XS Racing's Steven Smith and John Nichols took a stunning category 2 victory on the Robin Hood Historic Forest Stages last weekend, the opening round of the 2008 Dunlop/Gambia MSA British Historic Rally Championship.
Smith and Nichols were among the pacesetters all weekend as a tremendous entry gathered for the first major historic rally of 2008 and their Porsche 911RS was in line for the best overall performance on the event until a gearbox problem developed over the final two stages.
At that point, Smith/Nichols held a commanding lead in category 2 and were up on the battling category 3 Escort Mk2s of Richard Hill and Martin McCormack. The time lost over the final six-miler stage just dropped them behind the Escorts in terms of overall positions, but they still won category 2 by over half a minute.
To make it a very special victory, behind them in the category 2 results were former World Rally champions Bjorn Waldegard and Stig Blomqvist.
"I'm delighted with that result and quite proud," admitted Smith. "We lost first gear on the last two stages, but apart from that the car worked perfectly. It wasn't our objective to win overall; it's category 2 that is important to us."
Running in class C3 in their XS Racing Ford Escort Mk1 meanwhile were Drew Wylie and Russ Langthorne, and they finished well to come home fourth, within 16s of a class podium.
A top three finish in class C3 was looking probable for Philip Wylie/John Young in their XS Racing Escort too until a stub axle broke on Sunday morning and put them out of the rally.
Finally, BTCC racer Mike Jordan joined the XS squad for the event, which was his first rally in his class D3 Escort RS2000. Partnered by Graham Henshaw, they had a few teething problems but the XS crew worked hard to keep them in the rally and they duly took sixth in class, having gained some valuable experience of driving on the loose.
"Mike suffered a broken shock absorber, a broken gear lever and a broken throttle cable, but we managed to get them to the finish," concluded XS Racing boss Jon Cropper.
