1972 Britvic Rally
Does anyone remember Mike Hibbert's Escort used in the 1972 Britvic?
Peter Bryon in New Zealand is rebuilding this car, and would like to confirm it's history.
Peter writes:
Attached a photo taken on the 1972 Dukeries Rally, driven by NZer Mike Marshall/co driver not sure but possibly Kevin Gormley as he did go with Mike several times. The damage on the front panel we were told by Mike Marshall was done by Mike Hibbert just before Mike M. bought the car from Ford UK. So what we would like to be confirmed is if this is the car that Mike Hibbert used on the Britvic Rally 1972 (this was not Mike Hibbert's regular car but one he used for a couple of rallies which belonged to Ford).
The reason this car has a London reg. was because it was a dealer registered car that was taken back by the factory. We have photos of the car at AVO having the flares fitted (Ford archive photo). It was a test development car for the latter part of 1970.
Peter has recently become friends with one of our old members from the 70s. His name is John Green, and he used to work for Boreham in the 70s.
Paul Barrett has checked the archives, and found that Mike Hibbert did indeed enter an RS in the 1972 Britvic, navigated by Kevin Gormley, but the registration of the car is unknown. He was seeded at car 5 - Russell Brookes was at 6 and Tony Pond 7!! He retired at the end of the day leg.
Tony, just a thought. Back in those days the Britvic Rally ran as a round of one of the British Championships. Do we know who the CoC was at that time?
Maybe David & Elizabeth may have old paperwork from that era, else may have contact details of the CoC. Mine & Gavin's Dad's would almost certainly been involved to some extent in the event.
Else possibly the MSA or BTRDA may have archive records.
Definitely worth asking around.
Richard
Here is a scan of some of the regs and the results: Britvic 1972 (1.5MB)
It WAS a round of the BTRDA, and there are a lot of familiar names in the entry list.
The only catch is that it seems car 5 was a late entry, as the pre-event entry list Paul has doesn't have it - so we have no registration number to confirm if it is the right car. Perhaps someone has some pictures from that event?
Thanks Tony for submitting that scan of the Entry list. Also thanks to everyone taking the time to verify my request for information on this car. Look forward to a photo if possible.
Cheers
Peter,
I contacted a Alan Barnard from WECC who said it would be worthwhile posting something on their website.There's quite a lot of info on that site on rallies from that era.
I hope you find what you need - but I guess its a great car anyway.
Pete
My father competed on this event with John White in a Cooper S. I have asked him if he can remember anything or has any memorabilia or pictures.
I will have a look through the pictures gathered for the CMC 50th dinner.
Unfortunatly my dad doesn't remember much about the event. His comment was "It was 35 years ago and I was 43 then".
Enough said.
The only picture we have on file is of John Mathews and Reg Mullinger posing at the finish.
Mike Hibbert has sent us this message:
Ref the car on the 1972 Britvic:
At the time I was driving for David Sutton at Clarke and Simpson. S. Turner asked me to drive in the Britvic, and provided a rather tired motor car!! I definitely didn't bash it though.
It was the first 'road rally' that I had competed in for many years, and I totally loathed it!! ... Blind main road junctions in the middle of the night in Essex ain't fun!!
Good luck to all at Chelmsford Motor Club, and gosh don't we all miss Boreham?!! Those really were fun days.
Best regards, Mike Hibbert (now safely retired in Italy)