1965 July Rally Gossip by TAH

This account by Terry Harryman first appeared in Ulster Motorist Magazine July 1965.

UP until the end of May, five local events had been run since Easter, these being two rallies by the Dungannon and Omagh clubs, two test trials by the Mid-Antrim and Larne clubs and a test meeting at Enniskillen. The Dungannon Club’s ‘April Rally” on the 30th was the first event after the Circuit and this took the very popular straightforward form of most events in this part of the country today. From the Coagh start the route went in a 75 mile anti-clockwise loop via 24 Controls to end near Donaghmore with a couple of very necessary tie-deciding driving tests. The route was very good and with some short sections including three consecutive “twos,” proved to be quite tight. However no less than 7 of the 17 Experts and 2 of the 24 Novices (running at a lower average) returned clean sheets, one reason for this obviously being some rather lax officials.

No doubt there are competitors who can bulldoze some officials into giving them any time they want, but it is quite common in events in the West to find officials “giving away” times long before or after they come up. One does occasionally come across an official who will not be cajoled into giving a wrong time but these fellows usually manage to misread the watch and put down the wrong time and then cannot be persuaded that they are wrong. I hope that any officials who read this will not think that I am getting at them, as I realise that theirs is a thankless task and that without them there would be no rallying.

Part of the blame (if that is the right word) is no doubt the Chief Marshal’s (if there is one) or the already overworked Clerk of the Course who hasn’t time to properly brief the officials. However, it is a pity to have an otherwise good event spoiled in this way and it is to be hoped that Clerks of the Course in future events will see to it that as many officials as possible are less generous than at present.

Anyway, at Dungannon the tests had to sort out quite a few crews and fastest in the two very good tests was Robert McBurney in his single carb., 1500S powered VW1200 who was navigated clean by Esler Crawford and they therefore came out overall winners from Ronnie and Doris White and Maurice Acheson/Jack Long who were both in 1275’s. In the Novice section Howard Lomax/Ken Atkinson (Cooper) came out best from Jim Abernethy/Alec Cheevers (Mini) and Anna McCartney/Evelyn Johnston (Corsair) who were 2 minutes down.

The Mid-Antrim Club’s Restricted Test-trial was held over three laps of a 5-test course round Carnearny Forest. The tests were quite reasonable and some produced some quite good action, especially the last one in a quarry, the other four all being ‘on the road.” However, with a largish entry of 37, the 15 tests took rather a long time to get through and some considered that the number of tests could have been cut down. It was quite surprising with such a large entry and so many tests that there was no damage done although both the 2nd and 5th tests saw several near inversions.

Anyway best performance went to Thompson Glass in the Hayrake by 4:2 seconds from Adrian Boyd (Sprite) who in turn had 2.8 secs advantage over Lee Lucas (Grasshopper) who took third place. Best of the saloon brigade, and fourth overall, was Robert McBurney in his 1500S powered VW1200 very closely followed by Jack Harris in the 1275 “S.” This event incidentally was of course just the thing to count towards the Ulster Driving Test Championship which we have heard quite a lot about but which the Association of NI Car Clubs as always seem very reluctant to do anything about. Why this should be so amazes me as there is precious little for them to do except recognise the thing, and in fact a Trophy has already been promised for it by somebody who would stand a very good chance of winning it if he were to compete.

Next event on the agenda was the Omagh Motor Club’s “May Rally”. Included was a 2-mile “Selectif”, while a tie-deciding test was held just before the field returned to Omagh. The “Selectif” in fact did all the sorting out necessary as nobody managed it in the 4 minutes allowed; it also did quite a lot of damage, not only to the cars (it tore the anti-roll bar off of the Robert McBurney/Esler Crawford 1500 VW) but also to the heads and posteriors of some of the occupants!

Fastest on this were Ronnie McCartney/ Mike Hart on their first outing in their new R8-Gordini (what a christening!) who took 12 secs over bogey. Cahal Curley/Austin Frazer (Cortina GT) took a second longer and Ronnie and Doris White (1275 S) and Dessie McCartney/Terry Harryman (1100 Sprite s/c) were both on 4:20, although the former had collected a Fail for a wrong departure. In the test Dessie McCartney was fastest from McBurney and Marshall Moore (Mini). Thus the final order was McCartney/Hart, Curley/Frazer and McCartney/Harryman all of these being among those clean.

Fastest in the test amongst the Novices was Jim Abernethy (Mini) who with Alec Cheevers was clean. Second were “Iggy” McManus/Norman Henderson (Anglia) with Anna McCartney/Evelyn Johnston taking third place in a Sprite, both of these also being clean.

THE Larne Motor Club ran their Tresna Trophy test-trial over one lap of a 7 test course in the Ballyclare/Larne area. This was one of the most enjoyable of this type of event for some time, the weather being excellent and the tests all being very good. The entry of 29 was quite good and this along with large fields at other-similar events at this time of the year indicates that there is no falling off in the popularity of test meetings. Undoubtedly the second test was the most interesting of the lot being long and wide open and allowing some quite high speeds to be reached — more like a short circuit sprint than a driving test.

The afternoon saw quite a number of mistakes or misfortunes. In the first test at a cross roads John Richardson’s Cooper finished up on the roof while Ken Carson “lost” a half-shaft in his Sprite. In the second test Jack Harris, who was quickest in the previous test, again set the pace but in doing so he damaged the 1275’s steering and had to call it a day. Ian Woodside (Midget) had a failure here and his brother Robert (VW 1200) collected a pylon. Two tests later Adrian Boyd (Sprite) hit a pylon and then had a failure in the next test in which Ian collected a pylon.

Between this test and the final one John Armstrong had a drive coupling disintegrate on his Austin 1100 and he was forced to call it a day, while Billy Morrison (1275 “S”) had a pylon in the final test. Among those who didn’t make any mistakes or suffer any misfortunes were Robert McBurney in his big-engined “Beetle” who came out overall winner after a very good drive, and Derek Boyd who won the Open cars class on his first appearance in his new Sprite. The other class winners were Mike Ford-Hutchinson (1275 “S”) and Albert Lucas in the VX 4/90.

Terry Harryman.