Knowldale Car Club on North West Stages

Philip and Robert Mills were the next away, in their MK1 Ford Escort

This weekend saw Knowldale Car Club enter four cars in the Blackpool-based North West Stages Rally. The event started on Friday night with 100 cars doing a loop of five stages before heading back to the overnight Parc Ferme in Blackpool.

The first Knowldale car away was the 998cc Imp Sport crewed by Alan Kitson and Ron Aspinwall. Their rally hit early problems with overheating issues, but despite this they were able to complete the Friday night and return to Blackpool with the hope of fixing the problem in Saturday morning's first service halt.

Brothers Philip and Robert Mills were the next away, in their MK1 Ford Escort, a very non-standard car they had built themselves, running in a class that contained some of the top rally cars in the Northwest. A good run on Friday night saw them already starting to climb up the leader-board.

Following the Mills brothers on the road was their father, Terry, co-driven by Derek Lord in a Subaru Impreza . Not having competed for some time, the pair were making a return to rallying and out to enjoy themselves!

The final Knowldale crew was Matt Broadbent and Joe Cruttenden in their Volvo 340. This was Matt's first stage rally, having previously competed successfully with the Volvo in road rallying

All four crews having returned to Blackpool on the Friday night, they set off on Saturday morning to continue the event, with another 19 stages ahead. The first and only crew to have problems was Alan and Ron in the Imp: having solved the overheating issue, they then broke a drive-shaft on the first stage of the day, and had to retire.

As the event took its toll on the field, the Mills brothers were setting quick times and climbing the leader board. Also improving on stage times were Terry Mills and Derek Lord. The pair were slowly getting back into the swing of things and the Subaru proved itself on the slippery surfaces as darkness fell on the Saturday night.

The Volvo remained trouble-free and gave Matt and Joe (who could be seen wearing flat caps on the road sections between stages) a few moments on the mud that the more powerful cars had flicked onto some of the stages. A finish for Matt had been their goal, and that was what they achieved in the relatively underpowered 1400 Volvo. 

Philip and Robert Mills finished a very respectable 24th overall and third in class.

Knowldale Car club ran all the support for the four car team with other club members on hand as service crew.