Benson and Hedges Circuit of Ireland Rally 1978: Russell Brookes wins after amazing comeback in the Andrews Heat for Hire Escort

Posted by Scott Coursey 14 October, 2008

circuitofirelan78brookes Benson and Hedges Circuit of Ireland Rally 1978: Russell Brookes wins after amazing comeback in the Andrews Heat for Hire Escort

With Rally Ireland about to hit these shores in a couple of months again, it's time to take a look back when Ireland previously had the best drivers in the world come over and compete on a regular basis, way before the WRC came here.

Of course the Circuit of Ireland was the event that attracted them and in 1978 it was part of the new British Open Championship. The entry was a who's who of the rallying world at the time with Russell Brookes, Hannu Mikkola and Roger Clark in works Escorts, Pentti Airikkala (Chevette HS), Markku Alen (Fiat 131) , Tony Pond (BL TR7), Kyosti Hamalainen (Total Escort), Billy Coleman (Chequered Flag Lancia Stratos), Sarel van der Merwe (Escort), Jimmy McRae (Chevette HS), Brian Culcheth (Opel Kadett) and John Taylor (Escort). Others included, Boyd, the McCartney brothers, Fisher, Lyons, Nelson, Elsmore, Campbell, Smith et al.

The rally started in Bangor from Castle Park for the five day marathon and the event started with a bang literally for Brookes who smacked his Escort on the first stage. He was even lucky to start the event as the car cracked a cylinder head in testing at Boreham just days before the rally. What happened on SS1 was Brookes' co-driver John Brown called "flat" at the Knockagh hairpins and the car vaulted over a bank causing extensive frontal damage and losing around 4mins.

Brookes managed to get the car to the end of the stage with it looking very bent and the mechanics surprisingly got it driveable again. His problems weren't over for he broke the steering linkage near the end of Glendun with Brookes having to climb into the engine bay and operated the throttle to get the car to service. After these dramas he was lying near or in last position overall.

Brookes retells what the mechanics must have thought after his SS1 off:

Somehow I got through the stage and I can remember the expressions in the service area. Oh Christ Brookes has thumped it again.

Quite honestly I don't think they were too interested in seeing whether the car could be fixed but they started changing bits and straightening others, just getting the thing driveable again."

Clip from the '78 Circuit - starts a couple of minutes in:

Brookes then began a charge which was one of the greatest ever seen on the event, where he pushed in atrocious conditions when others held back waiting for the weather to improve. There was quite a bit of trouble that befell a number of his rivals at this early stage in the five day marathon. Hamalainen, the 1977 1000 Lakes winner, had landed his Total Escort on top of a hedge on the downhill hairpins on Knockagh and was out on the first stage. Pond went out with a blown head gasket, Taylor retired with gearbox trouble and Mikkola was in a bog on Glendun. The McCartney's both retired on SS13 (after initially tying for the lead!) as did Billy Coleman as he burnt the Stratos' clutch out trying to remove himself from a ditch.

Jimmy McRae was leading from Alen heading into Galway but the man they had to watch was Brookes who when they reached Galway was up to second from virtually last place and only a minute behind McRae. As they reached Killarney Brookes had the gap down to around 35s. Clark was fourth ahead of Bertie Fisher who was showing a sign of things to come and Pentti Airikkala was sixth after suffering gearbox trouble.

As the rally headed into Brookes' favourite terrain on the Sunday Run around Killarney Brookes took the lead despite a scare when he clipped a gate. Meanwhile Fisher was out with clutch trouble and as the crews headed north Airikkala retired with engine failure and McRae's Chevette dropped onto three valves but he was able to hold off Alen who vowed he would only be back if the rally was in the world championship - he never returned.

So it was Brookes, who through his gritty determination and never giving up, that won probably his most remarkable rally as he defied huge odds to beat the world's best. Why he never got a crack at the WRC remains a mystery though Boreham's obsession with Finns had a lot to do with it. He arrived at Bangor seafront with a victory margin of over four minutes to McRae. The sterile modern WRC could well learn from this epic event of how to create a real and true narrative for rallying today.

Sources: The Circuit of Ireland Rally Fifty Years On by Sammy Hamill

Ten Years Ago - an article in the 1988 Circuit of Ireland Programme by Sammy Hamill

McRae got second on an event he would soon come to dominate:

Circuit of Ireland 1978 Top Ten Results:

1. R. Brookes/J. Brown (Escort RS 1800)

2. J. McRae/T. Harryman (Vauxhall Chevette HS)

3. M. Alen/I. Kivimaki (Fiat Abarth 131)

4. R. Clark/J. Porter (Escort RS 1800)

5. G. Elsmore/S. Harrold (Escort RS 1800)

6. N. Smith/I. Turkington (Porsche Carrera)

7. B. Culcheth/N. Wilson (Opel Kadett)

8. B. Nelson/M. Neill (Porsche Carrera)

9. H. Inurrieta/Dave West (Escort RS 2000)

10. S. Campbell/D. Stanford (Escort RS 2000)

Alen hated the rally because he thought it was too tough, though he still finished third:

A 500 Benson and Hedges Circuit of Ireland Rally 1978: Russell Brookes wins after amazing comeback in the Andrews Heat for Hire Escort

Some model cars produced from the event:

KMD Models: Brookes

KMD56F Benson and Hedges Circuit of Ireland Rally 1978: Russell Brookes wins after amazing comeback in the Andrews Heat for Hire Escort

Arena Models: Pentti Airikkala

ARE302C Benson and Hedges Circuit of Ireland Rally 1978: Russell Brookes wins after amazing comeback in the Andrews Heat for Hire Escort

GB Model Series: Hannu Mikkola

Escort%20MK2%20Ireland%201978 Benson and Hedges Circuit of Ireland Rally 1978: Russell Brookes wins after amazing comeback in the Andrews Heat for Hire Escort