North of England Tarmacadam Rally Championship – Jack Frost Bulletin
Paul Swift and Andrew Lees were the fastest crew on the recent Jack Frost Rally but Jack Morton is the new name on everyone’s lips. And the reason is not simply because he was on his second ever rally and finished 4th overall. It’s also because he’s just 15 years old, a navigator and his calm attitude in coping with the pressure of being second / third overall for most of the 8 stage event. Jack’s first rallying experience was a couple of weeks earlier when he contested the Christmas Stages in a 1400cc Vauxhall Nova but he was totally cool about everything happening a lot faster on the stages. Although Morton’s driver wasn’t registered for the championship, he is a renowned tarmac driving expert and the youngster is certainly a name to watch out for in the future.
Paul Swift and Andrew Lees may have been a little surprised to take the spoils of fastest crew but they were also very delighted too. Driving their pristine Escort Mark I RS2000, the local boys steadily moved up the leader board as the day progressed to take an excellent 7th overall. Going into the last stage, Paul felt he couldn’t take back the 2 seconds that Chris and Kath Singer were ahead of him but a slip by the Mitsubishi crew let the Escort though. It was a trouble free day mechanically and a chance to show why he drives cars on the limit as the day job too. A very professional display.
So what happened to the Singers ? Despite finishing the first stage in a lowly 21st position, the husband and wife team pushed hard in their Evo 6 to get back up to 7th heading into the last stage. Unfortunately, they ended up going backwards into the gravel trap at the end of the pit straight. A fine recovery saw them drop just 4 seconds to the chasing Swift / Lees but it also meant the loss of maximum points too. At the end of the day, the Mitsubishi crew were happy to finish in 8th considering the number of spins they’d incurred all day and rued the lack of softer tyres.
A new crew to this year’s championship is Michael Glendinning and Andrew Roughead in an Escort Mark II. The Tyne Valley pairing reported no problems and Michael’s commitment and reliability saw him hold 8th and 9th place for 7 of the day’s 8 stages. They would end up just 3 seconds shy of the Singers and were rewarded with 3rd registered crew and their first good haul of points this year after a disastrous Christmas Stages didn’t suit
Alistair Hutchinson was re-united with his regular co-driver St John Dykes this time out and their Renault Clio finished a fine 10th overall. Alistair wasn’t able to repeat his giant killing act from the last rally and complained about the lack of grip on some of the faster sections of the track. But that’s no shame as at the finish, our top 4 drivers were just separated by a mere 9 seconds.
A quick mention of one more new name to the championship – another youngster to watch in the coming days is Chris Grieve. He was driving an ex Peugeot Super Cup 106, on his first rally, and although he had to contend with clutch problems, the North Tyne man used his experience from the Legends Racing Series to good effect and his commitment was rewarded with an excellent 13th overall. That was just 10 seconds behind our current champions Barry and Michael Lindsay in a similar car. Yes the Lindsays did have a little problem with a slipping clutch on the last couple of stages and they would lose some time. However, the son and father crew still managed to claim maximum points in the class. They’ll have to watch their backs on forthcoming events though as it looks like this will be a hotly contested class again in 2010.
And what happened to some of the fancied runners ? Well, the Thompsons retired their Peugeot 206 with gearbox failure on stage 1 and were quickly joined by Steve Doherty / Peter Grant when they ventilated the block of their Ford Escort on the same stage. Billy McLelland actually completed the first stage before retiring with a blown turbo on his Mitsubishi Evo V. And more gearbox woes would see the end of Chris Myers / Matt Whattam ( Mitsubishi Evo IX ) from a fine 3rd overall and the Wigan crew of Martin Farrar and Andy Ward in the Subaru Impreza.
A big thank you must go to Terry Wright and his team at Darlington Motor Club for putting on another slick event, the Cartersport Jack Frost Stages. Perhaps they were a little bit luckier than the guys from the Christmas Stages as they didn’t have the full force of the weather against them but they still put in extra snow clearing efforts in the week leading up to the rally. Rally day passed off as a pleasantly mild, sunny day that was a huge change from 2 weeks earlier. And although it was the same racing circuit used 15 days apart, there was sufficient variation in the layout to give the rally it’s own challenge and character.
The next rally in the championship is the Legend Fires North West Stages. This rally is always very popular and so the usual full entry is expected as this always includes some very quick crews too. The organisers are promising a multi venue rally with several special stages at a number of different venues and the total stage mileage is in the region of 80 miles. The rally runs over the evening of Friday 5th February and all day on Saturday 6th with the rally headquarters being at the Norbreck Castle Hotel in Blackpool for the first time; the event’s scrutineering and central service area will also be located there too. The organisers have already received 88 entries so if you’re considering doing the rally, then get in touch with the Entries Secretary, Ann McCormack – her contact details and all the necessary information, regulations and entry forms are available at www.nwstages.co.uk