1966 Omagh May Rally

This report by Dr Beatty Crawford appeared in Autosport Magazine dated 3rd June 1966. Photos are by kind permission of RallyRetro.

For their final rally of the season the Omagh club received an excellent entry of 60 cars, of which only eight were in the Experts class. This probably illustrates just how few new drivers are coming along to challenge the “old hands”, but in fact, it was one of the relative newcomers, Dessie McCartney, who was the overall winner, partnered in his 1275 Cooper S by Norman Henderson. In doing so, they were the only crew to clean a very tight navigation section, and were fastest in the tie-deciding selective for good measure.

The route through control 1 to control 2 was defined by Tulip symbols, and from there on by map references with numerous via controls keeping navigators hard at work. Robert McBurney and Esler Crawford were soon in trouble and dropped three minutes at control 2 after stopping to replace a detached generator lead. Using the well-known “white” over Liscabble Mountain, the course headed towards the selective which used the famous Grass Lough Road. Here Dessie McCartney was the fastest, with a time 2 mins. 14 secs. over bogey.

Tie-decider Selective:

1. Dessie McCartney/Norman Henderson 2:14;
2. Robert McBurney/Esler Crawford 2:25;
3. Peter Johnston/Harry Johnston 2:50.

Of the Semi-experts, Jim Abernethy was quickest, losing 3 minutes and 16 seconds, but then an MG Midget cut out in the water splash, causing the cars behind to lose a vast amount of time. So much in fact that some of the later control Marshalls has gone home before these competitors arrived!

Control 6, at Creggan via Cashel Rock, caught a lot of people out, and of the Experts only the McCartney brothers and Peter Johnson got through unpenalised. From control 8 to control 9 the organisers went one better and here only the younger McCartney was unpenalised with Robert McBurney, Peter Johnston and Brian Wilson all losing a minute each. Mervyn Johnston and Ivan Allen dropped four minutes as well as missing a route check. Mervyn’s rally-cum-racing Mini Cooper wasn’t too happy with its spark plugs and was limited to a rather restricting 5000rpm.

Results:

Experts

1. D.McCartney/N.Henderson (Cooper S) 0.0;
2. P.Johnston/H.Johnston (Cooper S) 2.0;
3. R.McCartney/M.Hart (Renault Gordini) 2.0.

Semi-Experts

1. J.Abernethy/A.Cheevers (Cooper) 0.0;
2. H.Cathcart/G.Morrison (Cooper) 2.0;
3. O.Hadden/D.Elliott (Cooper S) 3.0.

Non-Experts

1. W.Ferguson/A.Clark (Vauxhall VX4/90) 1.0;
2. K.Sayers/R.McClements (Cooper) 3.0;
3. E.Campbell/T.Lunney (Cortina) 16.0.