I spotted this photo of Bob and John Couch's Escort taken at Mystery Creek in '78.
Mike Marshall was driving the car for the Motogard event as Bob had been in the States and wasn't sure if he would have time to prepare for the rally when he returned ( although he did return and drove Stu McBride's Escort ).
I asked Bob to send me his memories of this photo and he thankfully obliged...
" Memories indeed !
I had been in the States & got back about 2 weeks
before the start of rally nz
by which time MM had the drive of my car with my bro as co-driver. They
were running really well
until Mystery Creek where MM decided on a shortcut & was according to
brother John going real quick when they went in as MM had accelerated hard upon sighting
the ditch to apparently
try for the big jump ... didnt work! John was a couple of days in
hospital as was the car.
I got to drive Stuart McBride's 2 litre escort -starting car #76 (last car)
as a late entry. I actually
believe we went onto being in 7th
place overall on the second
day,despite visiting a farm through a fence somewhere outside Puke, when
the front struts on Stu's
car suddenly cried enough and we skidded to a halt on the sumpguard on
some gravel road down
country. Despite this it was one of my most enjoyable and memorable
events.
Im sure it was for
Stuart too !! "