North Of England Tarmac Championship – Pendragon
The ‘Rain Meister’ continues to reign on the ranges. Following on from their 3rd overall finish on the last rally, Barry and Michael Lindsay continued to dominate the championship runners with another stunning performance.
Moving on from the last event based at Edinburgh, we had 16 competitors turn up for the Stobart Rail Pendragon Stages at Warcop. With the loss of Lowther Park as a venue and the traditional Bank Holiday weekend date, a single venue event comprising of 60 miles run on MOD land over 8 stages was the offering this year. Throw in some unseasonal rain and windy weather and this year would prove a difficult challenge for everyone.
A brilliant 4th fastest on the first 6.5 miles of competition and already the Lindsays had over 30 seconds lead from the nearest championship contenders. More rain in the remaining 3 stages before lunch would see the gap extended by another minute. The stage layout was reversed for the afternoon runs and the rain eased off. Although tyre choice kept Barry on his toes he continued to push hard even when the final 2 stages were run in the dry. He pushed so hard he locked up and nearly went off at the final corner of the final stage where the clocks showed he’d set second fastest time – 2 seconds ahead of a WRC Focus ! As ever, the boys had tried their hardest all day long and were delighted to take home another yet maximum points score.
Taking second place in the championship and 13th on the day was the Citroen C2R2Max of Gareth White and Callum Atkinson. This was the first time out with a new car for the youngsters from St Boswells and they had only briefly tested the car before the rally. They slowly settled in during the morning’s slippy stages as they learned their new mount. Although they ran a similar car last year, the newer evolution has much different characteristics and they didn’t want to throw the car into the scenery on the opening tests. As the roads dried out later, Gareth’s confidence grew and he went quicker. At the finish, he pronounced himself happy with the day and ready for his home event, the Jim Clark.
And finishing a further 26 seconds behind in 14th were Duncan Wardrop / Ian Crosbie. Driving their usual Subaru Impreza, the Dumfries crew were hoping for better luck than their last outing when engine management problems cut short their North West Stages and a top ten finish. Like most people, they were kept guessing on tyres all day but were happy to have a trouble free rally and get their championship back on track with some points.
Right behind was the pairing of 2 drivers in the same car – Mark Thompson and Alistair Hutchinson. Mark successfully finished 6th overall in his Peugeot 206 at Blyton on the day before the Pendragon with his regular co-driver Matt Thompson. He then enlisted the services of that Renault Clio pilot from Northallerton – Alistair Hutchinson – to guide him around Warcop. There was some good banter all day particularly about Alistair’s co-driving skills as he seemed more interested in pushing Mark to go faster on the stages. They both had a great day and were pleased to come home in a fine 15th place.
Next up was Andrew Fry in his unusual MG. The youngster from Dumfries has replaced his 1400cc motor over the winter with a 2.5 litre engine but has struggled with some reliability. Andrew reported a misfire for most of the day, although it didn’t seem so bad over the drier runs.
The final points for co-drivers go to Andrew Roughead. Andrew was partnering Peter Taylor as they tested their Renault Clio in readiness for the Jim Clark International. They found it a useful day apart from losing over a minute in a ditch on stage 1 and then they visited another ditch on stage 5 and ended up with a stage maximum. The final driver points were picked up by Paul Banks in his Peugeot 106. Paul’s first visit to Warcop would prove eventful as his intercom would only work intermittently, the gearbox kept jumping out of various gears and he was using cut slick tyres – not the ideal choice with all the rain !
Geoff Simpson and Mick Johnson were late entries in their Mitsubishi. A steady start with a couple of top twenty times all went wrong when the Evo touched a bank on the third stage and then quickly launched the car into a roll. Both crew members escaped safely but were out of the rally. Nigel Hepburn was making progress after a slow start in his Peugeot 206 before the fire extinguisher went off during stage 5 and ended his rally. Our final championship contenders were Barrie Thomson / Jerry Hettrick in another Peugeot 106. The Carlisle boys thought they’d cured the misfire from the last rally with a change of injectors and they started off well with top twenty times on the first 2 stages. A huge moment near the end of the third stage found them locked up and hitting a wall. Not much time was lost before another misfire returned to slow their progress on the next one. They were unable to solve the problem so departed the fray early.
It’s now the half way point in the championship and we have new leaders. In the driver’s section it’s now Barry Lindsay’s turn to go to the top ahead of Paul Swift and they’re followed by Chris Grieve, Alistair Hutchinson and Stuart Baillie. In the co-driver’s section Michael Lindsay takes over from David Cox with Ann Forster just 2 points adrift and then comes Paul Makepeace and Mick Johnson. The class leaders are:- Stephen Bethwaite and Paul Banks head class 1 drivers with Ann Forster leading co-driver; in class 2 it’s the Lindsays; class 3 we have Chris Anderson / Chris Thirling; Paul Swift and David Cox lead class 4 and finally Stuart Baillie and Mick Johnson are tops in class 5.
A big thank you goes to Miles Whitelock and his team from Kirkby Lonsdale, Eden Valley and Northallerton Motor Clubs for putting on another well run event. Having to change the format of the rally and get it running in 9 weeks provided quite a challenge but these guys managed it – shame they couldn’t organise the weather too.
The second half of the season starts immediately with the 6th round of the championship being the Jim Clark National and this will take place on Friday 27th and Saturday 28th May. Starting and finishing at Kelso Racecourse, this is our annual chance to run over the closed public country roads around Duns. This year’s event has been extremely popular and the organisers have received more entries than they can cope with and may have to turn competitors away. The rally kicks off with a blast around the town centre of Duns at 18:00 on Friday. Full details can be found www.jimclarkrally.com