Rowlands scores maiden British Historic Rally win after gruelling Argyll event

Will Rowlands and Emyr Hall were the toast of Argyll when they took a fine victory in the historic element of last weekend’s Argyll Rally, round four of the British Historic Rally Championship.

The North Wales crew finished the tough closed-road event with a minute and a half in hand over the similar Ford Escort Mk2 of Barry Stevenson-Wheeler and Richard Wise. But that does not tell the full story of a mighty battle that raged through Friday evening and Saturday morning over the technical and challenging roads of the Cowal Peninsula.

BHRC leader David Crossen and co-driver Ben Teggart, on a rare outing on asphalt, took an immediate lead in their Escort Mk2 and ended the Friday evening leg with a 25-second margin over Rowlands.

As the action resumed on Saturday morning, Rowlands went on the attack and, after 11 of the event’s 16 special stages, he was just four seconds down on his rival. Sadly, on the following stage in Whistlefield, Crossen broke a halfshaft and his rally was over.

Rowlands said: “We’ve had no problems this weekend, apart from David Crossen: he’s too fast! We were gutted for him when he retired, because it took the wind out of it for us.” However, Rowland’s first outright BHRC win was just reward after another tremendous Argyll Rally.

Behind Stevenson-Wheeler, Paul Thompson and Josh Davison completed the historic podium while a splendid fourth overall was the flying Vauxhall Firenza of Keith Robathan and Ian Nicoll.

In Category 1, for the pre 1968 cars, Stephen Hall and Aggie Foster scored a tremendous victory in their Triumph TR4 over the Minis of father and son Clive and Craig King.

In Category 4, for the newer historics, championship contenders Baz Jordan and Arwel Jenkins had a nightmare through Saturday afternoon with a slipping clutch in their Mitsubishi Galant VR4 and lost the category to the stunning BMW M3 of John Marshall and Craig Wallace. However, a big points score for Jordan and very little for Crossen puts Jordan in the driving seat with two rounds of the championship remaining.