Sunseeker Victory on Rallye Sunseeker

Marcus Dodd and John Bennie took a long awaited victory on Rallye Sunseeker, the opening round of the Mintex National Rally championship., setting nine out of fifteen fastest times in the process.

Scrutineering and documentation took place at the Two Rivers Meet Leisure Centre in Christchurch, on the Friday, alongside the associated Rally Show.

After several fine days, Friday saw a fine drizzle falling for most of the day causing the organisers some concern that if it continued it might reduce spectator numbers the following day.

Saturday, however dawned dry and it was soon apparent that the previous day’s weather had not deterred the spectators. Officials on there way out to the stages at 6 am reported people sleeping in their cars, waiting for the car parks to open!

Martin Rowe and Derek Ringer led the field away from the start ramp outside Bournemouth Town Hall, in their Renault Megane Maxi. This year however there was to be no blast through the Lower Gardens and along the seafront to Boscombe due to construction work so the competitors headed straight for Avon Park to tackle two Tarmac Stages.

Scotsman Brian Lyall, the 1997 Mintex Champion, scorched round Avon to lead in his Bill Gwynne motorsport run Impreza, as the crews returned to service at Meyrick Park. The previous day’s rain had made the forest stages very slippery and although Lyall led after stage 3, an overshoot on stage 4 dropped them behind Marcus Dodd. The works Meganes looked and sounded fantastic but in the slippery conditions were suffering a lack of traction compared with the four wheel drive cars.

As the crews headed back to Bournemouth for second service Dodd had extended his lead to some 30 seconds and dropped behind Lyall on the road to be able to keep an eye on his times.

The good weather had brought spectators out in force and all the spectator car parks reported brisk business. A later count showed that numbers had in fact doubled despite the organisers not having the use of Bournemouth seafront.

As competitors returned to Avon Park where a massive crowd awaited them, Andy Burton and Rob Morgan had moved their incredible Peugeot Cosworth into 2nd place ahead of Brian Lyall. At Avon however it all went wrong for the Peugeot. Late on the brakes approaching a left hand bend, Andy Burton realised he was not going to make it and threw the car sideways. Unfortunately it slid heavily into a tree stump badly damaging the car in the vicinity of the drivers door. Alerted by the nearby radio crew, the rescue teams arrived at the scene within 4 minutes. Andy was taken to hospital for a check up, but was later released. He even managed to do a live interview on Rally FM from the back of the ambulance.

Irishman Kenny Mckinstry was making a return to the championship after a gap of several years. The tarmac expert took a little time to settle down but stuck at the task to take 3rd place.

A new special stage had been introduced for 1999, courtesy of the event Patron, the Earl of Normanton at Somerley Park. Some 6 miles in length this stage was not open to the general public but was the site for Corporate Hospitality where over a thousand guests were entertained to lunch, had the benefit of a live commentary from Robin Bradford together with a superb viewing area which included the end of a very fast section complete with radar trap leading to the house and a tight twisty section beyond it..

As the afternoon progressed Marcus Dodd continued to lead and his local supporters and many others were crossing their fingers in the hope that he could maintain his position to the finish.

There was one final service prior to the last two stages of the day. Here Marcus was in a quandary over tyre choice. Although dry in Bournemouth, there were known to be heavy rain showers in the Avon Park area. Should he run on slicks or use intermediates?

He chose to go for slicks and although beaten to the fastest time on the last stage of the day by the Renault Megane of Tapio Laukkanen he returned to Bournemouth as a worthy winner after ten years of trying.

For the organising team the event had proved a great success. New stage mileage had been introduced, the event attracted more entries, the number of spectators was double last year and very importantly local businesses spoken to after the event realised the commercial benefits the rally brings to the area in terms of additional sales of everything from sandwiches to petrol to newspapers.

Where does the rally go next, perhaps as a round of three British Rally Championships – we will have to wait and see.