Club and Event Officials

Tony Newman

Tony’s interest in rallying started in the early 1960’s (well before he was allowed to drive on the public road), sparked by the combination of Mini Coopers and Monte Carlo; watching the starts of both the 1968 London-Sydney and 1970 World Cup rallies are early memories.

As soon as a driving licence and his first car had been acquired, he managed in 1969 to win his first ever competitive event (!) – a closed-to-club autotest. That lead to an active involvement in rallying while at Oxford University with OUMDC (Oxford Univeristy Motor Drivers Club). This was both as a competitor in a Mini Cooper S on road events (including Castrol Motoring News rounds, although almost exclusively in Wales) and also as an organiser – OUMDC ran the much-missed Targa Rusticana. Tony was Assistant Clerk of the Course on the 1971 event, the penultimate “real” Targa.

After coming down from Oxford, pressure to complete his professional training, and build a career, moved motorsport to the background until the revival of the Targa as an Historic Event proved irresistible and he renewed his active involvement as part of the organising team for that event. At that time, OUMDC, through John Brown, had very close links indeed with HERO and thus began Tony’s involvement with HERO events from the very first Le Jog. He, with his wife Chris, competed – and won medals - on a number of HERO events in (inevitably) a Mini Cooper S. Today Tony both provides the results service to HERO and also acts as HERO club chairman.

John Wood

John started his rallying career in late ’59 whilst at the RAF College Cranwell and was soon involved both as a competitor (driving mainly, but navigating also on occasions) and event organiser.  His successes behind the wheel were limited by the constraints of being a serving officer, but his all-round abilities were obviously recognised as John Hopwood invited him to join Ecurie Cod Fillet before he was posted to Cyprus in ’62.  Whilst on tour there, he was instrumental in laying the groundwork for what was to develop into the Rally of Cyprus.

John counts himself fortunate to have been rallying alongside some of the very best, including Eric Carlsson – they both rallied the amazing Saab 96 2-stroke.  Also on his list of favourite cars was the Riley 1.5 His one big regret was not being able to get leave to drive on the 1968 London-Sydney event.  Competition aside, John was probably responsible for setting up the first radio network used on the Lombard RAC in 1971 – access to RAF stores proved very useful!

It was in the era of the Motoring News events that John first came across John Brown, but it was not until the early days of LE JOG that the contact was re-established.  John then became HERO Chief Marshal immediately following the first Classic Malts in 1998 and his involvement has since grown.  Under the leadership of Peter Nedin, John has taken on the mantle of Deputy Clerk of the Course and is responsible for route work on the Malts, LE JOG and the Summer Trial.

John’s forte is map-work; he has the ability to glance at a section and see immediately what sort of navigation exercise to set competitors in order to give them a challenge.  Add to that his attention to detail and you have an organiser described equally as devious and brilliant (depending on whether you plotted it right or not)! 

Chrys Worboys

From as long as he can remember, certainly during his short trouser era, Chrys has had a keen interest in Motor Sport. This interest grew into active participation during the early 70’s when he became involved with organising and providing radio communications for National A & B stage rallies.

Chrys’s involvement grew along with his reputation and in 1985 he was invited by the Motor Sports Association to become a founder member of the MSA’s Radio Co-ordinator Group with specific responsibilities for events within his native Yorkshire and not so native North Wales.

Over the next thirty plus years he has assisted with the organisation and operation of numerous national and international events spending many years within the organising committee of what is now the Wales Rally GB. Currently he is an Assistant Clerk of the Course on the Trackrod Rally Yorkshire the final round of the British Rally Championship. He is also Chief Marshal & Communications Officer for the Roger Albert Clark Rally.

During 1998 Chrys discovered the delights of Classic Rallying in the form of a wet, windy and cold Le Jog regularity run around Catterick Garrison. 

From that point he became a regular HERO marshal and has subsequently shared his time between organising and running safety radio schemes for modern stage rallies combined with marshalling, along with marshalling on classic events.

Again in 1998 Chrys was invited to sit on the MSA’s Rallies Committee and has spent the following twelve years (barring 2007) assisting the committee in taking the sport forward.

In 2009 Chrys accepted the role of Chief Marshal for HERO which he says is ‘the biggest feather in my cap to date’