April 9th, 2011
Pendragon Stages 2010
Unfortunately we have to announce another change to the championship calendar, this time it’s for the Pendragon Stages.
For some years now the rally has enjoyed a traditional slot on the Sunday of August Bank Holiday weekend. The event organisers were hit earlier this year when they learnt that they wouldn’t be able to use the Lowther Estate roads for competition. However, Kirkby Lonsdale Motor Club, Eden Valley Motor Club and Northallerton Automobile Club believed that they’d be able to run a ‘single venue’ type rally on Warcop Ranges, near Penrith.
The Army has recently increased military activity on the Ranges over the weekend of 27th and 28th August and now withdrawn permission for the rally to take place at that time.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 on Sunday 22nd May. The rally organisers have taken the bold decision to run the event rather than lose the opportunity to visit a rarely used venue and the North of England Tarmacadam Championship will continue to support them.
We are aware that this is not ideal timing as it ‘clashes’ with the recce for the Jim Clark National running the following weekend. However, for those competitors thinking of contesting both the Pendragon and the Jim Clark rallies, it is still possible to do a recce on Thursday the 26th May for that event.
On the flip side of this change, we will reduce the congestion in the published calendar of having 4 rallies in 6 weekends between the Tyneside and Lindisfarne Rallies. There will now be a 2 week gap after the Tyneside Stages before the Solway Coast Rally takes place and then another 4 weeks before the Lindisfarne. Keep an eye on the Pendragon website for more information www.pendragonstages.co.uk
Tags: championship, Rally, Tarmacadam
Posted in Event news
March 17th, 2011
Ingliston 2010
We have a further update on the next 2 rallies in the championship, the Ingliston Stages and the Jim Clark.
Dunfermline Car Club has now published the Regulations for the next rally which will be known as the D & W Brown Builders (Mull) Stages 2011. Once again the rally will be based at Ingliston Showground near to Edinburgh Airport and take place on Saturday 23rd April. Scrutineering will take place between 17:00 and 19:30 on Friday 22nd and also on the Saturday morning between 07:00 and 08:45. The Organisers are proposing to run 8 special stages covering 40 miles of good tarmac. Entries will cost £195 and can be made from now until the closing date which is Saturday 16th April. For full details, go to the event’s website – www.dunfermline.cc/events/dw-brown-builders-(mull)-stages-2011/111
A quick update on the 5th round in the championship – the Jim Clark National. The organisers have updated their website to accept online entries as from today, Monday 14th March.
The headline details are: – 118 special stage miles for an Entry Fee of £645; based at Kelso and run on the evening of Friday 27th and all day Saturday 28th May; a recce is available on either the Sunday or Thursday before the rally; scrutineering will be on Friday 27th. There are more details at the rally’s website – www.jimclarkrally.com/
Tags: Rally, Tarmacadam
Posted in Event news
February 13th, 2011
As mentioned in the last bulletin, Dunfermline Car Club were going to run the Ingliston Stages on Saturday 26th March but following the changes in personnel at the club this has now been postponed. The revised date is Saturday 23rd April and the location of the rally will be the usual old race track next to Edinburgh Airport. The new team are working on the details of the event and hope to have the Regulations available sometime next month. These will be available from the club’s website www.dunfermline.cc
There’s also news about the 5th round in the championship – the Jim Clark National. The organisers have issued ‘rally guide 1’ which provides lots of preliminary information about the event. Some of the key points are
• Entry fee will be £645 and you can place your entry between 14th March and 3rd May but after the 4th May, the fee is increased
• A Recce is available on either Sunday 22nd or Thursday 26th May
• Scrutineering will be on Friday 27th
• Rally starts later on the evening of 27th
• Centralised servicing is based at Kelso Racecourse
• Rally finishes on Saturday afternoon, 28th
Full details can be found at the rally’s website – www.jimclarkrally.com
Tags: championship, Rally, Tarmacadam
Posted in Event news
February 9th, 2011
Alistair Hutchinson and St John Dykes take the championship spoils after a difficult North West Stages. Driving their usual Renault Clio, the Northallerton crew will be the first to admit it wasn’t an easy victory. And that’s not just because of the horrible weather – lots of wind and rain on Friday night and then just lots and lots of rain on Saturday’s 20 stages.
The Teesdale boys probably thought that after driving most of their last rally with no assistance to the steering, they could forget about any further possible problems after a pipe change before this rally. However after the 4 stages on Friday night, a new power steering pump had to be fitted before parc ferme. Then they suffered a problem with some wheel studs before a drive shaft went on the 4th visit to Weeton and they ended up with a stage maximum time. A steady run over the last 6 stages got them home to a fine 10th overall and top championship points.
Next up in 14th overall was Pete Gibson and Chris Dodds. Pete is returning to the series after being runner up in 2009 when he was driving a Nova. He’s now acquired a Mitsubishi Evo 6 and looking to get higher up the running order. The plan didn’t work for this event as he was seeded at 61 after finishing inside the top 20 on the 2009 version of North West. However, he immediately set about proving the organisers wrong and finished Friday’s 4 stages in 29th place, despite the demister not working. He struggled on all rally with the problem but continued to push when he could see properly and moved up the order to a fine 2nd place championship finish.
A further 3 places behind after the final stage was Craig Pennington. He was running his Evo 9 version of a Mitsubishi and was on the pace start from the off and completed day 1 in 7th place. He maintained that speed and position despite fighting with a dodgy diff that kept him on his toes for the rest of the event. This all became academic when he was awarded a 5 minute penalty for early arrival at stage 20.
In fourth place for the championship, were the father and son pairing of Michael and Josh Davison. The crew from Tynemouth MC don’t make many appearances together in their Proton Satria so it was good to see them feature on the rally. Their only problem was a shattered nearside window after they came too close to a chicane. A temporary fix with some polythene kept them ‘watertight’ for the rest of the day and got them to the end of the rally in 20th place. Just 2 seconds further back after 75 competitive miles were Stephen Bethwaite / Ann Forster in their Vauxhall Nova – they struggled with no starter on Saturday and were glad of a few marshal’s assistance when they drowned their engine in one of Weeton’s puddles. A quick dose of WD40 later, a push start and they’re back in the rally, albeit with iffy steering and lots of water in the car. Still they made it back to the Norbreck Castle and a hat trick of class wins on this rally. Geoff Simpson and Mick Johnson finished 6th for the championship with a mainly trouble free drive – that is apart from the barrel that jumped out from one of the Promenade chicanes and damaged the Mitsubishi Evo X front panel and wing ! Richard and Andy Barnard were next up in their Subaru Impreza. Making their debut in the series, the son and father from Cockermouth settled in with a steady run and were happy with some good points. And our last scorers were the Spadeadam crew of Nigel Hepburn and James McWhir. Having just taken delivery of the Peugeot 206, the first drive of the car was over the start ramp so they were delighted just to record a finish.
So what happened to some of our other runners and riders in the atrocious weather conditions ? Chris Myers / Matt Whattam were charging along in 17th place when the turbo expired on the Evo 9 after stage 11; Paul Swift suffered in the darkness of Friday night with alternator problems and after 4 stages he was in 88th place. A string of top ten times on Saturday moved him up the order to 57th before he stopped in the mud on stage 17; Peppe Planeta didn’t make around the first stage after attacking too hard and coming off second best to one of Weeton’s kerbs; Duncan Wardrop and Ian Crosbie were going well in 9th place overall when the management warning light starting illuminating on the last Promenade stages and they never made it to the final loop of stages; Mark and Matt Thompson changed rear shockers on Saturday but the driver still felt he wasn’t in control of the car and he stopped on the final stage along with Barrie Thomson / Jerry Hettrick. The Carlisle team suffered with an oil leak on Saturday afternoon but were ‘topping up’ between stages and although a new oil cooler at final service helped, they lost out just before the finish when lying 20th overall; Paul Dolan / Derrick Fawcett struggled from the off and eventually retired after stage 14 with mechanical woes. It’s rare to report that we had more retirements than finishers on the rally but that just confirms how testing the event is.
And so with the first 3 rounds of the series run, we have Chris Grieve still leading the driver’s championship from Alistair Hutchinson, Paul Swift, Craig Pennington and Barry Lindsay. There’s only 4 points separating these guys while across in the co-driver’s section Ann Forster already has a 10 points lead over Paul Makepeace with St John Dykes, David Cox and then Michael Lindsay close behind.
Congratulations to Motor Sport (North West) Ltd for putting together a fantastic show over the whole rally weekend. The Legend Fires North West Stages is always a real, nonstop challenge for competitors with it’s stages run in many different conditions. This year the organisers had to cope with the very adverse weather conditions as well as many road works that affected the link sections between the 24 planned stages. Amazingly, every stage ran and mostly on time too !
There’s now a 7 week break before the next scheduled round of the championship which is the Ingliston Stages. This is planned for Saturday 26th March and the location is the usual old race track next to Edinburgh Airport. Dunfermline Car Club are the organisers of the rally but as most of you reading this will be aware, the club are at a crossroads and considering their future direction. An extra ordinary meeting of the members will decide the next steps and once more details are available, we’ll have an official update to keep you all in the picture.
Tags: Rally, Tarmacadam
Posted in Event news
January 18th, 2011
Paul Dolan / Rachael Fawcett in action
Swift by name and swift by nature. Paul Swift and co-driver David Cox produced a controlled drive to finish top crew on this weekend’s Cartersport Jack Frost Stages. Driving their immaculate Ford Escort Mark2 the local boys were determined to improve on their finish on the Christmas Stages. The lack of snow and ice this time around meant they could attack the 8 stages with more confidence than before. Their tyre choice was much better too and the precision driving expert was able to ‘do the day job’ to great effect. In the opening stages he set a couple of 4th quickest times before moving up to 3rd overall at the halfway point. After lunch he was one of the crews to struggle with the conflicting stage furniture / diagram information that caused some competitors to take the wrong route on stage 5. The stage was eventually cancelled so Paul and David consolidated with more consistent, neat and tidy driving to maintain position. Going into the final stage and the darkness, Paul decided not to gamble on pushing any harder and settled for a fine 3rd overall.
Although they were our top crew, Ann Forster finished in second place overall alongside the unregistered Martyn Tinker. Ann had ‘jumped ship’ from Stephen Bethwaite’s Nova for the day and her regular driver was there supporting her with a huge smile on her face all day as she enjoyed the Lotus power so much.
Next up was the Scottish pairing of Stuart Baillie and Dave Cranston. The boys were making their debut in this year’s championship and brought along the recently re-fettled Subaru Impreza. With a gearbox returned from TegSport and fitted in the week leading up to the rally, they thought they were ready to go until the clutch was started acting up when the car was loaded onto the trailer for Saturday’s run to scrutineering. This was fixed before the long drive to Croft and then it became apparent during the rally’s opening stage that all was not well with the head gasket. More time was lost on stage 2 when they stalled after a spin. Stages 3 and 4 were improvements before they went to lunch in 10th place. Top 3 times on the next 2 saw them move up to 4th before the final dark stage. As neither of the team had been to Croft before they lost a bit of pace on the final run to end up a fine 5th overall. A character building experience that earned them a good bagful of Championship points too.
Next up was another new crew to the championship – Simon and Janice Moore. Driving their Renault Clio, the husband and wife pairing scored consistently top 9 times all day to earn them a 6th place finish. Their only problem was a nearside rear disc that was fouling on the wheel. Once they realised this, they managed to change the offending item in the lunch break and then continue their march up the leaderboard with an improved braking system.
Chris Grieve and Paul Makepeace continued on from their fine 7th overall at the snowy Christmas Stages to take the same result on the return visit to Croft. Although part of their result last time was attributed to having the right tyres on their Peugeot 106, the boys showed it wasn’t the only reason for their success. Chris capitalised on his circuit racing experience of Croft and showed he’s got plenty of driving skill too. A spin on the first proper stage left them down in 20th place and with plenty of commitment they worked their way back up the leaderboard and 4th championship crew. A further 23 seconds back were the Northallerton AC members Alistair Hutchinson / St John Dykes. The local crew managed to wheel out their Renault Clio after their recent troubles but they’d still brought the troubles along too. On the opening stage they lost all power steering. The issue turned out not to be a jumped belt but damaged pipe. As they didn’t have a spare, plan B was to stop any further leaks and build up the arm muscles. Unfortunately for them the stage layouts contained many tight chicanes that most crews were unhappy with. 7 stages later, an exhausted Alistair was happy to finish 8th overall. And in 9th place were Dave Conley / Mike Scrimgour with their Historic specification Hillman Avenger. Having solved their head gasket problem from their last outing, it would be the gearbox to give them grief this time around. They lost 5th gear on stage 4 and then 3rd would become troublesome in the afternoon. However, they continued to push and the box held out to the end.
Next up were the Lindsays in 11th overall but an unfamiliar low position in relation to our championship. They suffered in the tight chicanes and rarely having the right tyres on for the right weather conditions; in 15th overall were an untroubled Chris Anderson / Chris Thirling getting a second successive finish; Rob Hornshaw and Dave Boyes ended up 16th after 2 minutes of penalties were applied for ‘taking an incorrect route’ – a real shame as they would have been 4th overall otherwise; Neil Ayre was happy after his trouble free day to end up 18th overall; Chris Myers / Matt Whattam were next up in a very battered looking Mitsubishi after getting too close to a chicane on stage 1; Paul Dolan was another to lose out with the chicanes as he had to use reverse gear often to get around some of them even though his handbrake was working well; Barrie Thomson / Jerry Hettrick were pleased to be very much on the pace of the class 2 masters – the Lindsays – until they completed one more loop than necessary on stage 7; Bill Bates and daughter Kari Bosworth managed to get their smoking Lotus Elise to the finish and it’s scheduled rebuild; Geoff Simpson / Mick Johnson were happy to finish with an unmarked or damaged Mitsubishi this time even though they lost out with a wrong tyre choice from the off; Kevin Hullah and Chris Harding return after gearbox woes last time netted 55th; followed by David Martin and Dave Bell whose Vauxhall Astra struggled with fuel problems on stage 2 and left them in 76th position but they would recover to 56th by the end and finally 1 second behind in 57th place was Richard Clark / James McWhir in an ageing, mechanically standard Peugeot 205 that had over 110K on the clock – apart from a small fire they had no problems.
So after the opening 2 rounds at Croft, the driver’s championship is led by Chris Grieve and followed by Paul Swift, Barry Lindsay, Chris Myers and Stuart Baillie while the co-driver’s table is headed by Paul Makepeace from the tying pair of David Cox and Ann Forster followed by Michael Lindsay and Matt Whattam.
Special thanks go to Darlington DMC for organising the Cartersport Jack Frost Stages. They managed to provide warmer weather than last year and despite losing a couple of stages, put on another stern, testing rally. They’re already talking with the Croft Circuit owners about next year’s event and considering improvements to make the show better.
The third round of the championship is the Legend Fires North West Stages. This is run over the weekend of Friday 4th and Saturday 5th February and will be based once again around the Norbreck Castle Hotel in Blackpool. As usual there will be a ‘Rally Village’ where all the pre rally stuff, start, parc ferme, finish and presentation will take place there. A couple of the Friday night stages are run just over the road from the Norbreck so spectators are well looked after too. The organisers have already received more than the 100 entries that they will start with so if you haven’t put your entry in yet it’s highly unlikely that you’ll get a run. Full details are available the event’s website www.nwstages.co.uk
Tags: Rally, Tarmacadam
Posted in Event news
January 11th, 2011
Performance Friction RH665 brake fluid
RH665 is not the same as other Racing Brake Fluids, it has been specially formulated for racing applications where braking systems operate at very high temperatures.
It is a complex mixture of Glycol Ether Borate Esters and Polyalkylene Glycol Ethers together with advanced corrosion inhibitors, antioxidants and other modifiers. The result is an exceptional brake fluid with not only a very high boiling point but which also conforms to FMVSS 116 DOT 4 and maintains its class leading viscosity, lubricity and compressibility performance at extreme temperatures to ensure braking system reliability and performance and a Rock Hard pedal.
RH665 has the highest guaranted minimum Dry Boiling Point (ERBP) of any DOT 4 Brake Fluid, 325oC, to guard against vapor lock and give a Rock Hard pedal even under extreme racing conditions. Many manufacturers quote “Typical” boiling points – do not be deceived, this is not the minimum specification that you could receive, it can be the result of a test on a single sample. “Typical” values for RH665 are invariably higher than 325oC. A similar situation applies to “Wet” Boiling Point, RH665 is guaranted to be above 195oC “typical” values are much higher and at least the equal of other leading brands.
Boiling Point is of course not the whole story, with Brake Fluid it is essential to have the correct balance of properties to get a good overall result. Low Viscosity is very important to ensure a good bleed, low Compressibility is essential for a firm pedal and Lubricity is vitally important for efficiency, pedal return and life of the brake system.
Beware: Many Racing Brake Fluids do not meet the Viscosity requirements of DOT4.
RH665 Racing Brake Fluid conforms to and exceeds all aspects of the U.S. FMVSS 116 DOT 4 specification. This means that it is has been tested and is compatible with all the rubbers (SBR, EPDM etc) and metals commonly used in brake systems and will not damage them. It also means, of course, that RH665 is entirely street legal.
Beware: Many Racing Brake Fluids on the market do not conform to FMVSS specifications and therefore cannot be guaranteed not to damage your brake system.
RH665 can safely be mixed with other DOT 4 Brake Fluids however this will degrade its exceptional properties.
RH665 is not suitable for use in contact with Magnesium components or in mineral oil based systems. For best results bleed the system with fresh fluid before each event and when the brakes have been excessively hot and/or the conditions are especially humid.
Always follow the vehicle manufacturers recommendations.
……not the same as other Racing Brake F luids
PFC RH665 DOT 4 RACING BRAKE FLUID
Type Synthetic Specification FMVSS 116 DOT 4
ERBP Dry Boiling Point 325oC*
ERBP Wet Boiling Point 195oC*
Viscosity at 100oc 2.6 cSt
Viscosity at – 40oC 1475 cSt pH 7.12
Density at 20oC 1.073
Compressibility at 100oc 1.01 x 10 -3 MPa-1
*Guaranteed Minimum Specification
Performance Friction (UK) Ltd
Carbon Metallic House, Wildmere Road,Banbury Oxon OX16 3LU
United Kingdom
www.performancefriction.com
Tags: brake fluid, racing, Rally
Posted in New products, Product news
December 29th, 2010
Chris Grieve and Paul Makepeace at Croft
Chris Grieve and Paul Makepeace take the spoils on a snowy Christmas Stages. Driving their usual mount of a Peugeot 106, the youngsters from west Northumberland emerged as top championship contenders on a very wintery rally yesterday. Although the engine of their little car might have lost out in the power stakes to many others, the lads scored with a good tyre choice that provided the grip in the snow, ice and slush that their opponents’ struggled to find. A trouble free drive for the ex Legend racer would see the crew take a fine 7th overall in the rally with maximum points and the lead in the championship.
Next up were the Lindsays in 10th overall. The Carlisle crew tried hard all rally and at the end of the day, the panel damage to both doors showed they were sometimes just over the edge of control. As ever though, they embarrassed most of the rally finishers with bigger, more powerful machinery. And in third place were our reigning champions, Michael Glendinning and Andrew Roughead. Although the four wheel drive of their Subaru Impreza provided better grip, the changeable conditions on stages still caught them out occasionally. Michael may have been disappointed with the number of spins he suffered as he lost count. He was pleased though as he didn’t hit anything during these gyrations !
Just about everyone had a similar story to tell about the lack of grip, wrong tyre choice, spinning, hitting tyres / bales / Armco or just having lots of traffic to contend with. Chris Myers and Matt Whattam complained of poor tyre choice on their Mitsubishi Evo9 for the opening stages but improved in the afternoon to finish 14th; right behind in his Mitsubishi Evo7 was Craig Pennington. Craig was happy just to start the event as his co-driver dropped out late on and he still didn’t have anyone to sit beside him 30 minutes before the start – a broken co-driver’s window resulted from contact with the scenery on the first stage and he finished the last stage with a straw covered bonnet and wing; Paul Swift and David Cox were debuting their immaculate, new Mark 2 Escort but even with all of Paul’s professional driving skills he struggled with poor tyres; Paul Dolan was another with the wrong tyres fitted in the morning but was happy to move up from 77th overall after stage 1 to finish 25th; even though he was feeling unwell Chris Clark had a trouble free day in his Ford Ka to end up 30th.
Of those who suffered bigger problems, Ed Todd and Andy Brown couldn’t get grip in the morning and suffered several spins. He was making some progress in the afternoon until the heavy drizzle arrived and then he realised his wiper wasn’t working – he arrived at the end of the last stage with zero visibility and glad the day was over; Geoff Simpson / Mick Johnson had an argument with one of Croft’s famous green and yellow Armco barriers and the Mitsubishi Evo X looks a bit second hand now; Andy Davison / Mike Curry just couldn’t get the power from their BMW M3 onto the road – they did get the crowds entertained though with huge slides; Bill Bates and Kari Bosworth lost a wheel from their Peugeot 106 on the first stage and took a stage maximum; and finally the same fate befell poor Chris Anderson when his Ford Fiesta stopped on the second stage.
Northallerton Automobile Club once again should be congratulated on running a slick event in trying conditions. Although they may have been praying for ‘better weather’ than last time when they struggled just to get the rally to run in all the snow, they still had to fight the additional elements of ice and snow. Fortunately, the situation wasn’t so bad this time around and by the end of the day a steady thaw was turning most of the stages into slush or even a clear track. Never the less, Ian Jackson and his team put an awful lot of effort into making the rally a success.
The Cartersport Jack Frost Stages on Sunday January 16th is the next round of the series and will also be based at Croft again. This rally will be run on a similar format to recent years and the organisers are putting on 8 stages with a mileage of about 36 competitive miles Those crews who are interested in taking part will need to get their entry in by Tuesday 4th January for this one. The entry list stands at 45 at the moment but there’s sure to be lots of interest now that the Christmas Stages is over. The link for the rally is www.darlington-motor-club.org.uk/series_home.php?seriesid=27
And now some more details about the third round of the championship – the Legend Fires North West Stages. The rally is scheduled for the Friday 4th and Saturday 5th February and will be based as usual in Blackpool. Once again the Norbreck Castle Hotel will be the headquarters with all the pre rally stuff, start, parc ferme, finish and presentation happening there. The organisers of this popular event are offering 75 miles of sealed surface stages within a compact route of only 130 road miles. Although the Regulations have only been available for a couple of weeks, there are currently 74 crews registered to enter and the maximum entry is 100. The first 90 are accepted on first come – first served basis and final 10 will be at the organisers’ discretion. It goes without saying that anyone considering doing this rally should get their entry in as quickly as possible. Full details are available the event’s website www.nwstages.co.uk
Tags: Rally, Tarmacadam
Posted in Event news
December 20th, 2010
We are now up and running for 2011.
The championship has finally been granted a permit and we have published the Regulations and Registration Form for next year on the new championship website -ww.nerallychamp.com
As most of you will be aware, AS Performance have agreed to continue with their support of the championship for another year and we’re very pleased to have them on board again.
This year, we’ve kept the tried and trusted formulas that we had last year and just tweaked things ever so slightly. Once more the championship will consist of 10 rallies with competitors being able to count their best 7 scores. The only change to the qualifying rounds will be the introduction of the Solway Coast Rally at the expense of the Crail Stages. The Solway is new territory for us and the venue will be the Dundrennan military ranges near to Kirkcudbright. The roads are different to Otterburn and any MOD airfield so we can expect a new challenge for the championship. We’ve also retained the same class structure that includes a class for cars running to F1000 and FS1000 specifications – we hope that this will attract new faces and cars to the championship.
The first event of the ’year’ is the Specsavers Christmas Stages Rally and it’s back in it’s traditional slot between Christmas and New Year. This rally will run on Tuesday 28th December and will be based as usual at the Croft Circuit. The organisers are offering 8 stages of high quality asphalt covering 40 miles on this compact single venue rally and they have already received the first 85 entries that are guaranteed a run. They have also received over 25 entries for the remaining 10 entries to be chosen at their discretion and the seeded entry list is expected anytime now. For more information, go to the rally website www.northallerton-ac.co.uk/xmas/ I’m sure the organisers will be hoping for ‘better weather’ than last year as they struggled just to get the rally to run in all the snow.
The Cartersport Jack Frost Stages on Sunday January 16th is the second round and will also be based at Croft again. The organisers haven’t received as many entries as the Christmas Stages and you will need to get your entry in by Tuesday 4th January for this one. The link for the rally is http://www.darlington-motor-club.org.uk/series_home.php?seriesid=27
And finally for now, a quick mention about the Legend Fires North West Stages. Although the rally doesn’t take place until 4th and 5th February and the Regulations have just been released this week, there are over 55 entries received already.
Tags: Rally, Tarmacadam
Posted in Event news
December 15th, 2010
We are now up and running for 2011 and with a new website too – it’s www.nerallychamp.com Please amend any URLs that you have saved as ‘Favourite’ or ‘Bookmark’ in your web browser to the new ‘.com’ address.
The championship has finally been granted a permit and we have published the Regulations and Registration Form for next year on the new championship website.
As most of you will be aware, AS Performance have agreed to continue with their support of the championship for another year and we’re very pleased to have them on board again.
This year, we’ve kept the tried and trusted formulas that we had last year and just tweaked things ever so slightly. Once more the championship will consist of 10 rallies with competitors being able to count their best 7 scores. The only change to the qualifying rounds will be the introduction of the Solway Coast Rally at the expense of the Crail Stages. The Solway is new territory for us and the venue will be the Dundrennan military ranges near to Kirkcudbright. The roads are different to Otterburn and any MOD airfield so we can expect a new challenge for the championship. We’ve also retained the same class structure that includes a class for cars running to F1000 and FS1000 specifications – we hope that this will attract new faces and cars to the championship.
The first event of the ’year’ is the Specsavers Christmas Stages Rally and it’s back in it’s traditional slot between Christmas and New Year. This rally will run on Tuesday 28th December and will be based as usual at the Croft Circuit. The organisers are offering 8 stages of high quality asphalt covering 40 miles on this compact single venue rally and they have already received the first 85 entries that are guaranteed a run. They have also received over 25 entries for the remaining 10 entries to be chosen at their discretion, and the closing date for entries is Thursday 16th December – more information can be found on the rally website www.northallerton-ac.co.uk/xmas/ I’m sure the organisers will be hoping for ‘better weather’ than last year as they struggled just to get the rally to run in all the snow.
The Cartersport Jack Frost Stages on Sunday January 16th is the second round and will also be based at Croft again. The organisers haven’t received as many entries as the Christmas Stages and you will need to get your entry in by Tuesday 4th January for this one. The link for the rally is www.darlington-motor-club.org.uk/series_home.php?seriesid=27
More details can be found at our new website: – www.nerallychamp.com
Tags: Rally, Tarmacadam
Posted in Event news
November 9th, 2010
Guy Wilkes with Michael Glendinning & Andrew Roughead
The final event of the 2010 championship, the annual awards presentation, was held at the Grange Club in Chester le Street on Wednesday 3rd November. It was a good attendance with lots of old and new faces there to see the glassware awarded and hear from the special guest for the evening Guy Wilks. Guy kept everyone entertained with his rallying tales and his enthusiasm for the sport is fantastic – we wish him well as a Peugeot driver in 2011. Top Man !
Catch up with Guy’s progress at www.guywilks.com
AS Performance have agreed to continue with their support in 2011, the qualifying rounds being :-
CHRISTMAS STAGES 28th December 2010
JACK FROST STAGES 16th January 2011
NORTH WEST STAGES 4th and 5th February 2011
INGLISTON STAGES 26th March 2011
JIM CLARK NATIONAL 27th and 28th May 2011
TYNESIDE STAGES 31st July 2011
SOLWAY COAST RALLY 14th August 2011
PENDRAGON STAGES 28th August 2011
LINDISFARNE RALLY 11th September 2011
CHEVIOT KEITH KNOX 23rd October 2011
Keep your eyes on the website for regulations as we’re just waiting for authorisation / clearance from the MSA.
Stay updated at www.nerallychamp.com
Tags: Rally, Tarmacadam
Posted in Event news