Crowe wins again

Press, 24 August 1976, Page 34

Crowe wins again

Trevor Crowe, of Christchurch, added another club motor rally to his collection at the week-end when he won the M.S. Motors Ford rally in the Nelson district.

With his wife, Christine, navigating for the first time, Crowe threw his little Datsun 1200 SSS around the 250 km rally in fine style to beat his Canterbury rival, Rob Gerard, of Akaroa, by just under 2mins.‘ Crowe did not suffer a recurrence of the problems which cost him a probable Heatway rally placing last month, although his racing gearbox lost a little oil and was “rather noisy” at the finish of the rally. The Christchurch garage

manager said the tight forestry roads which constituted most of the rally suited the Datsun and it is believed he won every special stage. He chalked up a Imin advantage over -Gerard in the first two special stages and the Akaroa driver could not make this up in his powerful Team Mazda RX3. However, Gerard could well have been taking things quietly, as he is contesting the third round of the national rally championship in Manawatu next week-end, and still has vivid memories of his “off” in the Heatway. Leo Leonard, of Timam, finished his first rally in his new Datsun Cherrv. which has a highly-modified 1300 cu

cm engine, to be placed fourth overall and third in his class.

One of the best performances of the day came from the Nelson driver, Dave Parkes, in an Escort 1300. He finished just behind Gerard for third place, beating many more experienced drivers in more powerful cars. Results were:— Over-all: T. Crowe, 94.96 min elapsed, 1; R. Gerard, 96.91, 2; D. Parkes, 97.90, 3; L. Leonard, 98.94, 4; S. Russ (Nelson, Mini), 100.23, 5; R. Robb (Timaru, Datsun 1600), 100.26, 6. Class winners.—Class 1 (0-1300): T. Crowe 1, D. Parkes 2, L. Leonard 3. Class 2 (1301-1600): S. Russ 1, R- Robb 2, M. Reid (Christchurch) 3. Gass 3 (over 1600): R. Gerard 1, A. Hewlett (Kumara, Escort) 2, J. Armstrong (Dunedin) 3. Team prize: Nelson Car Club.