An impressive run by Chris Skill/Philip Stone kept them within 18s of Stokes, while third in C5 were Rikki Proffitt and John Madoc-Jones. The C4 title contest fell to Peter Lythell/Gill Cotton after a very attacking drive in their Porsche took them clear of Paul Drinkall/Roy Brown.
One of the star drives of the event came from Russell Morgan and Martin Kenyon as they won C3 in their Escort Mk1 by over a minute from Peter Egerton/Russ Langthorne. "We had a slow start but picked up," reckoned Morgan after they finished 13th overall in the Pinto-powered car, beating a host of more powerful cars in the process.
The battle for the C2 championship crown was another settled in Yorkshire and it was John Worthing and Bill Robertson who took the title in their Escort Mk1, although victory on the event went to Ken Forster/John Stanger-Leathes. Out of the season-long battle in the long Langdale stage went Vince Bristow/Dean Mitchell when a distributor problem retarded the engine in their Escort.
Category 3
The rally was dominated by McCormack/Moynihan, who set a stunning pace on their debut in the Yorkshire forest, only a detached exhaust through the final three stages hampered their mighty progress, but they underlined their superiority by being two seconds a mile faster than anyone through the 14-miles of Givendale. "Very challenging stages, but very enjoyable," said McCormack after a remarkable performance.
"We've not been able to touch this young Irishman today," said Peter Slights after taking second in category three with Joyce Champion. Slights was a minute and a half down at the finish, and only 16s up on Phil and Mick Squires, who took their Escort Mk2 to third place after one of their best BHRC outings to date. "The stages were excellent and the competition was very high," said Phil at the finish.
Less than 10 seconds covered third to fifth in category three as the Squires headed Dick Slaughter/Geoff Dearing and Charlie Taylor/Steve Bielby in a great battle, while Rob Archer/Peter Field pipped Martin Freestone/Michelle Calvert for sixth.
D3 again went to Richard Lane/Frank Richer, while Richard Perry/Clive Townend won class D2 in their Talbot Sunbeam.
