Pictured left to right: Jim Jupp, Willy Cave, Colin Taylor, Peter Barker, Nigel Chetwynd, Alastair Vines, Peter Moss, Simon Wheatcroft.
Our CRX89B team this year is the same as last. I am Alastair Vines, the owner driver, I live in Worcestershire in the UK, and work for Land Rover in the Product Development Dept as a new vehicle Programme Manager. Until last year, when I drove the 2011 RMCH in CRX, I have been a member of the Peter Barker / Willy Cave team (also pictured above) for 10 years as chief mechanic in their Service support vehicle. My co-driver is Peter Moss a retired businessman who lives in Surrey. Peter is currently on the committee of the Mini Cooper Register looking after Club finances and is additionally a key person in the organisation of some our the Clubs major events such as Minis to Monte etc. Simon Wheatcroft is half of our Service team, lives in Warwickshire and is an ace navigator as well as being handy with the spanners. His principle task is to direct our service vehicle to the right places on time. He does a sterling job as one of the Club's Registras, looking after both the MK1 and MK3 Cooper S registers. Nigel Chetwynd is the other half of the Service team, works in the Highways Dept for Warwickshire County Council and lives in Gloucestershire. He does a fine job of driving the Service car at the right pace to be in position on time to keep the rally car on the road with what ever needs to be done.
Ruano Aaltonen on his way to winning the 1965 Polish Rally.
CRX89B is an Austin Cooper S Mk1 built in 1964. It has a long rallying career stretching all the way back to the BMC Comps Dept team in 1964. CRX89B was manufactured in Longbridge in the Autumn of 1964 and sent directly to Abingdon, where it was prepared for Ruano Aaltonen to drive on the 1964 RAC. This was one of few retirements for what turned out to be a very successful rally car for the team, with wins for Paddy Hopkirk on the 1965 Circuit of Ireland, and Luxumbourg International Slaalom, and for Ruano on the Polish and 3 Cities events. Tony Fall also drove it to 15th on the 1965 RAC, with Paddy retiring from the Scottish in the same year. During this period the car competed in both Gp2 and Gp3 lightweight forms. CRX did not compete in the Monte Carlo, although the team used it in 1965 and 1966 as a support vehicle to perform their recce and use as a spare car.
The car continued its punishing yet successful rallying career in private hands with entries in the 1966 and 1968 RAC, Motoring News championship events etc at the hands of drivers such as Geoff Mabbs, John Steadman, Gerry Jones, Mike Kyle, John Smith. During this time it had several knocks and has been substantially rebuilt on a number of occasions. I bought it in 1986, and with the help of a number of friends brought the car back to its 1964/5 Gp2 specification in time to successfully compete on the first Pirelli Marathon Rallies in 1988 and 1989 co-driven by Malcolm Boote. Although not the first classic car rally, the Pirelli Marathon events were at the very forefront of the development of the classic rallying movement. In 2005 for a bit of nostalgia and to celebrate 40 years since Paddy Hopkirks win, I organised for a very small group of Minis to drive the 1965 Circuit of Ireland rally route, to the rally schedule, and stayed in largely the same hotels. Which brings us to last years Monte Carlo, the first competitive Monte for CRX, and one in which we managed to complete successfully without major mishap, finishing 64th of over 300 and 2nd UK finisher to Peter Barker. We were highly delighted with the result at our first attempt, and have great plans to improve on this years trip.
Our preparations continue - more on that later in the next post.
