NETRC Stobart Rail Pendragon Stages Result
Paul Swift put in a controlled drive on Sunday’s Stobart Rail Pendragon Stages to score enough points and ensure he becomes champion driver for 2012.
Rally morning dawned autumnal with brilliant sunshine and a clear blue sky, yet cold with heavy dew. And our 2 championship hopefuls of Swift and Anderson set off into stage 1 all set for a hard fought battle of the Fords over the tight and twisty MOD range roads at Warcop in Cumbria. Chris Anderson was the man in form after his recent top scores at Otterburn but would start the day just 5 points behind Swift who has led the championship since January’s Jack Frost Rally. Anderson has never finished a rally over Warcop and Swift has never started one so both were looking towards an interesting day.
However within just a couple of miles, the contest was over. The Fiesta arrived at a left 8 just over crest too fast and the youngster couldn’t make it around the turn with the car leaving the road and rolling end over end. Anderson and Chris Thirling were fine but their rally was finished although they were able to drive the car back to service eventually. The Ford Escort of Swift and Giles Dykes would start the test 4 minutes after Anderson and after passing the stricken Fiesta, Paul did admit that it distracted him for a few corners. This left the possibility where Swift could wrap up the championship on this, the penultimate round. With a number of other rivals still able to score good points, it could not be a processional drive. The hard work was achieved in the morning’s 4 stages leaving Swift / Dykes 5th overall at lunch. The boys considered possible championship scenarios before deciding to consolidate the position and take fewer risks during the last 4 stages. The afternoon did not quite go to plan when the pairing nearly collected a concrete barrier on stage 7 when the tyres went off. The Escort was shod with some new tyres for the last stage and this ensured enough was done to finish 6th overall – even though they were 4th championship scorers.
The first of these four were the eventual rally winners of Peter Taylor and Andrew Roughead. After the previous week’s disappointment of just missing out to Anderson and Thirling on the Lindisfarne Rally, Peter brought out his Ford Focus for it’s first tarmac event. And he was straight into the groove beating the rally sponsor in his Fiesta WRC by 3 seconds over SS1. By the lunch halt Taylor / Roughead had a comfortable lead of almost a minute despite picking up a puncture near the end of stage 3 and needing to change a throttle sensor. On the first stage after the break, a drive shaft went and they had to complete SS5 and SS6 in ‘3 wheel drive’ before service. They managed to hold off a big push from their rivals over the final 2 tests and despite dropping over 40 seconds, they’d done enough to win by 17 seconds.
Taking second place points and a tremendous 4th overall were Pete Gibson and Josh Davison. Following his little off on the previous week’s rally, Pete’s Dad worked wonders on the Mitsubishi Evo6 to get it ready for Pendragon only for the service barge to play up when they were ready to leave for scrutineering. Favours were called in from friends and they still made it to the session in time and full of enthusiasm. A steady start saw them only 10th over the opening 9.2 miles before moving up to 4th at the halfway. Consolidation was the plan for the afternoon as heavy brake usage and catching slower cars were always a concern over these stages. The plan worked and the boys were delighted with their reliability and result that also includes taking a bagful of championship points into the bargain.
Finishing just 9 seconds adrift in 5th overall were Barry and Michael Lindsay. Our 2011 champions believe that Warcop is just the best venue to go to. However, the event didn’t go to plan and they had to use the spare gearbox with an ATB Diff which Barry says isn’t the best for the stages. However, everyone watching or being overtaken by the pocket rocket wouldn’t agree. A good opening pair of tests was followed by a couple of power sapping ones where the little Peugeot 106 lost out on the hills. The more powerful cars could catch up on the straights before losing out to the nimble French car on the twisty sections. Starting the final loop of 2 stages in 6th Barry was slightly concerned at the stop line of the penultimate stage complaining of a slipping clutch. It didn’t bother him anymore and our Lad and Dad finished one place better and were very happy to take home several awards too.
Our next finishers were Kev Monaghan and Steve Dargan in their Vauxhall Corsa. Having chosen the wrong tyres for the first 2 tests, they found themselves in 15th place. A change of rubber helped them move up a couple of places even though the front anti roll bar broke on stage 4. The afternoon runs worked a treat as Kev becomes more confident in the car and particularly new tyres to end up 10th overall and second in class.
In 11th place were local crew David Taylor and Lynsey Brench. The Eden Valley Motor Club crew were out in their lovely Ford Escort Mk2 for only the second time this year and enjoyed a good run. Few problems recorded, just a couple of overshoots.
David Hope and Fiona Gourlay were making their debut this year in their Subaru Impreza. The driver who farms at Hesket Newmarket was delighted to have a good run and finish in 12th place overall.
Next up was the yellow Mitsubishi Evo6 of Geoff Simpson and Mick Johnson. The boys from Pickhill enjoyed a trouble free day mechanically and were only slowed by catching cars and occasionally making a mess of hairpins !
Geoffrey Harkness and Caroline Lodge were 31 seconds behind in the little Vauxhall Corsa. Other distractions of work and a busy home life restricted the car’s reprep before the event to a quick wash. Waiting for the co-driver to fly back from the Manx Rally late on the eve of the rally and a concern over a few thrown alternator belts on the stages were Geoffrey’s only issues.
It was good to see Alistair Hutchinson and St John Dykes in their Renault Clio for a very rare outing this year. They suffered a mixed day as they started with no intercom for the opening 2 tests and then the co-driver gave up on reading notes half way through SS1 when he felt ill. He moved to reading the map and a bit of guessing as an alternative and he felt better. The Northallerton crew were up to 13th after stage 3 before hitting a rock and sustaining a puncture to lose over 4 and a half minutes and drop to 35th place. Three top ten times over the final 4 stages pulled them up to 20th overall even though they nearly shot off the road on the first right 9 of SS7.
Alex Laffey and Jack Morton were next in the Ford Fiesta R2. Their day was going well as they were inside the top twenty until they snapped a drive shaft after a heavy landing on the fourth stage losing about 8 minutes. They recovered to end up in 28th place.
Glad to make it to the finish after a trying day were Michael Davison and Chris Dodds. It started with a puncture on stage 2 and then the Proton Satria fell off the jack twice as well; a bit of autocrossing for 100 metres or so on the next test when they tried to drive around the car in front only to run out of road and into the ditch; a similar effort on stage 5 only this time they ran over some rocks in the ditch and bent the chassis leg, sump guard and picked up a vibration that was thought to be the engine touching the guard; driving on the ragged edge they nearly went off twice in the final run and were amazed to end up in 34th overall.
Colin Tombs was our final points scoring co-driver as he was sitting alongside the non-registered Gavin Spencer in his Vauxhall Nova. They had a better run than their short effort on the Lindisfarne with only a couple of wild spins that would find them ending up facing the oncoming cars ! And our final points scoring driver was Stuart Walker who had a rally to forget after his Mitsubishi Evo9 suffered broken drive shafts and lost lots stages 3 and 5. Despite recording 2 stage maximums, he was still smiling at the end of the day.
Not making it to the finish were Steve Quigley and Terry Martin after their Renault Clio snapped a drive shaft a couple of miles into the opening test. The Son and Father pairing of Andrew and Reg Irving only made it one stage further until their Peugeot 205 clipped a rock, took a wheel off and sheared a bottom arm. And finally, Darren Doherty who was comfortably lying in 3rd overall at the lunch halt before sliding wide over a crest and medium left on stage 5 to take out a concrete bollard.
Miles Whitelock and his team from Eden Valley, Kirkby Lonsdale and Northallerton Motor Clubs are to be congratulated on another successful Pendragon Stages. Once again a simple format of 4 stages repeated and with low road mileage kept competitors happy and provided another fine challenge for our championship.
So although we have a new champion driver, the co-driver’s title and all the runners up places in the overall tables are undecided. Most of the class awards are still up for grabs too as head into our final rally of this year, the UTS Cheviot Keith Knox Stages. Hadrian and Whickham Motor Clubs are the joint organisers and will run the rally in just over 5 weeks time on Sunday 4th November. It will also be our final visit of the year to Otterburn Ranges where competitors can expect 91 competitive miles in 9 stages with just 26 road miles. The organisers have made a few alterations from 2011 to bring a little variety and they are also promising that the opening test will be a 17 miler; 4 of the day’s stages are over 14 miles too. First car is away at 8:30 and hopefully the last car should complete the final stage by 16:00. As usual, a recce will take place on the Saturday afternoon to give competitors a chance to check their notes. There’s lots more information at the event website www.cheviotstages.org.uk/