Martin McCormack and Liam Moynihan won the Trackrod Historic Cup Rally on Saturday, while David Stokes and Guy Weaver took the championship title during the concluding round of the 2007 Dunlop/Gambia MSA British Historic Rally Championship.
The annual blast through the Yorkshire stages was an epic event, with stunning battles all through the field and the closest of all was in category two when just two seconds covered the leading three cars at the finish.
The spectacle of the BHRC crews drew massive approval from the thousands of fans who watched the rally, and it was a fitting finale to a superb season for historic rallying.
Category 1
Dessie Nutt and Geraldine McBride went into the rally needing to win category one to clinch the overall title and came very close to doing just that. Despite a puncture on the opening stage, they led the chase of the flying Sunbeam Tiger of Patrick Watts/Elgan Davies. However, Watts was still leading as they headed into the final 14-mile stage in Givendale. Meanwhile, Stuart Rolt and Richard Pomfret were just about level with Nutt/McBride in a Team Tuthill Porsche contest.
Then, with a failing head gasket, Watts slowed mid-stage and Nutt was held up when he caught the Tiger. "Patrick pulled over as soon as he could," said Nutt, but valuable time had been lost, Rolt bagged victory and the title was lost for Nutt/McBride.
Only half a minute adrift of the Porsches was the B4 winning Lotus Cortina of Neil Calvert/Arlene Cookson after a tremendous run, chased by the similar car of Bob Bean/Malcolm Smithson.
Tim Beall/Peter Dalton took B3 spoils in their Ford Cortina GT, while John Parker/Robert Harrison were clear in B1 in their wonderful Saab 96.
But the other big contest to be settled was in B2 and this was another battle resolved in a dramatic last stage. Clive King/Bob Ward and Terry Cree/Richard Shores set off at a stunning pace in their Mini Coopers and were just a second apart at the end of the opening Gale Rigg stage. But Cree/Shores than spent a minute and a half in a Cropton ditch, and the matter seem settled. Despite a failing head gasket and a broken front shock absorber, King pressed on and was within a mile of the finish of the final stage when a massive engine failure ended his rally. Despite another minute in a ditch, Cree/Shores duly took over the class win and the B2 championship title, as Graeme and Richard Godfrey took their Cooper S to second in class.
Category 2
A mighty battle for category two honours was also resolved on the final stage as three Porsche 911s emerged from the 14-mile Givendale stage covered by just two seconds.
