RTG The Daily Dispatch EL CLAVEL 2026 - Day 0 - Flipbook - Page 14
Day 5: Corias to La Franca, 18 September 2026
Text & photos: gerardbrown.co.uk
appetite, with the third acting as an effective digestion aid
after we’d eaten our fill.
The Kavanagh’s, nursed the Frazer Nash to the Test and
it was sat in the car park with its chain-driven innards on
full display. Eric and John were rifling through their spares
box looking for that elusive “missing link” and a bushing to
keep the sprockets running straight.
Another wet Regularity, the Cruz de la Collada, put the
crews’ map-reading skills to the test on the way to a Time
Control in the café of the Soto de Dueñas kart track. The
Test that followed this refreshment break comprised two
laps of a compact, billiard-board-smooth track featuring
more turns than a summer season in Blackpool. And, to
carry the simile forward, there were some very spirited
performances for the rest of the Rally to enjoy as they
sipped coffee on the terrace.
Craig and Agnes McWilliam, 1937 Frazer Nash TT Replica
When it rains? Eric and John Kavanagh, 1934 Frazer Nash TT Replica
Michael Cotter and Mark Brien, 1938 Frazer Nash-BMW 328
A bulletin cancelled the day’s final Regularity due to
potentially long delays at a set of roadworks. Instead the
Rally made a beeline towards the ocean, night halt and MTC
in the Mirador La Franca. After five challenging days, the
sweeps and some of the crews were almost as busy as the
bar staff.
It was especially busy in the chain gang corner, where Eric
and John had managed to get their Frazer Nash through
to the end of the day. A mammoth task of rebuilding the
gearbox, with three out of their four gears working again,
was finished in time for dinner. Fellow chain gangers, Craig
and Agnes McWilliam, had lost some of their gears just
before lunch and finished off with a complete carburettor
rebuild shortly before dinner.
Tomorrow we draw the curtain down on El Clavel and,
with all crews accounted for, tonight we enjoyed a little of
that Friday feeling.
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