rallyroots.com results@rallyroots.com
rallyroots.com
rallyroots.com

rally results service


Unless otherwise clearly indicated, results on this site have been declared final and are therefore not subject to query or protest

Ilkley Jubilee Historic Rally

Sponsored by Crossley Evans Ltd

Ilkley & District Motor Club

24th-25th October 2026


Ilkley Jubilee Historic Rally 2026
Winners: Nick Bloxham/Oli Waldock (Ford Escort)
Photograph: © Phil Andrews

Organiser: Ilkley & District Motor Club

Date: 24th-25th October 2026

Clerk of the Course: Joe Mallinson

Route: 180 Miles (6 Regs, 10 Tests)

Base: Otley

Starters: 83


After the untimely death of Ian Mitchell earlier in the year, the 2026 Ilkley Jubilee was under new management, but retained its format of demanding tests and regularities in North Yorkshire.

The event consisted of three rallies, the main event being the Jubilee Historic, a two day rally that was the final round of the HRCR Club Championship. Alongside this there was the Ilkley Run, a Targa, this used the same route, but with simpler regularity navigation. A third event, a Beginners Rally, joined the fray for the Sunday sections, this was a round of the HRCR Beginners Championship.

Torrential rain greeted crews at the Otley start and this continued for most of Saturday evening, where three regularities and a TC section were tackled.

Forty-nine cars in the Historic Rally took the flag from Otley's Market Square, and they were followed by eighteen Targa competitors.

The opening regularity started just north of the host town at Farnley and looped around to finish near Pool-in-Wharfdale. There were three timing points in the just under eight miles. The father and son team of Nick Pullan/Andy Pullan (Peugeot 205 GT) put in the best performance here, two seconds ahead of Darell Staniforth/Henry Carr (Toyota Corolla).

The second reg used the lanes to the south of Arthington, and included the tricky triangle at Eccup, where there was a Secret Check to judge whether the correct route had been followed. A number of crews, including Ken Binstead/Sarah Binstead (Datsun 240Z) and Martin Leonard/Jason Murphy (VW Golf GTi), missed this check and added a minute to their total.

Martin Payton/Miles Fieldhouse (Volvo PV544) picked up the least penalties on the reg and this moved them up to a shared second place with Pullan/Pullan. The lead was now held by Mick Valentine/Ryan Pickering (Ford Escort), who were looking for a hattrick of HRCR series wins, after they'd taken victory on both the Gremlin and HERO Challenge rounds.

Payton had secured the HRCR Drivers' Crown on the HERO Challenge, but the Navigators' title was still up for grabs, with Pickering and Martyn Taylor in contention, although Pickering only had to achieve a top ten finish to clinch his fourth championship win.

The third regularity passed through Wike, Scarcroft and East Rigton and again had three timing points. There was a shuffle in the top places as Payton/Fieldhouse moved to the top spot, with Pullan/Pullan two seconds behind, while Valentine/Pickering were eight seconds off the lead in third.

These three regularities were a warm up for the meat of the Saturday Night feast, a Time Control Section in Bramham Park, home of the Leeds Festival, and familiar to some competitors from the Rally of the Tests. The section had five Time Controls, two Passage Controls and fourteen Route Checks. All the TCs were timed to the minute, other than the final one, which was timed to the second. Penalties were a quarter of the time lost - a dropped minute added 15 seconds to a crew's total.

Bev Blacker/Sam Spencer (Ford Escort) had suffered two time consuming wrong slots on the regularities, but charged through Bramham, being the only crew to complete the section without incurring any penalties, this moved them to eighth place overall. Unfortunately for them, their event finished early on Sunday when a stub axle broke.

Nick Bloxham/Oli Waldock (Ford Escort Mexico) put in the second best performance in Bramham, losing just three seconds; this put them into a seven second lead ahead of Pullan/Pullan, with Valentine/Pickering three seconds further back. Payton/Fieldhouse dropped to tenth place after missing a Passage Control.

Worst off were Colin Jebson/Keith Storer (Volvo Amazon 122S) who landed in a ditch; this cracked the car's wishbone, the broken part piercing a fuel line, which caused a fire. They went no further.

In the Targa Rally, both Joseph Hardy/Adam Blacker (Ford Escort) and Derek Hunnisett/Alan Pettit (Mini 1275GT) had taken turns at leading, but it was the long standing partnership of Bernard Watkins/Adam Roper (Vauxhall Cavalier) who led after Braham, although they were only two seconds ahead of David Blaney/James Crook (Nissan Micra), while Dick Baines/Harry Baines (Mini Cooper S) were in third a further two seconds further back. These three were more than a minute ahead of the remainder of the field.

Ilkley Jubilee Historic & Targa Rally 2026

Storm Boele came in overnight and brought high winds to Northern England. An early morning inspection showed that the scheduled revisit to Bramham, where a complex regularity was planned, could not take place. Initially, it seemed that a test at the venue would go ahead, but branches fell as the course cars checked the route and the test was scrubbed as well.

Sunday's competition therefore started with a short and straightforward regularity skirting Wealstun Prison, and then another to the north of York, taking the route from Nether Poppleton to Dishforth Airfield, where three tests were tackled.

Although Pullan/Pullan closed the gap to the leaders on the opening reg, Bloxham/Waldock extended their advantage over Reg 2/3 and then took fastest time on the first two tests. This meant that by the lunch halt, that was taken after Test 2/4, they held a lead of seventeen seconds over Valentine/Pickering. Pullan/Pullan had dropped to third through the three Dishforth tests, and were now over a minute off the lead.

After the lunch halt, crews returned to Dishforth for a repeat of the three tests. Bloxham/Waldock were fastest on all three and emerged from the airfield with a lead of 27 seconds over Valentine/Pickering. Jon Dunning/Iain Tullie had passed Pullan/Pullan for third place over the three tests.

The fourth Sunday regularity, which ran from Hutton Moor to Wath, made no difference to any of the top ten places, but Reg 2/5 was to be decisive. The reg started near West Tanfield, then passed through Kirkby Malzeard and High Grantley, before finishing at Pateley Bridge. There were four timing points and it was the second of these, near Lower Grantley, that caused difficulties. Amongst others, top seeds John Haygarth/Martyn Taylor (Opel Kadett Rallye), Valentine/Pickering and Payton/Fieldhouse all failed to locate the control, adding two and a half minutes to their totals.

These dramas left Bloxham/Waldock with a lead of 1m52s over Dunning/Tullie, while Pullan/Pullan were back to third, but were almost a minute off second. Valentine/Pickering dropped to fourth, but were well clear of Lewis Ayris/Matt Outhwaite in fifth. Despite a one minute wrong slot into a housing estate on Reg 2/4, Staniforth/Carr were now in sixth.

Three tests and a final regularity completed the competition. The first of these tests was at the Pateley Bridge Showground, this was followed by two more at Coldstones Cut Quarry, before Regularity 2/6, which snaked through the Blubberhouse Resevoirs, took the route to the Finish back at Otley.

The top ten remained largely unaltered during these final sections, the only change was that Staniforth/Carr passed Ayris/Outhwaite for fifth place.

Thus Nick Bloxham/Oli Waldock came home with a victory margin of 1m46s over Jon Dunning/Iain Tullie. Bloxham also had the kudos of having dropped the least time over the event's nine tests, his total was 20 seconds less than Mick Valentine, who was second best.

Nick Pullan/Andy Pullan completed the podium, with the navigator having put in the best performance over the rally's nine regularities, 18 seconds better than Waldock.

Despite their Reg 2/5 error, Mick Valentine/Ryan Pickering finished in fourth, which was sufficient for Pickering to secure the HRCR Club Championship.

In the Ilkley Run, the Targa event, Dick Baines/Harry Baines had taken the lead on the first Dishforth test and then pulled away from the rest of the field, finishing the event almost two minutes clear of Watkins/Roper.

In a similar fashion, in the Beginners Rally, John Pickavance/Paul Nelson (Ford Escort) put themselves at the head of the field on Test 2 and then extended their advantage to almost exactly two minutes by the Finish.


RESULTS