WORLD CUP RALLY DIARY

The World Cup Rally finished to tumultuous applause when cars crossed the finishing ramp at Brooklands... back where they had set out from 20 days earlier. A large haze of blue smoke wrapped itself around the winners as they sprayed the bottle of champagne, from the second-placed car of Barbara Armstrong and Alyson Marlow.

Their Peugeot 206 had blown up the engine before getting on the boat out of Bilbao. The hole in the block had been covered in a fibreglass repair kit, and epoxy resin poured down the spark plug hole to seal up cracks in the water jacket. The con rod had broken - due no doubt to strain caused when crossing deep water in Morocco. A new oil pump was fitted by Peter Banham at Portsmouth docks, and with the firbeglass having set rock hard during the long crossing, the car limped out onto the A3's Friday night commuter traffic on three cylinders. It lasted to Brooklands, claiming second place, having missed winning by three minutes. The girls must now rue the decision to take the early stages in France so cautiously...they had been gunning it hard ever since to close the gap.

For Donie Keeting this was a great victory - he had not taken part in any rally for 12 years. His car was more standard than most, the engine was a totally standard Polo engine (not the tweaked Challenge version which has the benefit of a tuned-chip for a few more horsepower) and he changed the springs from rally suspension to standard GTi spec just before the start. He carried two spare wheels, two additional spare tyres, and ran the whole rally using just six Firestone eight ply van tyres.

Barbara Armstrong still had the tell-tale paint blobs on the sides of her tyres, proof of having finished using the same set of Michelin van tyres she set out on.

Third place went to the Proton of David Johnson, with his father alongside on the clocks, the best placed Proton effort on any international rally. This was a steady, consistent performance and the car was immaculate at the finish.

Fourth place went to the new MG ZR of Andy Dawe, who had set 11 fastest times on the competitive sections. MGs did well, as sixth place went to Shirley Greenway, on her first ever rally. This is the best international rally result for any showroom production-based car since the MG B drive of the Morley Brothers on the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally which finished 17th.

There was the surprise of an excellent showing for the MG Midget of Andy Actman and Tom Coulthard, banging away in the top ten the whole time, and the two newcomers in the Renault Clio, the smallest engined car in the 1400cc category at 1149cc, which was a top ten contender despite the loss of engine size, or the fact that the crew were on their first rally. They met while sky-diving, and reckoned their hobby was beginning to pale and they needed fresh exictement in their lives!

The class for cars up to 1100cc was taken by the whole Broderick family, who scooped lst, 2nd, and 3rd in their Ecoflow Team of Toyota Yaris's. Robin Stretton took the diesel trophy with his Citroen van.

There were special awards for Bendor Grosvenor for getting a Smart to the finish, and to Richard Taylor, the American lawyer who refused to let world politics spoil his fun and stuck to his guns, entering two Saabs in the Holden Classic Africa Cup.

The Daily Telegraph Category for 1600cc cars was won by David Winstanley and Paul Hargreaves, in their Honda HR-V.

"An amazing event...we have seen places we will never forget, and I personally will never forget the experience of driving competitive sections up to 100 kms long, the longest test sections I have ever tackled. It was harder, tougher, than any of us were expecting...the bruises will go down tomorrow, but the memories will stay with us forever."

Day 20

Friday 19th October - Home sweet home for the girls who yesterday experienced an unexpected oil pump problem. Undeterred by the problem Peter Banham (Official WCR mechanic) said, "I can fix anything!" after arrangements were made at Peugeot Sport to get a new pump to the pair speedily.

The plan: Pick up the parts at Portsmouth, get the car going on three cylinders, get across the line at Brooklands and claim second place. After the 20-day rally with some 82 time-controls, 28 competitive test-sections and more than 6,000 miles of varied terrain the girls are relishing the thought of their own beds. If you want to see the full film, meet the drivers and team, come to the party night at the Royal Geographical Society on November 9th. For those unable to attend there is to be a book of the event and further coverage in The Daily Telegraph on Saturdays.

Because of a storm in the Bay of Biscay the World Cup Rally will be slightly delayed on its homecoming. Expected time of arrival now at Brooklands is between eight and nine o'clock tonight.

Day 18

Where Eagles Dare - The Picos de Europe are a forgotten mountain range in northern Spain just waiting to be discovered. Stunning, beautiful and with fabulous twisting roads looking down on the Eagles that live there almost alone. This last competitive day was a cautious one for the girls, with main objective being arrival at Santander before the Bilbao ferry tomorrow - two careful timed sections saw the climax to this arduous event drawing closer - a stunning drive by Barbara and Alyson, an excellent 2nd place and an amazing statement for the reliability and performance of the Peugeot 206 LX.

Day 17

Barbara Flies in Fafe - The final day of gravel tests began after a drive through early morning fog to the Lousada European rallycross circuit and 'super special' test from World Championship rallying. High levels of excitement at the prospect of two flat out laps overcame the reality that even a staggeringly quick time on a two minute test would have little impact on the results - as opposed to the dramatic difference that an 'off' would make.

Barbara Armstrong drove perfect lines in the Peugeot for an excellent second overall time. While everyone would have loved another session at Lousada it was back to business as the rally to the infamous Fafe test from the Portuguese rally. The whole area has a definite rallying buzz with its white gravel tracks twisting through forgiving looking heather and gorse clad hillsides that are peppered with clusters of enormous rounded rocks. Such detail as 'Go McRae', carved into one roadside boulder helps to amplify the feelings.

The first short section at Fafe includes a legendary and much televised jump. Camera crews gathered in eager anticipation near this blind and very sharp crest at the end of a third gear straight. A throng of local enthusiasts were ready to encourage and wave the cars over. The first car blasted into sight - hard in second gear. Cameras rolled and fingers hovered over shutters as enthusiastic arms waved only to be promptly doused as rally leader Donie Keating hit the anchors before dribbling over the edge. However, a minute later and all is well as Barbara Armstrong holds the Peugeot hard in third all the way and launches good and proper, even including a dramatic re-entry involving 20 metres sliding the car on its nose.

The final test of the day was another classic, which, although still demanding, was a kind and enjoyable gravel swansong before the remaining tarmac mountain roads in Spain tomorrow.

Barbara and Alyson are very well placed in 2nd after seventeen arduous days of close competition. Anything can still happen and all is still to play for on route to Spain.

Day 16

Armstrong and Marlow hold 2nd place - After the narrow escape in the Fez Flash Floods Day 15 was a breeze out of Marbella and up through the hills towards Portugal - to Badajoz, it was back to battle on Day 16, steady as she goes was certainly the goal of the girls with the two long gravel tests in Arganil Hills, famous stages from the old TAP Portugese Rally. These roads were running across the tops of mountains, hard packed gravel, offering pot holes, sudden brows, a sweeping, switch-back, roller-coast ride with plenty of gulleys and ditches to catch out the unwary. A real challenge, the girls were up to it though setting 7th and 5th fastest times respectively.

The crew are now ready and await Test 25 an all-gravel test across the top of a mountain with the infamous Fafe Portugese Rally special-stage jump at the finish. This is followed by another all gravel test with many hairpins near the finish, followed by two all-tarmac tests.... and if that is not enough to full sort things, good and proper, there is the promise of some mighty, twisty traditional road-rallying where the road sections require spot on navigation.

Day 12

Fez Flash Floods Shock Crews - Armstrong and Marlow in narrow escape' - It started to rain on the Sahara early today. A few spits as the crews emerged from their Bedouin tents next to the giant dunes. After running back to the town across the hard packed gravel and sand - a really remarkable competitive-section - it started to rain. And rain.... By mid-day, the mountains of the Atlas were chucking great torrents down to the valleys below.

This is no longer just a freak storm - real African flash-floods, so torrential, locals in their battered Peugeot 404s were being knocked sideways as rivers of water came crashing across stretches of the road, bringing rocks and mud along with it.

After Erfoud, they snaked their way up good tarmac passes towards the old carpet centre of Midelt, a small town that sits on the summit of a hill, unfortunately the majority of the rally failed to make it to Midelt. They were stuck, with the road washed away, and several feet of water making progress impossible. A few crews had got past that bad spot, but became marooned, unable to go further, with another river being created ahead.... and unable to go back. In the end, Dave Whittock, the Clerk of the Course, stuck with the main bunch, decided on a major re-route and cancelled all time-controls, so, today became a neutralised day.... just get to Fez.

Just doing that became something of a rally in itself. A reminder of the sort of simple events of the Safari of the 1950s and early 1960s, where cars battled against freak floods and storms just to get from one town to the next. Clearly, reaching Fez by nightfall would be a mighty big challenge.

There are lots of stories of fording great rivers of raging water, of cars seeing floods rise up to the top of the bonnet....Barbara Armstrong had a lucky escape, as the air-intake of the 206 is sighted low down, and sucked in a lot of water...the driver killed the ignition in the nick of time, and with the spark plugs removed, Skoda co-driver Andrew Powell helped to suck water from the cylinders with one of his gadgets. A lucky escape....

"Nobody who survived the drive today will ever forget the experience," she said, very relived to reach Fez. In the reception of the Sheraton hotel - everyone is in, albeit having taken many hours for what should be a four-hour run - the talk of the rally was the remarkable drive and the experience of the worst rains Morocco has seen in seven years. This morning's test, which saw the Proton of David Johnson set fastest time, just pipping the constantly-flying VW of Donie Keating, with Barbara Armstrong's Peugeot third-fastest, had almost merged into yesterday.

The leaderboard has the VW lead at a whisker over three minutes from Barbara Armstong's Peugeot 206. The Proton is one minute and 10 seconds adrift of second-place. Andy Dawe's MG ZR is almost 10 minutes behind in fourth.

Late on the previous day Barbara and Alyson spoke by satellite phone after being fastest on both stages Wednesday. Alyson puts it down to the fitness training that they have both been doing for the last twelve months. Some crews seem to be tiring and finding that the tougher stages are taking it out of them. But the Peugeot girls are fired up and raring to get on with it! Alyson has spent the last year preparing for the World Cup, working out, cycling and spending many lonely hours in the gym with the Sahara as her motivation. The pair have made it to the desert fot the evening where they were sharing a tent with the only other ladies in the event, but no time for camp songs, the day that followed provided a real awakening to the dramatic change of conditions that is possible in this inhospitable place.

Day 11

Armstrong and Marlow cut into deficit - With the crews turning northwards in the general direction of home. Today has been one of the hottest, hardest, most gruelling tests of stamina and endurance of the rally so far.

Having toyed with the edges of the Sahara, today they struck out down a long bumpy track to camp within the giant dunes - great mountains of rich golden sand taller than St. Pauls Cathedral. Camping in tents - four per tent - in what is left of the courtyard of a ramshackle old Foreign Legion fortress, now taken over as sort of caf and bivouac for the back-packers who trek out to witness the experience of sunrise over the sands.

They left Ouarzazate, bombed down an easy, long, hot tarmac drag to the narrow right turn that cuts up between the glades of rich green palm trees that line the road to the Todra Gorge. Here Indiana Jones cracked his whip to beat off the raiders of the lost ark. The crews covenant was more simple... they were all seeking a time on the time-card, and this part of the day was so easy everyone was jamming the narrow gorge, in one of the strangest traffic-jams the locals have ever seen. They walk the plank over a stream, it's a six foot plunge if you get it wrong, to the small hotel that is built into the side of the cliff-face of the 200ft walls of the gorge.

Now the pace changed. They ran out into a desert scrubland, for another Dakar-style blast which was timed to the second, and more than 30 kilometres long. Hard work. Concentration required, for every inch of the way. Boulders the size of footballs littered the edges of the piste, bomb-holes, mud, washaways, rocky hills with sudden drops over the crests, all were lying in wait to catch out those who failed to measure the pace of one of the most demanding competitive sections so far.

And this was no place to break down - several experienced troubles today. Engines are letting go... lots are finding that stones that get trapped between the top of sump-shields and the bottom of the engines are punching holes through things like oil-filters and sump-pans.

Fastest over the 30 kilometres of hell was the Peugeot 206 of the two girls. Barbara Armstrong and Alyson Marlow were in flying form today.... they repeated this success on the second test of the day across to the dunes, slicing something like 50 seconds off the grip of leaderman Donnie Keating.

Day 10

Armstrong turns up the heat in the Sahara - Barbara and Alyson really turned the heat on their competitors today in a long hot day, around the rim of the Sahara. Todays test saw some long, smooth, undulating sections which lull you into a sense of false security and you find yourself carried away with the momentum of it all, until you suddenly see a wash-away. So you hit the brakes hard, work the suspension harder, and find yourself hitting the rocks with a grimace. Into the oasis town of Ouarzazate the leader board has changed at the top, once again, with the Peugeot 206 of Barbara Armstrong and Alyson Marlow really pouring on the coal, an effort that restores the girls to second-overall in the rankings.

Day 9

Peugeot slip to 3rd but Armstrong and Marlow are well placed- After a lazy sunny Sunday the crews left Marrakesh for the lunar moonscape of a wild-wilderness with just one road. a rough, tough, boulder-strewn track that snakes its way over the far horizon, twisting and turning between a fold of brown hills. The scenery is stunning, if you have time to look up - but the gravel can be deceptively slippery on the corners, and calls for concentration every inch of the way. The first test of the day was Takerkoust and the girls put in a spirited performance taking fourth fastest time and eking out a few valuable seconds on the leading Polo crew.

This was a cracking start to the day, and the stage had that lovely flowing switchback of long open bends that can be relied upon to have every driver grinning. Long drops around cliffs with unfenced corners would catch out the reckless, but everyone made it to rejoin the welcome respite of a strip of smooth tarmac. For once, the sumpguard was no longer rattling, exhausts were not banging around against the floor, the steering wheel was no longer shuddering and shaking on every stone. This was not to last.

Up the road, you fork right into a ramshackle old village undisturbed by time, for the start of a long, fairly smooth, run out over desert scrubland. Knock off a few more kilometres and half an hour later, you come across another time control and the start of another competitive test section.

This ran through the middle of an empty village, now in complete ruins, looking just like something out of Biblical times, with walls made of mud, flat roofs, no glass in the windows. great clouds of dust billow out behind and you just storm on through - ever onwards, out across another vast wilderness.

Barbara Armstrong relished the fact that there were no hills on this one, so set up the second fastest time, but Dominic and Jonathan Wynniett-Husey set third fastest in their Peugeot 106 Rallye.

The final test of the day was an all-tarmac hillclimb, near Agadir, and this one was just not the Peugeot crews favourite with the girls only posting the 17th fastest time pushing the crew down one place into 3rd overall at the end of the 9th day. However they are well placed only 23 seconds behind the 2nd placed competitors the Johnsons

Tomorrow sees the crews start to turn for home - Agadir is the most southerly point. They skirt the fringe of the Sahara with a long run round the rim of the desert. Easy, relaxed timing is promised, those who want something more touring-pace should not be disappointed, the route book says all stop to take a photo as we run through the startling terrain of Dinosaur Valley. There is a short test over a piste-section into Ouarzazate, the town that saw the filming of Lawrence of Arabia and many other cinema blockbusters.

Day 7

Peugeot move back to 2nd Overall after excellent day

Today saw the "big one" - the longest timed-to-the-second blast of the whole rally, and the Peugeot crew posted the fastest time overall, Barbara Armstrong in the little Peugeot 206 1.4, reckoned this was the "longest, hardest single competitive section I have ever driven". She clocked up a time of one hour, 22 minutes and 30 seconds, just two seconds faster than the rally leader Nick Condon in the VW Polo.

The section had been used some 30 years ago as part of the classic Rallye du Maroc, and had been billed on the noticeboard as "similar to the sort of motoring you get on a Safari...and the kinder bits of a Dakar." Finally getting back and resting under the lemon trees of the Sheraton Hotel in Marrakesh tonight, slipping down the Kronenburgs in the warm night air, no one would disagree with the belief that it was the toughest section of the rally to date, while just outside the front door, there is a line-up of rallycars bearing all the scars of battle from jousting on equivalent of the far side of the moon.

(note: A day off tomorrow (Sunday).... more chit-chat and pool-side gossip after a trip to the Kasbah and dinner in the gardens of the Al Baraka restaurant - nothing comes more relaxing.... they have deserved it).

Day 6

Peugeot 4th Overall after Pothole in Morocco costs time

Friday 5th October. Today, the pace changed gear - after a touring day the girls get back into the groove with two timed-to-the-second special tests, in the hills south of Fes. The route down to Marrakesh was very quiet. Yesterday there were some great driving roads long, twisty..... up hill and down dale, romping over rolling hills in warm sunshine, and with not a Gatso speed-camera in the entire country. What a great place to experience some real motoring, a reminder of what a joy it used to be to romp down long empty roads.

Unfortunately it wasn’t all roses and over the very rough stages the team hit a pothole at speed and damaged the rear suspension – they subsequently had to limp out of the special stage and fix the trailing corner on the road section. After locating a bolt from a roadside store in Marrakesh, and performing temporary repairs, they continued at reduced pace and will be working overnight to re-prepare the car for the toughest section so far. Tomorrow sees a 10 Marrakesh Mountain Circuit.

They drive east very early in the morning, over the Tizi-n-Tchika, the main road to Ouarzazate which was the first road in Morocco to see bitumen, laid by the French in 1935. It's a good quality surface today, and the drive up and over the Atlas early in the morning is a magical experience. The timing is not exactly stressful and after dropping down the other side, they swing south on a truly remote road, heading towards the desert. The Peugeot crew then turn off from the tarmac onto a long desert piste, very rough in places. For a competitive special test timed to the second, which will last for hours, and hours, and hours..., to get back to Marrakesh in time for dinner they will have to do a long mountain climb up the side of the Tizi-n-Test, which is a hillclimb that makes the likes of the Turini or the Stelvio look like mole-hills. ends.

Day 4


Barbara Armstrong and Alyson Marlow moved up into second overall today after seriously putting the car through it’s paces. The pair set a string of cracking times on the four competitive sections. Nick Condon’s VW retains top spot. Alyson Marlow commented, “We planned to really push the car through the rougher stages and they really have been rough today.” And push the car they did… the pair emerged from the day's tests with three bent wheel rims but stayed puncture-free. The crew are now working on a few minor mechanical woes but the car has stood up to the battering extremely well.

Head north into the hills above Marbella, find the Gun and Country Club, a delightful wooden chalet perched on a hilltop, and if you had decided on the Chicken Caesar Salad from the veranda at lunchtime you would have heard more than the odd gunshot ricochet around the cliffs. The rugged country is blessed with a network of empty gravel roads and it was here that the London-Sahara-London World Cup Rally got down to a severe shake-up over roads just as testing as anything found on the infamous Greek Acropolis Rally. Bounce over this and do well and you’ll bounce over anything.

“Give us one more days just like this one and we’ll be challenging the leaders,” was the verdict at the end of it all from the two students in the battered Renault Four. They gained 19 places to now occupy 27th spot and their names are now on the first page of the Results…they would have been even higher had they not been the only crew to book into a time control early, and collect a bucket of penalties…but adrenaline had been running from the moment they left the Don Carlos hotel, as with no trip-meter they found just getting to the Gun and Country Club on time a breathless affair.

Barbara Armstrong and Alyson Marlow moved up into second overall spot, setting a string of cracking times on the four competitive sections, now at the heels of Nick Condon’s VW, which retains top spot. The New Zealanders in the Suzuki Jimny also had a good day, loving the rougher parts of the course and now find themselves fifth overall…. Nicky Porter in the Mitsubishi stayed clear of trouble with a consistent run and holds sixth, with Paul Carter in the old Vauxhall Nova, and Shirley Greenway in the new MG ZR also doing well in the top ten.

Peter Hall and Andrew Powell in the Skoda Fabia set out in third overall spot, and certainly were doing well on the gravel - they overtook the second placed 205 Peugeot, and looked good…. but their day ended with disappointment when the standard engine-mounting of the Fabia snapped, and with the whole engine shaking about under the bonnet had to nurse it back to the Don Carlos hotel. Peter Banham reckons his box of bits on the mobile workshop can sort it for the rigours of Africa to come, and 20 minutes or so might sound a whopping amount to lose, but at this stage of the game the rally remains anyone’s.

Andy Dawe in the second MG ZR did not have quite such a good day and now holds 14th spot…. talking of MGs, the day might have been rough in places but the little MG Midget of Andy Actman and Tom Coulthard bounced over it with sufficient prudence to stay clear of trouble and end up 10 overall, despite the fact that the back axle is held together with what the crew described as super-glue…. a tube of plastic-metal.

Robin Stretton gained several places in the diesel van, now in 24th, Mum and Dad Broderick give way to one of the sons and lose their top-10 slot having suffered a puncture…. those who fitted narrower tyres than standard tended to proclaim that they found the grip needed on the tricky downhill descents, and tyre pressures and the numbers of plies were a major talking point of the day in the battle to avoid punctures.

Larry Davis in the Saab still heads the Holden Classic Category, and the Daily Telegraph cup for 1600cc cars is headed by Paul Hargreaves in the Honda HRV, more than 20 minutes clear of the second placed Ford Escort of John Fletcher and Stuart Cook.

A long, hard day…. nobody believes Morocco could surely offer anything tougher than this, and the whole rally has received a mighty shakeup.

Tomorrow, we all leave with a neutralised section to the ferry at Algeciras, and the sailing to Tangiers, with dinner in Fez. Africa, at last.

Day 3

Leg 1 Spain
Overnight Don Carlos Hotel, Carretera de Cadiz, 296000, Marbella
Timings Arrive by 3pm

Tuesday 2nd October. Beautiful clear waters awaited the 70-strong crews as everyone arrived safely at The Don Carlos Hotel in Marbella, Spain.

Experienced driver and co-driver, Barbara Armstrong and Alyson Marlow in their Peugeot 206 have been careful not to over-do it early on, knowing only too well that there is a long way to go. 

The pair found the deep ruts of rough terrain hard on the car but continued to make good progress through the fields of Angouleme's farms. The 206 was lifted over the rougher sections with prudence - adopting a sensible policy of not going flat-out.

Less than four minutes separates the top 25 crews in the World Cup trophy.

Tomorrow presents rougher terrain than so far experienced with a circuit in the hills.  The rally is spending two nights in Marbella before taking the ferry to Tangiers to continue the journey towards Morocco (Thursday – Day 5).

Day 2

Leg 1 France to Spain
Distance 1616km to Marbella

Timings

Start 0800
TC8 1325 Angouleme
800km roughly to Pinto
Overnight Plaza Santiago
Approx 5hrs 30 mins to Marbella

Monday 1st October.  The Peugeot duo have completed 4 stages without problems, been beaten by several people who don't seem to realise that it is a long event, including one car having to be towed out.  As the pair progressed through France trousers were swapped for shorts. The surface down into Spain was a mixture of bumpy tarmac with long strips of gravel. Ground clearance was testing for the pair, with mounds of tall grass, left by ruts from tractors.

Four tests were carried out today and timed to the second.  Results below.

After a long day Barbara and Alyson made it to the hotel, miles ahead of anyone...pity no time control in the evening as several crews made navigating mistakes. The pair will now make the long haul across Spain and are expected to arrive in Marbella on Wednesday after a non-competitive run to the Mediterranean.

Day 1

10am Sunday 30th September
click to enlargeBrooklands Motor Museum, and first to be flagged off on the World Cup Rally, by Motor-racing legend Stirling Moss, was Peugeot’s Barbara Armstrong and Alyson Marlow in their 1.4LX 206. It was a straightforward run down to Dover and across the channel for the Peugeot duo. Paris was relatively stress free with all crews making it to the Novotel overnight stop-off for a much-needed rest. After a trouble free day with some 750km being covered, tomorrow will be very different. With test starts and finishes, there are no less than 28 checkpoints before lunch - with four competitive sections near Angouleme.