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North Of England Tarmac Championship – Specsavers Christmas Stages

Anderson & Thirling in winning Ford Fiesta

Top spot for Chris and Chris. Driving their usual Ford Fiesta, Chris Anderson and Chris Thirling snatched a last stage ‘victory’ to claim the maximum championship points on yesterday’s Specsavers Christmas Stages Rally.

The day dawned with the roads of Croft race circuit covered in patches of ice from a little overnight frost but this was quickly warmed up by the morning January sun. As the day wore on we also endured some wind and a couple of heavy showers with the sunny periods – quite a change from the recent year’s snow and ice. However, there were still enough variable conditions to keep competitors on their toes.

From the off, Anderson and Thirling made their intentions clear with a couple of solid stages to claim 5th fastest overall times and 2nd in championship yet they were lying 19 seconds behind Paul Swift. Over the next 4 stages, the Durham crew got their heads down and with some controlled, determined driving clawed back time to go into the final test just 4 seconds behind. And with their nearest chaser another 47 seconds adrift, it was time for some ‘mantalk’ in the Fiesta cabin. A final push saw them stop the clocks quicker that Swift and take a brilliant 2nd overall in the rally and the top score for the first time. It might appear that the crew have been around for some time as they took their first ever maximum score, but it’s easy to forget that the driver has only had 20 birthdays, and that’s quite a lot less than the co-driver … This perfect start to the year was more than they’d dared hope for after last year’s Christmas Stages when a mechanical problem meant they finished 3rd last.

Taking second championship points were the local crew of Paul Swift and David Cox in a Ford Escort Mk2. Paul and David were our early leaders and managed to hold that position until the darkness of the last stage. Paul was driving with lots more commitment this year and he really benefitted from his good start number; a fact he felt was helping him get clearer runs through the stages too. A poor tyre choice on stage 5 lost a few seconds and after the penultimate stage the crew felt the clutch was starting to slip. And so this problem developed in the last stage to the point where time loss was easily apparent. Added to this was a small spin too and so they lost 30 seconds on this one stage. Never the less, the Darlington crew were happy to get their championship campaign off to a good start.

Taking 3rd co-driver points was another local boy in Giles Dykes. Giles was partnering the non-registered Martin Tinker in his Lotus Exige on some fast laps of the racing circuit that were interspersed with a few offs. These were usually occurring near the start of each test as they struggled to generate heat into the front tyres and understeered off the intended course.

Craig Pennington would take 3rd driver points. The Mitsubishi Evo 9 got off to a poor start with a couple of early punctures that found him a minute down on Swift and Anderson after a couple of stages. This was a gap he’d never recover and was very happy to take a good set of points into the next event.

The next registered contender was Chris Purvis and he was another navigator sitting in a different car – this time it was Andrew Fawcett’s Vauxhall Nova. A very quick run all day and the little 1400 would end up with the giant killing act of the rally taking a cracking 8th overall.

In 9th place overall was Peppe Planeta in his Ford Fiesta. Peppe’s a long time supporter of the championship but he’s often struggled to get some reliability with his hybrid Cosworth engined beast. This year’s event was a welcome change and although he suffered from difficulty selecting gears all day, he was happy to record a good finish. This was a fine reward for his travels from the Isle of Man.

Rounding off the top 10 was the rarity of a Peugeot 306. Joseph Redmond and Miguel Marini were the crew in this tidy version. It was their first appearance for 6 years and after a quick drive around a local road in the days leading up to the rally they discovered a broken gearbox mount. Once fixed, the boys enjoyed a trouble free rally despite incurring a small time penalty.

Right behind the Peugeot was an even more unusual car – a Nissan Pulsar. Jon Olds was the pilot of this exceptionally quick example and he had no problems to report. In fact he revelled on the wet stages and steadily improved after his tardy first stage, where he recorded 15th fastest time, to finish in 11th overall and 6th driver.

Having a good run was Jack Morton sitting alongside Mark McCulloch. Their Proton was only collected on Friday and they were experiencing a few teething problems. They spent all morning trying different rear tyres in an effort to improve the handling so the teenager was happy with 2nd in class.

Colin Butler had a good day in his Subaru Impreza with very consistent times despite his dislike for the slippy stages. Andy Davison and Mike Curry appeared in a friend’s Peugeot 205 as their BMW was still in bits and they were keen to return the car in one piece as well. They found the front wheel drive was totally different to the usual powerful mount but never stopped smiling all day. Newcomers Steven Crowther / David Batley were next in their Citroen Saxo. This was a first event in their new car and their only problem on the way to 29th place was a broken gearbox mount. Next up were the husband and wife pairing of John and Liz Clayton in a Subaru Impreza. A slow start found them 58th fastest but 6 stages later and a lot less spins per stage, they’d moved them up to 39th overall. Russ Radford and Graeme Bell’s day got off to the worst possible start when a puncture cost them dearly. The stage maximum penalty saw them dead last in 64th place so the rest of the day was spent playing catch up. Bill Bates had daughter Katy alongside this time in his Lotus Exige and after a fraught day ended up 45th; his biggest time loss being on the second test when he took a maximum time after the red mist came down mid stage and he kept following the car in front rather than listen to the co-driver’s shouts at the stage split. Ed Todd / Andy Brown suffered another character building experience as they were forced to take stage maximums on the second and fifth stages after drive shaft and wheel bearing problems with the little GTM Coupe. They only just managed to keep running in the rally as they started the penultimate stage just ahead of the closing car when repairs took longer than hoped ! And our final points scorers were Malcolm and Richard Holdsworth. The father and son duo struggled with tyre choice on their Honda Civic but still made it to the finish.

Our only non-finishers of the rally were Darren Rutter and Ann Forster. Darren was enjoying his maiden rally in a Ford Escort Mk1 and was getting quicker all morning. Having moved up to 31st overall and with 2 tests remaining, he decided to call it a day when the gearbox jammed in 5th gear. A disappointing start to his rallying career but we look forward to seeing lots more of this talented youngster from Carlisle.

So the Specsavers Christmas Stages Rally has got our championship off to another good start. Northallerton Auto Club had planned to run in it’s traditional slot between Christmas and New Year but they received a setback at the beginning of December when this date suddenly was no longer available. Instead they had to run a week later with lots of rescheduling. But their efforts were rewarded with a good turnout of competitors and spectators and some reasonable weather too. A big thank you to Ian Jackson and his team for all their efforts in providing a testing rally.

We now have a break of almost 3 weeks before we’re back at Croft for the second round of the championship. The Jack Frost Stages, in association with AUTOGAS 2000 and Cartersport will take place on Sunday January 22nd. Darlington and District Motor Club are hoping to attract more entries this year as they have moved their date back 1 week so the usual clash with the Autosport Show has been avoided. It will be pretty much a similar format to last year’s rally with 8 stages running over 40 competitive miles. The organisers have only received 21 entries at the moment but anyone considering doing the event have until the 12th January to get their entry in.

The link for this rally is www.darlington-motor-club.org.uk/series_home.php?seriesid=31

More details are now available about the Legend Fires North West Stages. For 2012, this popular event will take place on Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th February. Once again the organisers will be using the unrivalled facilities offered by the Norbreck Castle Hotel, with Rally HQ, Scrutineering, indoor Parc Ferme and Champagne finish ceremony all within the hotel’s Exhibition hall. The ‘Cetus Rally village’ will also be open during the rally with trade stands and side shows to entertain the supporters and spectators.
Motor Sport (North West) are retaining the popular format of recent years, with a Friday evening leg giving competitors about 10 miles of stages in the dark and including a spectator friendly stage on the North Promenade directly opposite Rally HQ. The event will continue with Saturday offering of a wide variation of stages at several different venues. Overall, the rally offers approximately 75 miles of sealed surface stages within a compact route of only 150 road miles, creating a very demanding event for competitors, with no hanging around. The Regulations have just been published and already there are 55 crews who have registered their entries.

More details at the rally website – www.nwstages.co.uk

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