Zealand came the Escort of Chelmsford based Mike Marshall, navigated by Motoring News’ general dogs-body Mike Greasley.

Heading the list was Ireland’s most professionally organised rally crew: Adrian Boyd and Beatty Crawford in the beautifully prepared and very potent Escort RS of the newly announced Lombard and Ulster Rally Team.  A similarly turned out RS was entered for Rosemary Smith and Pauline Gullick, also prepared by R. E. Hamilton in Belfast, and seeded at number 16.  Cahal Curley, the 1971 Galway Rally winner, was at number 2 in his lightweight BMW2002 and navigated by Austin Frazer.  Billy Coleman / Dr Frank O’Donoghue were Renault Alpine mounted, although it was on the cards that they might have brought out Coleman’s famous tattoo Escord, now with BDApower, instead of the little plastic peril.

At number 4 were Sean Campbell / Brendan McConville (Escort RS), followed by David Agnew / Robert Harkness (BMW2002), John Keating (Escort), Mervyn Johnston / Alan Elliott (Mini Cooper S) and John Price in his red Renault Alpine which was in infinitely better looking nick than Coleman’s blue one.  John Keating was in fact a non-starter, his BDA engine reportedly having “blown”.

Last year’s winner Ronnie McCartney changed from his Triumph 2.5 PI to a BMW for this year and was seeded number 9 navigated by Mike Ford-Hutchinson, while his brother Dessie was having a throw himself this time and navigated by Peter Scott in an Escort at number 11.  Splitting the McCartney Brothers were David Lindsay / Duffy Cunningham in an RS Escort.  Charlie Gunn / Harry McEvoy, second placed last year, completed the first dozen stages with their Escort TC.  John Bridges / Brendan Doyle were allocated number 13 which proved unlucky for John who ran out of road and damaged his Escort TC before setting off for Galway the previous night!  Sue Sinclair was another pre-event victim, upending her immaculate BMW200Tii while “having a look” at some of the stages.

Down through the big field there were several more fast crews such as Noel Smith (14), “Flat” Pat McCourt (15), Billy Ferguson (17), Derek Boyd (21), Demi Fitzgerald (23), all in Escort variants.  Arnie Poole (19), Robert Ward (27), and Derek McMahon were all in BMWs, and in Mini Coopers there were Tom Lawther (22), John Kearney (32) and Roger Cree (39).  Alec Poole (29) and Mick Dolan (30) turned out in a pair of Chevron BMW B8s, very impressive looking indeed, but their troubles began right from the start when Poole had not enough ground clearance to climb the start ramp in Galway’s Eyre Square on the Friday evening!  The Clan Crusader should have made its Irish rally debut at number 57, but Ken Botlton turned out in a Capri 3000 instead of the little Imp-poweredGT.  Local man Mick Barry did not enter as he is awaiting delivery of a new Escort RS to replace his rather worn one.

As expected, Boyd was the pace-setter right from the first stage on Friday evening, shortly after the 4:30pm start, and after twelve stages and 105 miles of very quick motoring, mostly in the dark, he led the rally by some 3½ minutes from John price, Ronnie McCartney, Billy Coleman, and Roger Cree who were all covered by 40 seconds to make it quite a dice for second place.  Of the 144 actual starters, only 83 survived the Friday night and were turned out at 9:30am to start Saturday.  Already several of the quick men were out, including Cahal Curley whose BMW retired with a broken differential, Mervyn Johnston smacked his Cooper S into a wall on Stage 9, and David Agnew whose BMW blew a plug right out of the cylinder head.

Charlie Gunn’s troubles included two broken throttle cables, Billy Ferguson’s Escort TC had oil in the clutch, Mike Marshall met an unforgiving West of Ireland stone wall on Stage 3 and Derek Boyd’s Escort TC sheared its bottom pulley drive on SS5.  Robert Ward inverted his immaculate BMW2002 while Derek McMahon’s threw a rod, the same fate that occurred to the BMW engine in Alec Poole’s Chevron B8.  The second Chevron of Mick Dolan retired with a bent front suspension, and so the tales of woe and misfortune ran on and on.  With the exit of Curley, Johnston and Agnew, already a lot of the sting had gone out of the rally.

The weather was very cold but sunny for the long Saturday grind, with conditions ideal for fast motoring over the stages, the longest of which was the 22 miles combining the Corkscrew and Ballyvaughan Hills, of hillclimb fame.  Already it was noticeable that Boyd was taking things a little bit more easily, to the extent that he made it look easy, and with nobody to push him to the limit, the large crowds that turned out to see the stages were denied the sight of Ireland’s top rally driver really letting it all hang out, as we all know he can do.

One of the first Saturday retirements was that of John Price, whose Alpine-Renault was sadly parked at the top of the Ballyvaughan descent with no drive – he let out the clutch but nothing happened and so the second-placed crew were out. And then Roger Cree retired his Mini Cooper S with a broken differential which was a big disappointment as he was in fifth place overall and the top placed Mini Cooper.

Boyd may have been taking things gently but by the end of the day he was 8½ minutes in front of Coleman, and the overall scene in seconds was : 

1. Adrian Boyd 17,179
2. Billy Coleman 17,682
3. Dessie McCartney 17,909
4. Ronnie McCartney 17,930
5. Pat McCourt 18,014
6. Leslie White 18,114
7. Sean Campbell 18,411
8. Paul Martin 18,452
9. Tommy McAloon 18,560

Sean Campbell had dropped almost 15 minutes due to petrol pump problems.  David Lindsay also lost a lot of time having to change a rotor; Ashley Armstrong’s Cooper S lost 3rd gear, and despite clutch troubles and a broken throttle pedal on the Friday night, Pat McCourt was holding fifth place behind the dicing McCartney brothers.

It was a further depleted field that contested the Sunday special stages and most of the 64 crews left in the running decided that discretion was the better part of valour and so there was little sideways stuff over the 82 stage miles, all of which were close to Galway City.  Of the Sunday retirements, the most notable was the disappearance of Sean Campbell and so the final order was Adrian Boyd, Billy Coleman, Dessie McCartney, Ronnie McCartney, Pat McCourt, Paul Martin, Tommy McAloon, Will Farren, Noel Smith, Demi Fitzgerald, Arnie Poole and Tom Lawther in the first dozen places.  With Boyd the clear-cut winner by 8minutes 55seconds it was quite a clean-sweep for Ford with Escort variants dominant, and only the McCartney and Poole BMWs and Farren and Lawther’s Cooper S types spoiling a Ford top 12.

Rosemary Smith and Pauline Gullick drove to team orders to win the Ladies’ Award for the Lombard & Ulster Equipe, to give the new Escort RS team just exactly the results they wanted, although they were only 17th overall.  In all, only 53 crews finished out of 144 starters, similar to last year’s 56 finishers out of 143 starters, but this time there was no last minute surprise like when the McCartney brothers snatched victory in their Triumph 2.5 PI.

STP Circuit of Galway 1973

Overall Results:

1. A.Boyd/B.Crawford (Escort RS) 22,999;
2. W.Coleman/F.O’Donoghue (Alpine) 23,534;
3. D.McCartney/P.Scott (Escort RS) 23,702;
4. R.McCartney/M.F-Hutchinson(BMW) 23,825;
5. P.McCourt/D.Smyth (Escort TC) 24,179;
6. P.Martin/L.Reavey (Escort TC) 24,458;
7. T.McAloon/R.Lyons (Escort TC) 24,708;
8. W.Farren/M.Hart (Cooper S) 24,804;
9. N.Smith/R.Foott (Escort RS) 24,831;
10. D.Fitzgerald/L.White (Escort TC) 24,855;
11. A.Poole/K.Johnston (BMW) 24,962;
12. T.Lawther/M.Jellie (Cooper S) 25,240.

Class Winners:

P.J.Dolan/P.Browne (Fiat 128); J.Hunter/G.Cowan (Mini Cooper S); M.McMenamin/C.McNally (Escort Mexico); T.Donnelly/D.Hackett (Mini); C.Miller/C.Egan (Mini Cooper S); K.Towmey/P.Walsh (Escort RS); R.Neely/I.Neely (Mini Cooper S); T.Lawther/M.Jellie (Mini Cooper S); N.Smith/R.Foott (Escort RS).

• Ladies’ Award:  R.Smith/P.Gullick (Escort RS).
• Best Ford: A.Boyd/B.Crawford (Escort RS).
• Ford of Cork Award: N.Smith/R.Foott (Escort RS)
• Group 1 Ford: M.McMenamin.
• Best Fiat: P.J.Dolan.
• Best Chrysler: N.Reilly/D.Hall (Imp).
• Best Renault: B.Coleman.
• Best Morris: W.Farren.
• Best Novice: P.Martin
• Club Team Award: Munster MC&CC. (Fitzgerald/Twomey/O’Callaghan).