North of England Tarmacadam Rally Championship – January Bulletin
Image supplied courtesy of AML Photography
New Year and what a start to the year. The Christmas Stages may have been run at a familiar venue but with the unusual, very seasonal weather, we have an un-familiar winner in Alistair Hutchinson. Alistair used all of the month leading up to the event rebuilding the car and with the wintry conditions lately his main aim was to get to the finish in one piece. He came armed with 4 remould snow tyres and it was to prove a wise investment. The Renault Clio was to have more grip on the stages that those with loads more power, and even most crews with 4 wheel drive too. A small ‘driving problem’ ( puncture maybe ? ) on stage 6 resulted in him losing a minute but that was his only problem all day. Rumour has it that he’s hoping for more snow on the next event and then he can use the same tyres again before selling them as ‘hardly used’ !! By the finish, Alistair had not only achieved his aim but also bagged a cracking 5th overall too.
Second championship contender was a newbie in the form of Steve Doherty. Steve brought his 2 litre Ford Escort from Manchester to a venue where he’s never visited before and after a steady drive ended up 11th overall. Being new to the series, Steve enlisted the services of the experienced Peter Grant to sit alongside him and apart from being baulked on one stage for a minute, he had no problems to report.
And coming in third in our championship was another new face to the series, Paul Swift. Paul is a ‘precision driving expert’ by trade and rallying gives him an opportunity to pitch his skills against the clock. He spent a lot of the day with the car at various angles and nudged the bodywork on occasions so his day was in no way ‘incident free’. He and co-driver Andrew Lees lost a lot of time on the very first stage but recovered well until stage 6 when he dropped over a minute, yet they would still end the day in a fine 13th overall.
Congratulations to all 19 registered championship crews who made it to the finish as quite a few competitors retired due a variety of reasons ranging from lack of suitable tyres to lack of ability in the arctic conditions. Our reigning champions, Barry and Michael Lindsay, did make it to the finish but struggled through stages 5 and 6 with a power steering problem and so decided to disconnect it altogether for the final stage. Fortunately for them the icy surface meant Barry didn’t need the muscles of Popeye to steer the car home to another class win and 17th overall. Bill Bates / Kari Bosworth weren’t as lucky as they sheared the wheels studs on their Peugeot 106 near the end of stage 1. Bill was really frustrated as he was using some good snow tyres and was one of the few to have grip. Although he managed to eventually fix the problem, he would end up OTL.
Those of us who were present on the day applaud Ian Jackson and his team from Northallerton Motor Club. Not only did they have to re-schedule the rally with less than 2 months notice ( effects of the Croft Noisy days dispute ), but they also had to battle long and hard with the weather. The snow and ice moving team worked twice between Christmas Day and the event to make sure it ran and then on the day the well drilled organising team coped admirably with the freezing cold and driving snow. Special mention too to the marshals and timekeepers stuck out in the open and the enthusiastic sponsor who never stopped helping from before 6am in the morning – well done to everyone involved with the organisation of the Specsavers Christmas Stages Rally.
The next round of the championship will be the Cartersport Jack Frost Stages which will be held on January 17th. Once again the rally will be based at the Croft circuit where 8 stages will be run offering a total of 36 miles. At the moment, the organisers have 20 spaces left and officially, entries closed on Monday 4th January but after the success of the Christmas Stages they’re expecting a rush of entries. If you’re still thinking of doing the rally you should contact Terry Wright at Darlington Motor Club as soon as possible, more information for this event is available at www.darlington-motor-club.org.uk
And then less than 3 weeks later we have the Legend Fires North West Stages. This is always an extremely popular event so a full entry is expected. The rally runs over the evening of Friday 5th February and all day on Saturday 6th. This year the rally will have a new base, the Norbreck Castle Hotel in Blackpool where the event’s scrutineering and central service area will also be located. For those competitors who haven’t tackled the event before you can be sure of a multi venue rally with several special stages at a number of different venues providing approximately 80 stages miles. It’s also the one rally in this year’s calendar in which every starter is guaranteed to run in the dark ! If you’re thinking of doing the rally you’re encouraged to get your entry in quick – you’ll find the regulations and entry form at www.nwstages.co.uk