The 2005 Rainworth Skoda Dukeries Rally - Saturday 18th June By Matt Rudd

The Dukeries Rally, like the North Humberside which was my last rally, is a round of the BTRDA rally championship. The rally took place on June the 18th which was one of the hottest days of the year which meant for the competitors lots of dust. The rally was based at Mansfield while most of the stages were in the Sherwood Forest complex.

I went to the Sherwood Pines stages. Unfortunately for the first run of the stage we did miss most of the 1400 cars as we set off a bit to late, however we were there for car 1; Graham Middleton in his Matador Tyres Hyundai Accent.

Graham, a previous winner of this event did say in an interview I did later after the rally that he wasn't driving quite to the max, although it did look like it - and with good reason too; he was closely being chased by Motoscopes Kev Procter. Kev was in his Impreza instead of his Puma as that was still on the way back from his recent outing at Rally Barbados.

We did also expect Jon Ingram to be in the first UK outing in a Citroen Xsara WRC car outside of a world rally championship round. However the car wouldn't be here in time so he was in a hired Focus. For the first run of the stage (as it had already started) we were on the corner nearest the car park. This is one of the most famous on the stage as it has a long half a mile+ straight with a lot of that down hill so braking can be fun.

Roughly the first 20 cars got round the corner fine until the Opel Manta of Gordon Davis had a spin on the corner. This did cause problems with dust for the next car, Donavan Jenkin in the Escort WRC. Simon Close in the Evo 6 also ran wide which once again did cause problems for the next car - Roger Priestnall in the Proton Satria. Nathan Gunson in his Escort also spun on the corner causing a massive dust cloud. However their was now a breeze to get rid of some of the dust before the next car.

205 Challenge regular Wayne Radford had swapped his normal piece of kit for a Mitsubishi Lancer. His was another car that went in too hot into the corner and exited a long way off the racing line, forcing me to move slightly. At my location on run two, which was further into the stage, it was relatively uneventful although the dust and heat got much worse. So after every car we were covered. Truthfully, for run 2 of the stage I took my fleece off and by he time the stage had finished my arms where completely brown with pure dust. Having said it was uneventful there was lots of great sideways action. Soon into the stage it was stopped for a small time as car 23 (Gavin Read) had rolled his car. The crew were fine but the marshals did feel the car was in a dangerous position so it had to be moved.

On this note we did start walking back. About 10 mins later David Hemingway was coming towards us but we had an advanced warning with the ice cream chimes. Car 54 - Stewart Caine retired near us. He just simply pulled of the track.

The rally was won by car 1 Graham Middleton and John Morgan in the Accent WRC car. Second was Kevin Proctor and third the Focus WRC of Skegness' Brian Bell of Bell Leisure. In the 1400's, 18 year old George Thomas won in his Nova followed by Jamie Burton (MK2 Escort) and Mark Constantine (Corsa)

The rally website - www.dukeries-rally.co.uk The motor club that organised the event - www.dukeries-motorclub.co.uk BTRDA Championship website - www.btrdarally.com As usual, more photos from the event can be found at www.motorsportinternational.tk

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