The "Le Jog" rally is one of the toughest events of its kind for cars and crews. It takes place in England every year. In the middle of winter, the participants often have to contend with bad weather, poor visibility and other adverse conditions. The rally is therefore a real challenge even for experienced rally drivers.
From December 3 to 6, 2016, 58 teams gathered to get through the Le Jog Rally. The best teams fought an exciting neck-and-neck race that was only decided in the final meters. The Hero Cup was also decided at the Le Jog Rally.
Start in the south
As in previous years, the race started in the direction of Bristol. Regularity tests and driving tests were on the agenda from the very first meters. At the end of the first day, the teams' stamina was put to the test as they drove through a labyrinth of small roads through Wales - all in the dark hours of the evening.
Beautiful landscapes
After this long and exhausting stage, Sunday was a little more relaxed. At last we were able to enjoy the beautiful countryside on the route from Chester via Wirral, Lymm, Lingrisge to Gretna.
The fourth stage in 2016 led to Scotland, for a stopover in Fort William. The route then went via Inverness, Skiach, Golspie to Thurso, where the final regularity test took place before the participants reached the finish in John O'Groats.
The first day
Paul Crosby and Stephen Owens started in Land's End with an eight-point difference in the Hero Cup. A 'non-finish' from Crosby would see the title go to Owens for the first time. They both had technical problems in 2015 that prevented them from winning, which made the race even more exciting. Navigated by navigator Andy Pullen, Crosby only needed to finish the first two stages to secure the Hero Cup victory and the Golden Roamer Trophy.
In the first classification, both special stages were close, with two teams having to share first place - Bill Cleyndert and Dan Harrison in their Mini and Paul Kirtley and David Jones in the Porsche 911 were the best.
From Chepstow, four regularity tests were held on the country roads of Wales. The first stop of the evening was in Ewloe. The fourth test on the hairpin bends of the Gregynog region caused some difficulties for the teams. The different navigation tasks together with the tricky jogularity instructions cost some teams with good performances up to that point some time.
Bill Cleydert and Dan Harrison delivered the ride of their lives, but were unable to catch Crosby and Pullen. The two finished the second stage with the perfect gold medal score. However, they were not the only ones to earn the gold medal: Mark Godfrey and Martyn Taylor also got up to speed after a somewhat rocky start and Robert and Sue McClean also did extremely well in their 16th participation in Le Jog.
Technical difficulties for the Swiss team
The Swiss team with Alex Geige and Carl-Gustav März also had an adventurous ride. Something went a little wrong and the two actually managed to tear out their gearshift, including the linkage and housing. So they rumbled to the night camp in their Mini, where they found the necessary parts in a scrapyard and managed to get their Mini going again. Towards the end of the third stage, they rejoined the rest of the group.
Ian Glass / Clifford Auld / Nick Ward also struggled with their Ford 103E, nicknamed "The Flying Tortoise". The cylinder head gasket had to be replaced twice on the first three stages. In the end, however, the "flying tortoise" made it to the finish line and was greeted with a smile by everyone.
Charlie Harrison and Richard Lambley, on the other hand, had a long night in Wales as their Triumph 2000 had a problem with the wheel bearing. They finally arrived in Chester at 7am, an hour and a half before the next stage started.
The second day
The second day began with clear weather. Two tests on the Hooton Kart Circuit, a parking test at Lamm Services and similar action at Red Scar near Preston were on the agenda. The first regularity test started at Inglewhite and led up to Beacon Fell where an easy to miss "slot" caused delays for some teams.
After a longer section over Lythe Fell, there was a stage in Bentham, from where the route continued towards Scotland. Cleyndert and Harrison made their first mistake on the Fox's Pulpit regularity stage - they crossed the M6, which was not planned on the route. This put them out of the running for the Hero Cup and a gold medal.
Amazingly, Simon Harris and Matt Fowler were still in the running for a gold medal despite having to ride large parts of the route without their odometer, a testament to the team's skill and experience. Even when the "Tripmaster" was working again, they continued to ride without its help, using the scenery and Jogularity instructions as a guide to stay in the race.
The third stage took place in the dark and included three tests and a regularity test. This was not quite as tough as the Caerwent course, but had many instructions and turns that were easy to miss, resulting in more and more penalty points being collected.
The last stage
After a good night's sleep, the last day greeted the participants with a photogenic sunrise. The journey towards Fort William and then John O'Groats began. The first activity of the day took place on the Mulkirk and Kames Circuit, where Lovett and Kiff set the fastest time in their Porsche 911. They also topped the leaderboard in the next test. Loch Lomond was then the next stop on the road.
Afterwards, the route led relatively directly via Glen Douglas, Glen Orchy and Loch Leven to Fort William. The participants were beginning to feel tired. Even better, however, the results of the regularity test showed that some teams were close to exhaustion. The stage in question stretched over 52.62 miles and included 174 instructions and ten time measurements - this led to extensive changes in the results list of the field of participants. Crosby and Pullen, for example, picked up a one-minute penalty, which slightly worsened their previously excellent performance.
The final surprise came when Crosby and Pullen went off the road and had to be towed away. As a result, they had to pass the trophy for the fewest penalties on to Lane and Tulip and Cleydert and Harrison also scored fewer penalty points than them.
The last regularity test took place as usual in John O'Groats. Finally, the finish was an emotional affair for many of the participants. Boughton and Savage achieved the best result. The Hero Cup went to Paul Crosby and the Golden Roamer to Andy Pullan, both of whom performed brilliantly this year.
Top ten of the overall ranking
|
St-No |
Driver team |
Car |
Cat |
Penalties |
Total Penalties |
|
8 |
Andy Lane / Iain Tullie |
Volvo 123 GT |
2A |
08:48:00 |
02:04:00 |
|
19 |
Bill Cleyndert / Dan Harrison |
Austin Mini Cooper S |
3A |
9:28 |
1:24 |
|
46 |
Paul Crosby / Andy Pullan |
Porsche 911E |
4B |
9:28 |
2:40 |
|
29 |
Mark Godfrey / Martyn Taylor |
MG B |
3C |
10:06 |
1:46 |
|
55 |
Simon Harris / Matt Fowle |
Volkswagen Golf GTi |
5A |
15:23 |
3:43 |
|
20 |
Kevin Haselden / Bart den Hartog |
Mini Cooper S |
3A |
15:57 |
4:13 |
|
26 |
Andrew Buzzard / Robb Lyne |
Alfa Romeo Giulia GTV |
3B |
20:24 |
3:40 |
|
50 |
Paul Bloxidge / Ian Canavan |
Porsche 911 Carrera 2.7 |
4B |
20:40 |
8:42 |
|
12 |
Jon Miles / Andy Elcomb |
Porsche 356B |
2B |
23:15 |
1:57 |
|
44 |
Richard Boughton / Kevin Savage |
BMW 2002tii |
4A |
23:22 |
4:27 |
You can find the complete results here .
