Brian Stokes gets first win in Westland rally

Press, 21 March 1983, Page 27

Brian Stokes gets first win in Westland rally

By

JOHN FRIDD

The young Waikuku farmer, Brian Stokes, notched up his first rally win when he raced to the $lOOO first prize in the Westland rally on Saturday.

Alan Hewlett, of Kumara, easily won the first special stage near Stillwater, but his Escort’s coil fell off in stage two and he lost about 30 seconds, letting Stokes tie for the rally lead with another Coast driver, Noel Thomson (Greymouth). Stokes fired up his wellprepared Escort 1600 on special stage three in the Hochstetter Forest to beat Thomson and take the lead, and he was never headed again, winning the event by over 4min.

Hewlett drove brilliantly on his home roads to take second place, as he lost a further 4min with two flat tyres. Roger Townshend, of Christchurch, scored a shock third in his little Datsun 1200 SSS, an incredible Is ahead of another Christchurch pilot, Simon Curry, with John Campbell (Timaru) only a further second behind in fifth place after 137 km of flat-out driving.

Thomson lost his chance of second place when a tyre punctured on stage four and he finished sixth, very close behind Campbell and just ahead of another small-car driver, John Sergei (Christchurch).

The former national champion, Jim Donald (Auckland), struggled with his turbo charged front-wheel-drive Laser Sport all day, and his task was made even harder by a fuel problem on the first stage and the loss of third gear from stage four onwards. However, Donald streaked to fastest time on the long sixth stage from Kumara to Marsden, an impressive effort with only three gears.

When the results were announced the crews learned of the astounding fact that only 47s covered from second to eighth place, surely the closest finish in a New Zealand rally. Stokes was particularly pleased at winning the Coast rally. “The $lOOO I

won is more than I would get for winning the international,” he said. A feature of the rally was the intense battle between the four top small-car drivers, Townshend, Campbell, Sergei and Tony Blair (Nelson). After three stages the four were separated by only 265, but then Blair’s Datsun 1200 hit a large rock near Moana and sledged off the road, damaging it quite badly. However, the other three drivers kept up their fight and spectators saw some exciting sideways action.

Dave McCahon, of Christchurch, dropped out of the running on the Hochstetter stage when his Datsun 1200 punctured. McCahon had to drive skm on a grassy forest track before he found a spot to pull off the road, but just as he pulled over another Christchurch driver, Dave Hulton, arrived on the scene at high speed. Hulton pulled out to overtake McCahon’s car but lost control of his Corolla and it left the track, smashing into a very solid tree-stump. Hulton and his co-driver, D. Chambers, were cut about the face in the accident and McCahon attended to them before driving out to call for help. An ambulance took the shaken pair to Greymouth Hospital, where they were treated and discharged. The stage claimed a number of other leading drivers, too — Alan Duthie rolled his Mazda messily, Pete Johnson had a steering arm break on his Chevette, Graham Crawford broke a

stub-axle on his Mazda RX323 and Ross Jeffrey lost an axle-collar on his Escort. Another Coast driver, Ross Wylde, also ended his rally when his car’s differential blew after Wylde had amazingly won special stage two, near Ahaura.

Ken McDonald, of Christchurch, having his first rally for 18 months, struggled through the first two stages when wiring fell off his Escort’s powerful motor, but came right in the afternoon to turn in some quick stage times and finish ninth ahead of another Cantabrian, Bruce Reid, who lost 4min on stage three with a flat tyre.

Hewlett won three of the seven special stages, while Stokes, Donald, McDonald and Wylde took one each. The 239 km event, sponsored by Greymouth Motors and Firestone-Tasman, was the first round of the Mainland rally series. Results.—

Over-all: B. Stokes/R. Kerr (Waikuku, Escort 1600), 96min 52s elapsed, 1; A. Hewlett/J. Williams (Kumara, Escort RS2000), 101.06, 2; R. Townshend/G. Askew (Christchurch, Datsun 1200 SSS), 101.29, 3; S. Curry/M. Fletcher (Chch, Escort RS2000), 101.30, 4; J. Campbell/W. Austin (Timaru, Datsun 1200 SSS), 101.31, 5; N. Thomson/L. Harris (Greymouth, Escort 1600), 101.46, 6; J. Sergel/B. Clark (Chch, Toyota Starlet 1300), 101.51, 7; J. Donald/C. Porter (Auckland, Ford Laser Sport turbo), 101.53, 8; K. McDonald/D. Brown (Chch, Escort RS), 103.28, 9; B. Reid/

B. Stokes (Chch, Mazda RX3), 104.55, 10. Classes: 0 to 1300 cu cum, Townshend 1, Campbell 2, Sergei 3. 1300 to 1600, Stokes 1, Thomson 2, M. Errington (Escort 1600) 3. Over 1600, Hewlett 1, Curry 2, Donald 3.