July 13th, 2010
Goodridge, the global leader in performance fluid transfer systems, is launching a UK only, £40,000 prize draw, including the chance to win a 1340cc Suzuki B-King, billed as ‘the Ultimate Street Bike’.
The company, which is celebrating its 40th year in business, is offering anyone who buys one of its pre-assembled brake line kits for car or motorcycle in the UK from today (January 15), the chance to enter.
Each kit will come with a unique number. To enter, customers simply register their details at www.goodridge-comp.co.uk, or via a link from www.goodridge.net
There will be 12 monthly draws, followed by a final draw with the Suzuki B-King as the top prize, worth £12,000. The B-King, is being customized by Crescent Suzuki and Suzuki GB to include ASV ‘stubbies’, an Akrapovic exhaust system and bodywork fabrication changes, to name a few.
Entries for each monthly draw automatically go forward to the final draw.
Monthly prizes include motorcycle helmets, jackets, racing suits, and tickets to a range of motorsport events in 2010, including the British MotoGP at Silverstone, the British Touring Car Championships and VIP hospitality tickets courtesy of the MSS Colchester Kawasaki superbike team.
Jon Hourihan, Group Head of Sales at Goodridge, said: “This is a way of saying thank you to our core distributor partners and all our customers, who have helped us achieve a great 40 years in business and grow in our retail aftersales market, even during and despite the economic gloom of 2009.
“The growth we have seen is a direct result of our focus on the partnership with our core distributors and their dealers, and all of our customers continuing to choose a product from a reputable, innovative and well established brand.”
Goodridge brake line kits are world renowned for their reliability and safety. Made from PTFE and braided stainless steel, they eliminate poor brake feel, can significantly reduce stopping distance, last for as long as the vehicle and are available to fit all cars and motorcycles by year, make, model and colour, if needed.
Goodridge created this market sector over 35 years ago and although they are often imitated, they are never bettered. Goodridge also holds all necessary safety and compliance certifications and accreditations.
Tags: aeroquip
Posted in Uncategorized
July 13th, 2010
Since the announcement that the Lindisfarne Rally has been cancelled, we have tried to find a suitable replacement but this has not been possible. Therefore as the number of rounds in the championship has been reduced to nine, so a competitor’s best six scores will now count towards their points totals – see championship regulation 3.
Next up is a mention of the 7th rally of the championship the Pendragon Stages. Northallerton, Eden Valley and Kirkby Lonsdale Motor Clubs will once again promote the annual Stobart Rail Pendragon Stages on Sunday 29th August 2010. Regulations have just been released and the organisers are offering 84 miles of stages – full details can be found at the event’s website, www.pendragonstages.co.uk
And finally there’s also some official news of the last rally of this year, the Cheviot Keith Knox. Due to increased ‘Priority One’ military activity on the Otterburn Ranges over the weekend of 23rd/24th October, the Army has withdrawn permission for the rally to take place at that time. Members of the organising team have met with representatives from the MoD to be told that the only possible alternative date for this year’s rally is a fortnight earlier – Sunday 10th October.
Whickham and District Motor Club and Hadrian Motor Sports Club will now host the UTS Cheviot Keith Knox Stages on Sunday 10th October 2010.
Commenting on the change of date, Andy Kobasa the Rally Clerk of the Course, said ‘We are obviously aware that this will not suit everyone but, mindful of the popularity of motorsport on the Otterburn Ranges, we hope that they will understand the reasons for the move and come and join us on 10th October.
Tags: Rally, Tarmacadam
Posted in Uncategorized
July 6th, 2010
Bob Grant and Pete Carstairs picked up yet another win on this weekend’s Crail Stages. Dunfermline Car Club’s annual visit to the derelict naval base in the East Neuk of Fife always provides good competition on good tarmac – and this time with good weather thrown in too !. 8 stages were planned to give 56 challenging miles of rallying for 99 crews. Driving their usual immaculate Subaru Impreza, the local crew were quick out of the blocks to grab a 13 second advantage over the next championship contender. And with enough controlled aggression, they would stretch their lead by being fastest on every stage despite picking up a puncture towards the end of stage 6. By the end of the last stage the difference to their nearest pursuer would be exactly 1 minute and yet again they have collected another maximum set of points.
And their nearest pursuer would be in the shape of Stuart Baillie in another Subaru. This maybe an older version of the Impreza but when prepared by Richard Clark, it’s always going to provide a threat. This was only Stuart’s second rally in the car but he found it quicker than his previous mount and was regularly just behind Grant and Carstairs until a little problem with car cutting out when going over the little loose section that was cutting up on stages 5 and 6. Switching into conservation mode to ensure a finish, he dropped over 20 seconds on the last 2 stages but was still half a minute clear of his nearest rival.
The battle for 3rd and 4th places would see a couple of Ford Escort Mark 2s fight it out all day long. Barry Renwick and Ken Bills were a few seconds quicker than Michael Glendinning and Andrew Roughead on most of the stages but a problem on the penultimate stage would see them drop over 30 seconds and eventually lose the fight by 12 seconds at the end of the day. Although Glendinning had reverted back from the Subaru he used on the Jim Clark, he pushed hard showing the crowds his sideways style of commitment – sometimes down the straights as well as around the corners. He reported no problems apart from the 10 seconds lost at the end of stage 5 when he spun just before the flying finish. Both Glendinning and Renwick would go home with huge smiles on their faces at the end of a tense battle.
Gareth White and Callum Atkinson brought their Citroen C2R2 home fifth after surviving an early scare when he lost the brakes on the first stage; current championship leaders Alistair Hutchinson / St John Dykes were next up despite a small fire in the air filter when in service and also completing the sixth stage with 3 wheels on their car – this was caused by hitting the loose section of road very hard and a tired wheel bearing crying enough; David Hope’s times in his Subaru Impreza improved as the day went on – his co-driver Fiona Gourlay struggled in the morning feeling unwell; Paul Dolan / Derek Fawcett moved up from their usual mount of a Mitsubishi Evo 7 to the latest version, an Evo 10 supplied by MSR, and spent most of the day getting used to the new car and it’s improved performance; problems included a huge spin on the first test when he was first car through after someone dropped engine oil on the racing line and he was another to pick up a puncture on stage 6; Chris Grieve had a steady run as he managed to record a finish after recent reliability issues in the transmission department look to be cured; Michael Davison / Jack Morton’s first rally this year in the Proton was trouble free; Kev Monaghan / Chris Purvis were very happy to make the finish after thinking about putting the car on the trailer after the first stage – very high engine temperatures forced the Corsa crew to short shift for the rest of the rally and a puncture, yes on stage 6, would see them lose over 4 minutes while they stopped to change the deflated corner; newcomers Barrie Thomson / Andrew Irving brought their immaculate Peugeot 106 home in 31st place overall and picked up the Best Improvement on Seeding award having started at number 98; Sarah Hunter’s run in her Peugeot 205 was spoilt when she lost over 2 minutes on stage 6 and finally Chris Clark enjoyed his day in the underpowered Ford Ka that struggled on the fast airfield stages.
Commiserations go to Andrew Plunkett when his Honda Civic’s engine let go on the opening stage; Andrew Fry and Michael Hunter whose Rover struggled with alternator problems from the off until they too stopped with engine problems and finally the husband and wife team of Chris and Katherine Singer who retired with a frustrating misfire.
There’s little change at the top of the driver’s table but Michael Glendinning has now leapfrogged Paul Dolan into second place behind season long leader Alistair Hutchinson. In the co-driver’s table, St John Dykes continues ahead of Andrew Roughead and Michael Lindsay.
Dunfermline Car Club are to be congratulated once again on running a cracking rally despite the internal troubles they endured in the weeks leading up to the event. The next rally in the championship is the Tyneside Stages and that will take place over the military ranges near Otterburn on Sunday 1st August. The event will contain 9 special stages with approximately 90 stage miles on sealed roads and subjective route notes will be available in various formats, the official supplier is Patterson Route notes prepared by “Patterson’s Pacenotes”. Competitors will get an opportunity to carry out a route reconnaissance on the day before the rally. 37 entries have been received already and entries will close on 19th July at noon when the organisers will start seeding but they will continue to accept entries until 27th July.
Tags: Rally, Tarmacadam
Posted in Uncategorized
June 3rd, 2010
Michael’s a winner ! Michael Glendinning and Andrew Roughead driving a Subaru Impreza for the first time brought the car home in an excellent 5th overall and top championship contender on the Jim Clark National Rally. The car was previously used in Ireland before Michael acquired it and he was quickly in the groove setting fast times on the Friday night’s stages. He would re-start on Saturday as second championship contender but still half asleep. Despite a couple of ‘slow’ times he picked up his pace, including a stage win the second time around Eccles, and when Andy Fenwick / Lee Tindall retired they were neatly placed to pick up the pieces. Even a snapped shaft on the very last stage couldn’t slow the boys down to record their first maximum points score of the year.
Following along in second place was Rob Hornshaw and co driver Dave Boyes in their immaculate Ford Escort Mark 2. It was their first appearance of the year and a steady start would see them end Friday night’s stages in 30th overall. It took a couple of tests on Saturday before they could make progress up the leaderboard to finish 18th overall. The afternoon stages in particular were a little nervy as they drove the last 4 stages with the oil warning light on all the time but the engine held out.
Two places behind on the results sheet but right behind in the championship were the evergreen Corsa crew of Kev Monaghan and Chris Purvis. The boys from Tynemouth managed to find a good rhythm in the 1600cc engined car on Friday’s 3 evening tests and keep some of the more powerful motors behind them. They would endure some brake and chassis problems during Saturday but still continued to push hard despite the odd scare in the wet of the early afternoon. However, they kept the car on the road and it was good to see their huge smiles at the end as they were delighted to finish – something of a rarity for them over recent months.
Dave Seed driving his Ford Escort G4 was another happy man at the finish. Dave was teamed up with a new co-driver for the rally and reported only one problem of a puncture on Saturday’s first stage. He picked up the problem early in the stage and lost over 5 minutes to drop to 54th overall. His push over the remaining 6 tests would see him move up the order to end up a fine 26th at the finish. Duncan Wardrop and Ian Crosbie were relieved to complete a rally as they’re still getting used to their new Subaru Impreza. They didn’t suffer any major dramas all rally but gained some valuable seat time as they learnt more about the new car.
Propping up the time sheets after very character building experiences were Paul Hughes / James Knox ( Mitsubishi Evo6 ) and Ross Hunter in his Honda Civic. The Mitsubishi crew from Whickham lost over 20 minutes on the first run through Swinton when they ground to a halt with no fuel. They managed to ‘find some’ and get going again but they just didn’t have enough stages to make an impact on the huge time loss. And finally Ross Hunter, who comes from Newton St Boswells but never really had the opportunity to make use of his local knowledge. He suffered not one but two drive shaft failures – fortunately not on the same test. He lost over 35 minutes on the first run through Wedderburn to drop to last on the road and results. He recorded much more competitive times over the next 3 stages before another shaft went on the second attempt at Swinton – but this time he only lost about 20 minutes. A steady drive through the remaining stages would see him get back to the finish and at least take home some decent championship points.
So what about those crews who never made it back to the Duns finish ? The biggest disappointment must go to Andy Fenwick and Lee Tindall who retired whilst leading the rally. Driving the newly acquired Subaru S8 as campaigned by Richard Burns, the past winners of this rally completed the rally’s first stage, a short dash around the streets and industrial estate of Duns, a mere tenth of a second up on Bob Grant’s Subaru. But over the next 15 miles of Abbey St Bathans, they nailed it to grab a 30 second lead. They would resume on Saturday morning in the head of the rally and were controlling the lead until they entered stage 11 when the front brakes locked on and forced their immediate retirement. Bob Grant and Pete Carstairs endured a fraught rally with a huge spin and mechanical problems and their rally ended on Saturday afternoon when they were still in 3rd place. The diff being the suspected problem. Barry Renwick and Ken Bills moved up from their usual Ford Escort into the ex Steve Simpson Hyundai Accent for this event. Barry only drove the car for a few miles on the day before the rally and started the first stage a little uncertain. His steady run would come to an end on the penultimate stage when, having clawed his way up to 2nd place, he retired with no brakes at the end of the Wedderburn stage. The husband and wife team of Chris and Katherine Singer were making their debut with the ex Andy Fenwick Mitsubishi Evo6 but their run came to an end on stage 10 when they retired with drive shaft problems. And finally the Vauxhall Corsa of Simon Stewart / Doug Levee called it a day after mechanical problems saw them lose over 10 minutes on the last stage of Friday night.
Special thanks go to Organising Committee of the Jim Clark Rally, and in particular Colin Pagan the Rally Manger, for all their efforts in running this classic event. It proved once more to be a very demanding rally both for the car and crew and our annual opportunity to run through the closed public roads of Berwickshire. Great facilities and a great challenge, the rally deserves to be part of our championship.
Now that we’ve reached the halfway point in the championship, we still have Alistair Hutchinson at the head of the driver’s table – a place he’s held since the start of the year. He’s followed by Barry Lindsay, Paul Dolan, Paul Swift and Michael Glendinning. The co-driver’s table is a similar story in that St John Dykes continues ahead of Michael Lindsay, Andrew Lees, Andrew Roughead and now Chris Purvis. And a brief mention of the class leaders too – in class 1 it’s Andrew Fry and Michael Hunter in their Rover 200; class 2 sees Barry and Michael Lindsay in their Peugeot 106 out front; the class 3 leaders are Alistair Hutchinson and St John Dykes ( Renault Clio ); Rob Hornshaw and Dave Boyes lead class 4 in a Ford Escort Mark 2 and the big class is topped by Paul Dolan ( Mitsubishi Evo7 ) and Giles Dykes. It’s interesting to note that in the 5 rallies that have taken place, we’ve had 5 different overall winners. This keeps the championship wide open as we head into the second half of the year.
The next rally that we’re heading to is the D & W Brown Builders (Mull) Stages. This will take place at Crail Raceway on Saturday 3rd July. The regulations have been available for a few weeks now and the organisers are offering 61.6 miles covered in 8 stages. Dunfermline Car Club have already received 24 entries so far and the closing date for entries is 26th June,
Michael Glendinning / Andrew Roughead Subaru Impreza
Tags: Rally, Tarmacadam
Posted in Uncategorized
April 22nd, 2010
with flights resuming we will be back to our full compliment of staff and normal service as of Monday 26th April 2010
thanks for your support and understanding
AS Performance
Tags: disruption, staff
Posted in Uncategorized
April 20th, 2010
20/04/10 – Please be aware that due to our recent refurbishments and the on-going flight disruptions that has stranded some of our staff out of the country, that we are working with skeletal staff and as such we ask that you bear with us during this time as our normal service is severely compromised.
As you will appreciate matters are out of our personal control and as such we have no time-scale currently when normal service can/will be resumed.
Thanks for your understanding and patience
AS Performance
Tags: disruption, staff
Posted in Uncategorized
February 9th, 2010
Bob Grant & Pete Carstairs in their Subaru Impreza
Bob’s back with a bang. Bob Grant and Pete Carstairs returned to the series on the North West Stages and although they would be the first crew home, once again we have another co-driver taking the top honours. After the last event we talked about the youngster Jack Morton setting out on his rallying career but this time it was the turn of a man with many year’s experience. Chris Thirling was a last minute choice of co driver for Darren Doherty but he would step into the ex Tristian Pye Subaru Impreza N12 and end up winning the event.
It was Grant and Carstairs who drove their usual Subaru Impreza with the pace and reliability to lead home the remaining 13 championship crews home. Although never quite on the pace of the winners, the crew suffered on the tight hairpins of the Promenade stages and the slippy, mud covered roads with overshoots were not uncommon. However, they kept the pressure on Doherty / Thirling over the 82 miles of competitive rallying and were just 29 seconds adrift at the finish to claim a magnificent 2nd overall in the event.
And second driver home would be Craig Pennington. Craig is another new name to the series this year and after his non finish on the Christmas Stages he was pleased to get such a strong finish under his belt. Starting from a lowly number of 49, he was quickly on the pace in his Mitsubishi Evo VII and would go into the overnight halt in 16th place. A steady run throughout the 24 stages on Saturday would see him push further up the leader board and end up a fine 12th overall.
Malcolm Davey and Paul Slingsby drove their Ford Escort MkI home to 16th overall and take 3rd place crew. The vastly experienced crew from Bradford couldn’t quite match their feat of winning the class and claiming 14th overall as they did on last year’s North West Stages but they would still take home a good bagful of points.
The Durham Team of Mark and Matt Thompson (Peugeot 206), Alistair Hutchinson/St John Dykes (Renault Clio) and Paul Dolan/Derrick Fawcett (Mitsubishi Evo VII) would finish in 18th, 19th and 22nd overall.
Last time out, Steve Doherty / Peter Grant blew the engine of their Ford Escort and only managed to get a new motor installed the day before the rally. The boys’ hopes for a good run only lasted until stage 15 when they retired with overheating problems. Also unlucky not to make it back to the finish were the father and son pairing of John and Chris Haygarth. Started from number 57, they obviously revelled when driving their Subaru Impreza in the dark to go into the overnight parc ferme a fantastic 9th overall. A good run on the Saturday would end after the last Promenade stage and they were still in a fine 13th overall – the reason for retirement being a windscreen problem.
It may be the first weekend in February but after 3 rallies, we now go into the ‘mid season break’ for 11 weeks now. A quick look at the leading positions in the championship and we have Alistair Hutchinson at the top of the driver’s table ahead of Paul Swift with Malcolm Davey and Paul Dolan in joint 3rd and across in the co driver’s section we have St John Dykes leading Andrew Lees and Giles Dykes. In the classes we have Class 1 being led by Andrew Fry and Michael Hunter; class 2 it’s Barry and Michael Lindsay; in class 3 we have Alistair Hutchinson and St John Dykes and finally class 5 is headed by Paul Dolan and Giles Dykes.
A special mention to the organisers of the Legend Fires North West Stages for putting on a very professional rally. All the indoor facilities at the Norbreck Castle Hotel were fantastic; the opportunity for spectators to view cars in action on the Promenade stage just over the road from Rally HQ was great and all the competitors who made it back to the finish would know that they had completed a brilliant event for the clubman.
So after the upcoming 11 week break, we’ll have our first rally of the year in Scotland. The Squarepage Systems Stages will be organised by Dunfermline Car Club and be based at Ingliston. They will be using a new part of the venue which is 100% tarmac but has never been used for motorsport before. Competitors will have to cross a road but it is a private road which will be closed to the public and so no tax or insurance is required. The organisers are keen to stress that this rally is NOT a re-run of the event scheduled there on 13th March. There will be using completely new routes allowing for much more flexibility and more miles. They may be adding £20 to the entry fee as they may have television coverage (an hour on Motors TV) with a DVD going to all that paid the entry. So it looks like 12 stages with approximately 45 stage miles and television coverage with regulations due out soon.
And a quick mention for the new rally in our championship this year – the Jim Clark National. This event will take place on the Friday 28th and Saturday 29th May and is part of 6 separate ‘rallies’ happening in the famous area of Duns that weekend. This is a rare chance to compete over closed public roads and the organisers promise that Rally Guide 1 is due for publication anytime now and should contain basic information about all of the Jim Clark rallies. Event regulations and entry forms are due out on the 28th March with entries closing at the discounted rates on May 4th.
All information is publicised on their website www.jimclarkrally.com and you should be aware that the organisers do not print or send paper copies of anything unless requested. Anyone having trouble accessing the site should contact either Colin Pagan, on 07967 478765 or David Malthouse on 07792 226914
Tags: Rally, Tarmacadam
Posted in Event news, Uncategorized