The Windsor Car Club Ltd Swan 2000 Rally
13th/14th May 2000
Steve Cole/Bob Blows won the Swan Rally for the second year in succession. The completed 150 miles of Hampshire lanes with only two minutes dropped. Their main rivals, Mike Biss/Cath Woodman retired after the exhaust on their Nova broke. Second place went to Dominic Worsfold/Matthew Fowle after a night long tussle with fellow Experts Paul Wright/Mark Goodman. Eventually Wright/Goodman dropped a Passage Control and the fail cost them second place.
On a difficult night for Navigators Richard & Matthew McLachlan came in first Semi-Experts and Simon & Peter Cox first Novices. Completing the families in the awards were Mike and son Chris Rose who were first Beginners. This was the first time they had got their Mini to the end of an event so were very pleased.
The first half comprised a clockwise loop starting at Four Marks and heading down onto the Downs above Horndean and Petersfield. With the roads in very poor condition, and patchy fog the drivers did not have an easy time of things. Concern over a Badger sett forced one section to be neutralized, but there were plenty of other places where competitors could lose time. From halfway the route took on a more flowing nature, with the wider roads around Droxford not proving as taxing as the first half. But, as ever, the final quarter required the maximum concentration from both crew members as it utilised the maze of lanes at Barnet Side. Many crews picked up fails in these final sections, notably Doug Kingsley/Ben Greenfield who dropped from Second after missing two loops. With results quickly calculated Cole/Blows retained the Stanwell Trailers Trophy for the second year.
Final Results:
| Pos | Driver | Navigator | Car | Class | Fails | Minutes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Steve Cole | Bob Blows | 205 | Master | 2 | |
| 2 | Dominic Worsfold | Matthew Fowle | XR2 | Expert | 22 | |
| 3 | Paul Wright | Mark Goodman | Escort | Expert | 1 | 21 |
| 4 | Doug Kingsley | Ben Greenfield | Nova | Expert | 2 | 9 |
| 5 | Richard McLachlan | Matthew McLachlan | Escort | Semi-Expert | 2 | 36 |
| 6 | Dave Goulding | Matthew Clark | 309 | Semi-Expert | 2 | 51 |
| 7 | Robert Jacobs | Michael Campbell | Sunbeam | Expert | 3 | 53 |
| 8 | Mark Browell | Tim Warburton | Nova | Semi-Expert | 7 | 55 |
| 9 | Chin | Andy Coshan | Manta | Expert | 10 | 42 |
| 10 | Simon Cox | Peter Cox | 105 | Novice | 12 | 69 |
| 11 | Mike Dowling | Steve Brown | Quattro | Novice | 14 | 53 |
| 12 | Phil Kendall | Bob Wisniewski | Nova | Semi-Expert | 27 | 85 |
| 13 | Andrew Mansbridge | Phil Harris | Audi 80 | Novice | 34 | 69 |
| 14 | Michael Church | Greg Phillips | Micra | Novice | 44 | 57 |
| 15 | Mike Rose | Chris Rose | Mini | Beginners | 57 | 41 |