This was the 25th running of the Trackrod Motor Club (Leeds)’s annual event, and the first year that the recently re-named Trackrod Rally Yorkshire, under the capable and experienced control of Clerk of the Course Rod Parkin and his team, had been part of the British Rally Championship. Split into two legs over Saturday and Sunday, and with headquarters at York racecourse, the event offered the 40 International entrants eight special stages on Saturday, and six more on Sunday after an overnight halt in York. Central service, and most of the action, took place in and around the very convenient Pickering Showground, with the timed sections in the nearby forests.
Local hero Jonny Milner lives in nearby Huggate (as the average member of the public apparently finds it difficult to pinpoint Bradford on a map, they’d have no chance of finding Huggate. So, to give you a clue, it’s a small dot in the middle of nowhere between the A166 and the A1079 east of York in the direction of Great Driffield), so he was very much the centre of attraction with the reasonably-sized crowds.
Notable additions to the usual PBRC suspects were the exciting 17-year old Finn Jari-Matti Latvala (Group N Mitsubishi Evo 6 and taking part in his first International event), a protégé of Pentti ‘Left is Best’ Airikkala; and German Super 1600 Champion Sven Haaf, driving a Robert Palmer-entered latest-spec Opel Corsa S1600.
Also, recently crowned British Touring Car Champion James Thompson (another citizen of York) had forsaken his customary Super 1600 Peugeot 106 for his first drive in a Group N Mitsubishi Evo 6.
