The Lake District Classic was based at it’s usual home, the Penrith Truck Stop and had a new organising team in the shape of Ron Palmer and David Agnew, plenty of experience amongst those two ! Proceedings got off with the usual test round the adjacent lorry park where Entwhistle/ Hargreaves were quickest while Neil Morrison/ John Huffer (BMW 2002) were immediately in trouble, holing the radiator after a heavy landing. The compact route headed across the M6 for two stages in the local auction mart before the first regularity which meandered along the Eden valley and featured a tricky little triangle. Pickering/ Marshal were best on this one, dropping a mere 2 seconds, in contrast Nigel Cardale/ Peter Littlefield (Anglia) lost all hope of a good result dropping a massive 449.

A return trip to the auction mart and another lap of the lorry park preceded the lunch halt where a quick issue of results saw Entwhistle/Hargreaves leading the Humphreys with Ron Kendall/ Nick Cooper(Anglia) next up, just ahead of Pickering/ Marshal. Neil Morrison retired his BMW here, damaged radiator refusing to stop leaking despite numerous applications of Bars-Leak. John Bertram swapped wheels around having clouted a kerb on the second test while Nick Pullan had managed to cure the misfire that had seen his Imp on 3 cylinders for most of the morning . William Thompson (Avenger) was cursing an off day having done two wrong tests, as had Donald and Eilidh Urquhart in the spiritedly driven Series 3 Land Rover.

Well lunched, the field headed off for a repeat of the Redhills test and a run round the familiar Highfield, where the usual liberal coating of cow dung on the track made things tricky for both drivers and marshals !! Another regularity saw the Humphreys. Pickering/Marshall and the Pullans all penalty free, Entwhistle/ Hargreaves, whose Mini Cooper is a highly original example campaigned by Cec Offley on 1960’s “Motoring News” events, pulled back on the next two tests, only to lose out on the final regularity to the Humphreys. The action was rounded off with a final blast round the lorry park which had a generous bogey and was cleaned by several crews.

The afternoon proved to be a miserable session for all the event’s Triumph mounted crews, the Ingham/ Thelfall TR7V8 expired with ignition problems, the GT6 of Whiteley/ Fox went OTL, the navigator struggling with the instructions on his very first event and the TR4 of Thompson/ Lauder lost a huge amount of time when they got lost on the second regularity section.

The new format of the Lake District Classic proved to be a big hit with all the crews with the reintroduction of the regularities adding an extra element to the proceedings. The ever friendly organising team kept well on top of things all day and produced a first rate event which delighted those taking part.

Ed Graham

RESULTS.

1. Peter Humphrey/ Dougie Humphrey (Mini Cooper) 667, 2. Steve Entwhistle/ Bob Hargreaves (Mini Cooper) 683, 3. Ryan Pickering / Lisa Marshall (Triumph Vitesse) 708, 4. Ron Kendall/ Nick Cooper (Anglia) 743, 5. Dave Marsden/ Mike Garstang (Cortina MK1) 788, 6. William Thompson Snr&Jnr (Hillman Avenger) 826, 7. NickPullan/ Andrew Pullan (Hillman Imp) 856, 8. Stuart Bankier/ David Alexander (Volvo 122S) 868, 9. Stephen Byrne/ David Byrne ( Lancia Fulvia) 926, 10. Donald Urquhart/ Eilidh Urquhart (Land Rover S3) 1038.

Full results in PDF Format