Finally, the UK went to Group A - and had to say goodbye to the front-running Capri, since its clever homologation was no longer valid in Group A. But hey, the car had been dominant in its class since 1974, so perhaps it was about time.
The big class was now dominated by Rover, and especially the three TWR prepared semiworks cars of Soper, Allam and Lovett. Competition was scarce, the Opel Monza of Lanfranchi was down on power, Brodie's Mitsubishi too ntested, Percy's Toyota Supra too non-homologated and the two BMWs were too late.
Class B was weak at the start, but it went better when the MG Metro turbo appeared to give the two Alfas a little competition. One of these Alfas, the ICS car of Pete Hall, was soon taken over by Andy Rouse (whose Rover plans came to nothing) and he had a good string of finishes. Irvine and Dooley, the other Alfa, were not in the same but late in the season the Metros were.
Class C had a lot of new blood in the form of the Ford Escort RS 1600i, a sort of homologation special but in the end Minshaw and his Golf narrowly beat all of them in the championship. But who was the overall champion? One of the Rovers was destined to do so, but endless protests, court hearings, counter protests and so on only were decided in July 1984; all TWR Rovers were disqualified from the championship for non-complience of valve rockers and modified bodywork; the rear wheel arches were widened inwards so wide tires could be used; according to Major Tom, this was a modification for Africa, where one could encounter a lot of mud on the roads. For some time, TWR was rumoured to mean "third world racing"!
All this meant that the championship went to Rouse, though he had missed the first three races. Second was Minshaw, winning class C and in 13th overall we had class A winner Lanfranchi... Some Internet sources claim Allam as second overall with 53 points, but this must be wrong since his mount was one of the TWR Rovers.
If you think this is a weird season, just take a look at 1984...
The races: |
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