1964 Year-End Rally Gossip by TAH

1964 YEAR-END ULSTER RALLY GOSSIP

This report by Terry Harryman is reproduced from Ulster Motorist magazine, January 1965.

NOVEMBER was undoubtedly the best month of the year as far as local rallies were concerned, there being no less than nine events in the calendar, one of which — the Armagh Club’s Lough Slieve — was not run. First up was the Dungannon Officials’ Rally organised by Ronnie White, Harold Hagan and Ted Hobson. This virtually set the pattern of the month’s events, being a very straight-forward “thrash” (Ooh! Sorry, I shouldn’t use that word, it could be taken up wrong) over three stages, with a couple of nice tests after the second stage. The first two stages were “by reference” and the second included several short interesting runs in the area to the south of Pomeroy.

Unfortunately there were several typographical errors in the instructions and the most interesting part of the rally had to be scrubbed. It didn’t please Marshall Moore/Peter Lyster (1071 “S”) much, as they went off during this section, fortunately with no personal damage.

As the first and last sections (a simple Tulip card) were easily “on,” numerous clean sheets were returned and it was left to the tests to do the deciding. In the first, at a T-junction, Jim Stevenson (1275 “S”) was best from Ronnie McCartney (Cooper) while the latter got through the second one — a long forwards-reverse “wiggle-woggle” – much quicker than any of his opposition.

AS mentioned last month, the Lough-Slieve Rally the following day had to be cancelled due to a lack of entries. This was very surprising as each of the remaining Rally Championship events had quite good turnouts, the Night-Owls getting a total of 62, the Queens’ Winter getting 43 and the Starlight having a magnificent 71 when the entries closed.

The North of Ireland Motor Club’s November Rally on the 11th suffered like the Dungannon Rally from instructional errors, but to a lesser degree. The reference of the first TP plotted in Eire, and had it not been that the road to it was a non-goer, many competitors would have had trouble explaining things to the border patrol. Apart from this error, the Rally was a good’un, consisting of two road sections of about 25 miles each, and each preceded by a test.

Both sections were comfortably “on”, although only 4 crews cleaned both, these being Cahill Curley/Esler Crawford (VW. 1500S), Tom and Alex Cheevers (Rapier), Ronnie McCartney/Terry Harryman (Velox) (all large saloons!) and John Eakin/Harry Johnston (Sprite). Again the tests did the needful and in the first at a Y-junction, Jim Stevenson (1275 “S”) and Cahill Curley (VW 15008) tied for fastest, while in the second at a X-roads, Curley was fastest from Stevenson with Eakin third. Thus Curley/Crawford came out winners from Eakin/Johnston with the Cheevers brothers an excellent third.

TWO nights later came Round 7 of the Ulster Rally Championship, the UAC’s Night-Owls. This was really two events in one, the “quicker” (for want of a better description) half of the field doing the complete three-stage 230 mile event and the rest doing a slightly easier 75 mile first stage only.

The main event was probably the best URC effort so far, but was spoiled by a couple of things, namely some rather rough roads and quite a number of inaccurate marshals’ watches. Despite their known failings, it is to be hoped that the UAC will revert to sealed watches for events of this nature in the future. The route lay in S.E. Armagh and West Down and used most of the better known “whites” in these areas, plus numerous previously unexplored ones. Short, tight sections were the order of the night, there being over 100 manned points, with a lot of “twos” and “threes,” although occasionally the organisers slipped up and threw in a “six.”

It was a pity that the UAC insisted on including a couple of long Tulip sections as well as one of their shortest-route specialities, as these left navigators in doubt about the time schedules to be maintained, the locations of TPs being unidentified. I think that both drivers and navigators much prefer to know exactly how they are doing rather than to have to wait for the results to see where they have dropped time.

From all reports, the “touring ” event proved very popular although this was perhaps a little too tight for the majority of novice field. Best performance was that of Fred Stinson/Doug Nairn (Mini) who dropped 8 mins, followed by Charlie Houston/Colin McMeekin (Anglia GT) with 12 and Mervyn Johnston/Miss Mary McLaughlin (Imp) with 18.

In the main event Ronnie McCartney/Terry Harryman led all the way in the Velox to come out overall winners with 21 mins dropped. Ronnie and Doris White (Sebring Sprite) were next up with 27 mins while Roger Cree took a marvellous third overall a further 7 mins down.

This was the first round of the North-South team competition for the Harp Lager Trophy and resulted in the local team taking the initial lead with 35 points to 13 of the visitors. In the Ulster Rally Championship, McCartney, by virtue of his win, drew level with White, both of them now having 49 points and a 14 points lead over Ian Woodside who will not be appearing in any of the remaining events.

THE Omagh club’s November Rally was looked after by Jim Rankin. Like the Night-Owls the route here was perhaps a little rough, and other criticisms could be directed at some terribly slow officials and a very naughty 8-minuter out of the Omagh town start, which included nearly a mile of Speed Limit, AND a ford!

Once again short sections were used over a route which led roughly due south from Omagh through Fivemiletown and then back up to Omagh for the finish. A couple of tie-deciding tests were held just before the finish and these were used to decide the overall winner. Although nobody returned a clean sheet, Peter Johnston/Norman Devlin (970 “S”) and Ronnie McCartney/Terry Harryman (Velox) with 9 minutes, the verdict not unnaturally going to the former by quite a large margin. Third on 11 minutes were John Eakin/Mike Hart (Sprite), followed by Ronnie and Doris White (Sebring Sprite) (13).

THE following night the Queens’ boys ran their Moonshine Rally in North Down and in appropriate conditions. A very good 65 mile route had been devised by John Moore, this being split in two by a test. The first part was a straightforward “TP by reference” piece with numerous “shorties” (“threes” and “fours”), while the second was a type of “Eight-Clubs” run. No clean sheets were returned, the best performance being that of Mike Ford-Hutchinson/Ken Atkinson (Mini) who dropped a minute, with Charlie Houston/Colin McMeekin (Anglia GT) and Peter Wilson/T. D. Smith (Mini) a further minute behind, the test giving the former second place.

THE Newry club then made it three in a row by following on the next night again, but unfortunately I missed this. I am told however that it was a really good event, the route being very similar to parts of the Night-Owls and using quite a lot of short sections. Overall winners were Billy Mullen/Peter Lyster (Imp).

I must say that I’m glad to hear that it was good, as it would seem that next year’s Circuit of Down might be right up to Championship standard, this year’s not quite having made the mark. If this is so, and the Mid-Antrim Club’s restricted event is as good as it promises to be, then next year’s URC will be a different kettle of fish, presuming that the Knock All-Night is not run.

THE Enniskillen club continued the good work when Austin Frazer laid on the November Rally. The route, to the east of Enniskillen and up nearly to Fintona, was really excellent. A tie-deciding test near the Tempo start was followed by a very straightforward Tulip card which led to a 51 mile 19-control piece. This latter part was quite tight and included four “twos” and a couple of “threes”.

However it wasn’t quite tight enough as two clean sheets were returned, these belonging to Cathal Curley/Esler Crawford (VW 1500S) and Ronnie McCartney/Terry Harryman (Velox). Therefore the test was called upon to do the deciding. However both Curley and McCartney had tied in this for second place along with Peter Johnston (970 “S”) and Brian Wilson (Cooper), the latter having returned a clean sheet in the easier novice section navigated by Mike Hart.

Curley/Crawford and McCartney/Harryman were declared joint winners from Peter JohnstonANorman Devlin who had dropped 2 minutes, while Wilson/Hart won the novice section. One thing the organisers are to be congratulated on are the duplicated results which were available about half-an-hour after the last car finished. Perhaps other clubs are going to follow the Larne club’s lead.

TWO nights later the month’s activities were brought to a wonderful close with the Queens’ Winter Rally, the penultimate round in the Ulster Rally Championship. Peter Lyster, Brian Rickerby and Ed Woods had put in a lot of work to make this a good event with very successful results, so much so that it will take a lot of beating for the Rally of the Year title.

An excellent 140 mile route had been found in North Armagh and Down with 87 controls and 4 “selectif” sections. With a fantastic number of very short sections — 21 “ones” and 35 “twos” – this wasn’t just tight — it was impossible — especially as the event lived up to its name weatherwise, the conditions being atrocious.

Unfortunately the route instructions were only given out 15 minutes before the start which meant that the latter parts were very much “plot and bash.” By this stage, everyone was at the end of their permitted lateness and it was very difficult to pick out which controls could be visited.

Again unfortunately, part of the route was blocked by road works the previous day, rather complicating things. However the three minutes allowed to cover this wasn’t shown against the maximum lateness and this caused a lot of controversy. All in all though it must go down as one of the best events ever run locally and the Queens’ boys are to be congratulated.

Overall winners with no less than 11 Fails and 52 mins lateness (Yes! 52 minutes) plus 20.2 marks lost on the “selectifs” were Ronnie McCartney/Terry Harryman in that Velox. again. Second with 3 more Fails, but with 6 mins less, being Robert McBurney/Esler Crawford (VW 1200) while 3rd and 4th places were taken by Mike Ford-Hutchinson/Ken Atkinson (Mini) and Norman Smith Trevor Wilson (Mini) with 17 Fails 55 mins and 17 Fails 66 mins respectively, both of these being very creditable performances.

Fastest on the “selectif” sections were Jim Stevenson/Fred Gallagher (1275 “S”) with 19.5 marks, followed by McCartney/Harryman and Brian Mitchell/Norman Henderson (Sprite) (20.3).

AETER the Queens’ Winter, Ronnie McCartney had gone into a clear lead in the Ulster Rally Championship. As this was the eighth event in the series, and only a competitor’s best seven performances count, Ronnie White, who had been tying for the lead, had to drop 3 points, it being his worst performance (9th in the Circuit of Ulster). Thus he could only add 2 of the 5 points he scored in the winter for his 7th place. McCartney on the other hand had missed the Circuit of Down and therefore his lowest score was a “zero” and he added all the 11 points scored to bring his total to 60, to the 51 of White.

Behind this pair Ian Woodside still holds third place, but his brother Robert has been relegated to fifth by John Eakin who has only to finish the Starlight to take third place from Ian. Thus it would appear that the first three will be McCartney, who White can’t catch even if he wins the Starlight and McCartney doesn’t start, then Ronnie White in second and third John Eakin.

The first ten are as follows with their total points and events competed in in brackets:—

1. R. J. McCartney 61 (61—7);
2. R. White 51 (54—8);
3. I. Woodside 34 (34-5);
4. J. A. Eakin 33 (88—5);
5. R. J. Woodside 31 (31:5);
6. G. R. Cree 27 (27—5);
7. E. A. Lucas 26 (26—4);
8. F. P. P. Johnston 24 (25—8)
9. R. D. G. McBurney 24 (24—6);
10. M. Acheson 22 (22—4).

Terry Harryman.