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View Full Version : Roger Albert Clark rally 2007



sal
2nd November 2007, 17:00
It's nearly here! Couldn't find an old thread so have started this one. Just been announced that Banner is to drive Steve Perez's Post Historic Escort RS therefore he's now able to challenge for the outright win rather than just the Open event!

http://www.rogeralbertclarkrally.org

ste898
2nd November 2007, 23:10
Yeh cant wait for this rally...hopefully Banner will be the first of the big names to be announced

MJW
3rd November 2007, 18:32
I remember the first few of these events had a class international field including Hannu, Stig, Malcolm Wilson. Why have they stopped coming?

sal
3rd November 2007, 20:06
The Classic Safari moved it's date to about a week or so before and Stig and Waldegaard amongst others have been doing that event. Having said that it hasnt dampened my enthusiasm one bit and the commitment last year from those who did enter was mighty!

Langdale Forest
3rd November 2007, 20:18
I will probably be going, just got the DVD of last year's RAC rally yeaterday.

sal
8th November 2007, 15:04
The name of the number one seed is being kept under wraps until next week apparantley....

Paul.G
8th November 2007, 22:26
Entry list is looking good, and looks like the weather is going to turn just in time !!
Rain, mud and fog, classic RAC stuff :D

Elgin Man
9th November 2007, 17:19
Imagine if Ari Vateten would be out in car 1 :)

Wouldn't that be amazing

sal
9th November 2007, 17:36
I was hoping it might be Marrku Alen in a Fiat 131 or Stratos but Mr V in an Escort would be v nice too!

dyfi1
9th November 2007, 18:53
Imagine if Ari Vateten would be out in car 1 :)

Wouldn't that be amazing



More so if DR sat alongside him again :D

sal
10th November 2007, 23:42
Couple of shots from last year to get in the mood!

Mr Perez in the lovely Stratos

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa105/Maltings/stratos.jpg

And Greensleeves (Dave H) sideways as usual!

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa105/Maltings/grrens.jpg

Good luck to everyone for next weekend.

Elgin Man
11th November 2007, 11:19
Doubt we will see Mr Vatenen out as car 1 as I heard he is in Ireland for the WRC event in a T16 for the Super Special :(

peespeed
12th November 2007, 00:07
Doubt we will see Mr Vatenen out as car 1 as I heard he is in Ireland for the WRC event in a T16 for the Super Special :(

Super Special is on Thursday evening so he could still make the R.A.C.

Rumour is that Marty McCormack is a late entry in the Mk2 BDA http://www.motorsportforums.com/forums/images/icons/icon10.gif

J4MIE
12th November 2007, 02:33
I will need to try and get some sleep in before the start of the event :s

What is the stage at Temple Newsham like? Thinking of skipping it and starting in Dalby :\

sal
12th November 2007, 11:25
Jamie

Will you be using a press pass? If so I would imagine Temple Newsham will be ok for you. However was at Bramham a couple of years ago and the access for speccies was very poor certainly compared to the good old days!

If you do go there access to the A1/A64 shouldnt be a problem and the cut across to Thornton Le Dale shouldnt cuase you much grief. Hope the weather stays as it is nice and crisp and sunny up here at the mo. One or two late entries I hear including a very fast Irish man.

Elgin Man
13th November 2007, 17:05
Heard its Jimmy McRae thats the NO.1 seed

sal
14th November 2007, 15:57
Jimmy is No1. Yuk and a couiple of fast Irish boys now doing the Kall Kwik on Saturday...

m.lowe
14th November 2007, 20:03
Its a long time since I seen Yuk compete

sal
17th November 2007, 20:29
Was at Langdale for both runs today. A few cars already missing ie the Stratos damaged crank according to Steve, HSR and Alpine A110 all missing but mighty commitment from the majority. A great view down the hill due to all the logging meant you could see who was on it and the Irish crews were amongst the best but Banner was something else! Lovely Eaton Yale replica was also good to see. Kall Kwik crews v entertaining, did the Fusty roll before Langdale or on the stage? Second run thru Dave Stokes went straight on at the hairpin and a few other crews a bit more wild second time through. Biggest feck up though was on the Kall Kwik second run The course car for the event had to pull off the stage and thru the tapes short cutting the stage as Darren Moon had already been given a start and was piling the the stage behind him! Apparantley he had been set off in error, the course car crew were pretty flustered! Moon was then follwed by a recovery Landy and another car and it was a good ten to fifteen mins before the next car came thru by which time the light was failing. All a bit unfortunate.

Great event though looking forward to next year. Hope the loss of Dalby wont mean the loss of this event to Yorkshire in part. Thanks to De Lacy and everyone involved for the best show of the year!

sal
18th November 2007, 20:41
Top ten after 20 stages. C'mon Banner!

1 1 1 5 Steve Bannister Kevin Rae Ford Escort D5 2:09:19
2 2 2 1 Jimmy McRae Andy Richardson Ford Escort RS1800 D5 2:09:29 0:00:10 0:00:10
3 1 1 2 Jeremy Easson Alun Cook Ford Escort RS2000 16v C5 2:11:50 0:02:21 0:02:31
4 3 3 9 Paul Griffiths Jon Madoc-Jones Ford Escort D5 2:13:15 0:01:25 0:03:56
5 2 2 3 David Stokes Guy Weaver Ford Escort RS1600 C5 2:14:18 0:01:03 0:04:59
6 3 1 6 Andrew Haddon Mark Crisp Porsche 911 C4 2:14:32 0:00:14 0:05:13
7 4 4 7 Martin McCormack Phil Clarke Ford Escort RS1800 D5 2:15:10 0:00:38 0:05:51
8 5 5 15 Charlie Taylor Steve Bielby Ford Escort RS1800 D5 2:16:09 0:00:59 0:06:50
9 6 6 14 Phil Squires Mick Squires Ford Escort RS1800 D5 2:16:26 0:00:17 0:07:07
10 7 7 16 Geoff Crabtree Ian Oakey Ford Escort RS1800 D5 2:18:59

m.lowe
19th November 2007, 13:41
Had an excellent day on what has to be the best historic event about

I'm glad I got to service in Scarborough as I wanted to give Jimmy McRae a gift of the Colin McRae Stages mk2 model I built for him

Will post some pics later as i'm off to work now

J4MIE
20th November 2007, 00:00
What did he say when you gave it to him Mark? :) (sorry to be nosey)

Definitely best rally I have been to this year, and only Wales to go so don't think it will be beaten!

Brilliant atmosphere, everyone there to have a good time, everyone was very friendly (marshals, spectators, etc) and from what I saw everyone was smiling :D Which isn't often you see that three days on the trot.

Car blew a headlight bulb sometime on Saturday which wasn't great but managed to struggle on without too much hassle... got to some very good corners and plenty of drivers trying very hard indeed. Thought McRae looked slightly faster than Bannister but the times just weren't there... never mind though, great to see him out :up:

Pics later when they have finished copying over from the memory cards, seems to be taking ages :s

m.lowe
20th November 2007, 20:10
He was on the phone in the van when I asked Jason Lepley where he was
I waited till he come off the phone and just said I was sorry for his troubles and said I have a gift for you Jimmy which at first I think he must of wanted me to sign it so I just said again that its a gift and he said thanks and asked one of the prepfab crew to put it in a safe place for him.

To be honest I didnt expect him to say much after what hes been through as I found out from a guy I know that tried to get his stobart mk2 model signed was told by a prepfab crew Jimmy isnt signing anything and I dont blame the guy.

It was good to see Jimmy the legend back out though which I hope his family enjoy the model

Steve-Samba
20th November 2007, 20:33
Sal, I was the driver of the VK Nissan Pathfinder which was acting as Link Car for the Clubmans Rally. We cut at junction 9 as we had been radioed that the Fulvia (31) had had an off and was blocking the stage and with car 116 live on the stage we had to act fast to avoid an incident. The Fulvia was recovered with no time lost. Steve Samba

MrJan
20th November 2007, 23:21
This rally is a fair old drive for me from Exeter (usually Epynt is the furthest I travel) so have yet to go, but it is definately on the list of events for next year. Just the premise of the rally is so brilliant and I'd love to go so will have to save up and be prepared to book a Monday off :D

sal
21st November 2007, 14:20
Sal, I was the driver of the VK Nissan Pathfinder which was acting as Link Car for the Clubmans Rally. We cut at junction 9 as we had been radioed that the Fulvia (31) had had an off and was blocking the stage and with car 116 live on the stage we had to act fast to avoid an incident. The Fulvia was recovered with no time lost. Steve Samba


Thanks for that however why was car 116 then followed by a Land Rover with trailer and an Audi estate? He must have been given a wrong start time as the next Kall Kwik car was nearly 15 mins after that! All's well that ends well though and the conditions didnt deteriorate too much after Darren had gone thru so other crews weren't unduly penalized.

sal
21st November 2007, 14:22
Think the consensus is that as usual this event was pretty good! However there have been a few issues raised mainly from the spectator side of the fence that there are areas that ITO could be improved. Please indulge me while I offer up a few questions/observations!

Event promotion. Do De Lacy do enough to promote this event to the wider world so as to potentially attract a sponsor and also make it easier for prospective competitors to sell their involvement to sponsors? Do infact we want them to or do we keep it "our secret" so the Chav/Max P*wer brigade stay away? I didnt see any media coverage even on local tv and whilst I dont buy every local paper in Yorkshire I must have missed the coverage there was, certainly nothing on local radio either that I picked up. From what I gather (I didnt go) the start location wasn't very high profile tucked away in a car park at Elland Road. Not slagging De Lacy here just wanting them to succeed with the event and it just feels like there is some inertia as to what to do next..

Entry numbers. When the Albert was born the Historic Championship didnt appear to be as hotly contested certainly by the Post Historics ie the MK2 Escorts etc as it is now. A number of the crews that have done previous RACs are now doing full or near full seasons for almost as much as the RAC costs according to some people I've spoken to. This must have a bearing on numbers on the event regardless of this years proximity to the Classic Safari and Ireland. Perhaps if a title sponsor was found and the "supporting" events bolstered as has been mooted then perhaps a reduced entry fee will attract more crews. Hopefully some overseas crews other than "big names" may appear as well if the event can be sold to them.

Spectator costs. Having probably the most expensive WRC round to spectate on has perhaps blighted our opinion of pay per view. I agree that when charges were per car if never seemed to hurt that much regardless of how many stages you got to on a event. There was always people parking miles away and walking on the old RAC so guess this will never disappear however the culture of the event pass which makes it more economic if you visit a larger number of stages long the staple in Belgium etc has yet really to take on here. Other events have used the excuse of better facilities/added entertainmnet to justify higher charges however there were no extra facilities evident in Langdale last Saturday for your £10 per head regardless of it being a speccie stage or not.

Route. The old RAC used to move around the country there's no getting awy from that however it was organised by the countries' official motorsport body with input from clubs around the UK. The Albert is one club with the marshalling support of others mainly from the North. This makes it sensible to expect the event to stay "up North" regardless of the potential of Nth Wales etc. I know we've mostly criticised the home round of the WRC for using the same route year on year and hopefully if the RAC stays put some variety will help it keep fresh.

Atmosphere. If you could bottle it and sell it to other events especially the BRC then the entry fee would be free! Perhaps it sounds elitist/snobby to say it but it was a pleasure to spectate with like minded people who were knowledgable about the sport and it's history, who didnt need telling where to stand and didnt give the marshals any grief. Perhaps as I've suggested in point 1 if the event was more widely known then perhaps this would be lost and the old RACs I used to watch were never totally problem free from this perspective however there is something I cant quite put my finger on that makes this event special and long may it continue!

Please believe me when I say I'm making this comments with the best intentions and in no way do I expect everyone to agree, however I think De Lacy have a gem here and I would hate for it to lose it's lustre!

AndyRAC
21st November 2007, 16:35
Good post Sal, some good points raised. I stated on another forum about the differences between Historic Racing/Rallying, i;e The Goodwood Revival Meeting, there is always alot of publicity about it in magazines and papers, I've also seen bits on T.V, Now compare to the RAC Rally, virtually nothing, not De Lacy's fault as they have budget constraints. But it does annoy me that Historic Racing is seen as 'In' yet Historic Rallying isn't.
Problem with promoting too much is the possible 'Chav' crowd turning up. What plans in the future do De Lacy have? Extending it? North Wales?
If a big sponsor could be found maybe entry fee could be cut, meaning more entries, hopefully try and move it away from the Classic Safari.
As for Spectator costs, is £10 really too much to ask them pay? Compare to the rip off £90 for WRGB, if you're a true Rally fan then it's surely not a problem, who is bothered about facilities?
Regards the route, from year to year it will need the odd move to keep fresh, it's a pity that the 'Mickey Mouse' stages aren't used a bit more, i;e Chatsworth,etc. It's a pity the North Wales stages aren't used a bit more, but that would increase the mileage, maybe in the future.
This event has got so much going for it and so much potential, hope it keeps going, De Lacy should be congratulated once more for such a great event, keep it up!!!

Steve-Samba
26th November 2007, 22:46
Hi, I was wondering whether any of you had any photos of the car I drove on this years RAC Rally? I was the 'Link Car' between the Main Event and the Clubmans Rallies (Sat and Sun) as well as stage reccie on some of the double use stages.

In addition, having read some of the threads I felt I wanted to reply to some of the comments. I am one of the original team that put the concept of the rally together and have seen this dream grow to what it is today.

So, as for sponsorship, we were very close to signing a major buisiness to the event in 2004, however circumstances within that company did not bring a happy conclusion in that they pulled out. Sponsorship is being continually reviewed, but with most things, we need to match the product with the event identitiy. We currently have a few loyal sponsors and I thank them for their support.

The event has run 'Up North ' for all its 4 years for a reason. This is that there are the right stages available and they meet the format. If suitable stages further south become available, they will be considered.

The Stars, well the first few years we have had some big names, and I am sure that others will grace the event as time goes bye. However the event does have it's own identity now, so are the real stars those competitors who put the life and soul in the preperation of their car to take on a 200 mile 3 day event, something not available anywhere else in the calendar? I think so. I would also like to thank the commitment made by De Lacey in the support of this event and helping it be what it is along with the spectator and those volunteers who give up their time to help the event.

I don't normally do forums, and have glanced at a few over the last 4 years, reading praise and critisimn alike. I find myself feeling very proud that I am part of something very special that has brought that something special back to the forests.

'Re-Live The Memories'.

J4MIE
27th November 2007, 16:10
Steve, is this you?

http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/5151/ssan2.jpg

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/2634/ss2iq7.jpg

Steve-Samba
27th November 2007, 18:55
Jamie,

Yes, It's me, many thanks,

Steve