FLY ARMY
ARMY RALLYING
by
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The British Army had entered 4 teams of 3 cars in the 1978 Scottish, and our team appropriately enough was called “The Bama Veterans” and it consisted of John Hemsley and Joe Mintoe in a Mazda 323, Pete Irving and Buzz Bailey in a mini (I was to use this car 3 years later) and Bob Price and me in the Austin 1800, this was quite a nostalgic event for our 1800, because the Homologation ran out for the Austin/Morris 1800 in 1978 and this was to be the last International rally for the car, during the event several people came up with stories of their own exploits in the land crab over the years. Unfortunately we did not have the trouble free run that we had envisaged, on the second day we were about 8 miles into a 15 mile stage, when the car started to handle very badly and appeared to be living up to its name of land crab by trying to leap off the stage most of the time, I suspected that we had a rear wheel puncture, and said to Bob, how far have we got to the end of the stage he replied about 6 miles, and so we decided that rather than lose quite a lot of time changing the wheel, I would drive as quickly as I could to the end of the stage, we then started to get a thick choking burning rubber smell in the car and opened our windows so that we could breath, and of course it also helped both of us to see a little through the windscreen, when we eventually got to the end of the stage Bob asked the marshal which tyre was flat, he walked around the car and said none of your tyres are flat, but your left hand rear suspension unit has broken off and is jammed right up in the wheel arch. Unbeknown to us, John and Joe had started 2 minutes behind in the Mazda and were going like a train, he had caught and passed a car within the first few miles, and then John started to smell what he suspected was his clutch starting to slip, and said “Bloody Hell Joe”, smell that, our damned clutch is going to go, Joe said, well its still running alright isn’t it, so keep it going, just keep it going. The nearer they got to end of the stage the stronger the smell became until John was quite adamant it was going to blow up, imagine their surprise “and of course huge relief” when they came up behind us at the control and saw all the smoke billowing out of our car, and realised that it was not their clutch after all. When I limped into the main service area and Trevor saw the nature of the damage, he thought that we were going to have to retire there and then, that was because we did not carry any spare suspension units in our service barges, and there was no way we could carry out repairs on it in the service time that we had left. At that point, another of my rally pals Dave Hudspath, whose wife Linda was driving the ICI liveried, and sponsored Ford Escort BDG, stopped with his service van and asked what our problem was, after Trevor had shown him, he said right then, thats no problem we will just weld the suspension carrier back in place, and put a big bolt through the back seat to hold it in position, to do this he suggested that he would burn a big hole through the back seat above the suspension unit.
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Book Details
About the Book
This book is an in depth, and often hilarious look at the men and the machines that represented the British Army International rally team during the period from 1971 until 1982. Whilst predominently the story of one driver, Les Dalton, it also covers the trials and tribulations of most of the Army, and RAFMSA crews competing on all the home International rallies during that time. It is chock full of action stories,and superb professional photographs of Turbo Charged Land Rovers, Austin 1800s, and Mini's, describing life as it was!! flat out on the special stages in one of the GREEN MACHINES. For the real rally fans of that era,that used to support the Army crews, here it is, a nostalgic trip down memory lane, this is the book to resurect your memories of all those freezing cold days waiting for hours after Roger, Timo and Hannu had gone through, just to cheer on the Army Land Rovers.
About the Author
Les Dalton was one of the most successful Army rally drivers of his time. During the 1970s and 1980s he represented the British Army Rally team on thirty International rallies, during which, he won over thirty five awards. In the 1971 RAC International Rally of Great Britain, he brought a completely standard Austin 1800 staff car to an amazing 34th place overall, and on the same set of tyres for the whole rally distance. The 1971 RAC rally has gone down in history as one of the roughest ever,and included 250 of the best rally drivers in the world. of these, over 100 retired in the first twelve hours because of the appalling arctic conditions encountered on the stages. He drove the last Austin 1800 to finish an International rally on the 1978 Scottish International, and finished 32nd overall, and was part of the team that took second place overall,to the works Fords of Mikkola, Clark, and Brooks, there team, the BAMA Veterans were more than 100 minutes in front of the 3rd placed team. He was the inaugural winner of the prestigeous British Leyland sponsored Silver Salver trophy presented in 1974 for the champion Land Rover driver in Germany. He drove the first (and only) awsomely fast Alan Allard Turbocharged Lightweight Land Rover, to three class wins in 1979 and 1981. He was Army Champion driver on four occasions, and NATO champion driver three times, and has won over one hundred and twenty trophies during the twelve years he was involved in Army motor sport. He was also an accomplished competion motor cyclist with several top ten finishes in the Army championships, and several Enduro awards during his military service. This is his story: It is both an entertaining, and informative look at the vehicles, and the crews that represented the British Army on International rallies during that period.