NETRC Christmas Stages 2012 Croft Circuit
Continue into the New Year just as you ended the old one. That must have been the aim of Barry and Michael Lindsay as they took their Peugeot 106 to a fantastic 7th overall on the Specsavers Christmas Stages. It’s late December and heavy recent rain presented competitors with a different challenge of the Croft race circuit compared to the often-found snow, slush or ice. But our multiple champions were quick out of the blocks and accredited with 5th fastest on the opening greasy test. However at first service, Barry was cutting deeper grooves into his tyres as he was concerned over the lack of grip and that they wouldn’t last the day out. It helped a little until the wind started to dry the racing line but the more powerful cars were able to come into their own too. At lunch the lad and dad team had slipped a couple of places to 7th – a position they would hold onto in the dry afternoon session. Before going into the final stage with a handy 35 seconds advantage over their nearest pursuers, the Lindsays were so concerned about tyre wear that it was decided to put brand new rubber onto the front wheels. A steady run through the darkness ensured Barry was able to comfortably take the first maximum score of the year.
Unfortunately for Michael though, St John Dykes would take the top score for co-drivers as he finished 25 seconds ahead. He was a late replacement for the non-registered Martyn Tinker in his Lotus Exige. The pair had a rapid ride in the sportscar with only a major tankslapper on stage 5 to slow their progress.
It was down to Craig Pennington to take second driver’s points after another polished performance in his Mitsubishi Evo9. The garage owner from West Yorkshire was pleased to have a trouble free run after his recent engine rebuild following his disaster on the North West Stages. He was always just behind the Lindsays on time but he gets his year off to a great start with a well deserved 8th overall.
Next up were one of our ‘newbie crews’ – Paul and Chris Alsop. Driving their aging Talbot Sunbeam to the limit, and sometimes just over it, the local crew would end up in a cracking 12th overall. They’d completed the opening test in 20th place but with some steady, consistent stage times they moved up just outside the top ten by the finish. Paul’s aware that his tiring machine needs upgrading and he’s working on organising stronger mechanicals before he attempts a re-shell. In the meantime, he plans to continue with a committed driving style that’s coming up with the goods.
And finishing on exactly the same time penalties as the Alsops was Alex Laffey. Alex was out in his new Fiesta, having recently upgraded from an R2 to an S2000. He found the change in power, and everything else that goes with it, was unbelievable. However after a cautious start he found himself in a lowly 39th at the end of SS1. He got his head down and pushed hard to improve. It was no surprise that by the darkness of the final 2 tests he was setting top ten times to take an eventual 13th overall.
Our next points scorers were another new crew, Andrew and Brian Smith in a Ford Escort Mark2. Andrew, who lives in Northallerton, has previously driven the car in a ‘historic’ specification but was now driving on wider profile tyres. He struggled a bit in the morning runs but he gradually gained confidence and was happy to end up in 16th overall by the end.
Ray Cummings’ return to the championship didn’t get off to the best of starts when he recorded only the 53rd fastest time on stage 1. He lost time when a gaggle of cars were dicing for position going into a chicane in the very wettest of conditions. The last of the late-brakers, Ray and young Josh Davison found their Vauxhall Astra locked up and heading for the car in front. Somehow with all the cars moving around, the car they felt they were going to hit ended up hitting them just behind the co-drivers door. Amid the confusion they all ended up on the grass and lost more time. The re-run of the same stage saw them record the 13th fastest time. The rest of the day was about playing ‘catch-up’ and with all their times being inside the top 20, they were left to rue what might have been.
Finishing in 17th place was Joseph Redmond / Luke Campbell in their Peugeot 306. This year’s earlier running of the Christmas Stages on January 2nd saw Joseph record a fantastic 10th place with his Peugeot but this time the conditions didn’t suit him as well. The jovial Irishman from Leeds set consistent times just inside or outside of the top 20 but he felt that the track had dried out too much for his liking ! The boys were the only crew to play the newly introduced ‘Joker’ on the rally so they still netted a handy points total for their efforts. With these points being doubled, they actually head the championship tables after the opening round.
Stuart Ranby and Ian Bass were our next finishers in 19th place. The ‘Maximum Attack’ crew from Sheffield reported no problems all day with their Mark2 Escort and were happy to finish just inside the top 20. A similar emotion shared by Joe Cunningham / Daniel Kennedy too. The youngsters from Bedale in Yorkshire don’t have much experience in rallying yet as Joe has been concentrating more on rallycross in his Peugeot 106. A reliable run gave them a good start to the year and some useful points on the board.
Finishing in a lowly 23rd place was Alistair Hutchinson with his son Joe sitting alongside for the day. This was plan B for our regular Renault Clio pilot as St John Dykes was booked to sit in the left hand seat while Joe was entered with Martyn Tinker. However, 2 days before the rally Joe broke his left arm and rather than skip the rally altogether a swap of co-drivers was arranged. This made life easier for the youngster to get in and out of the Clio rather than a Lotus. Alistair’s day didn’t start well when he took a wrong turn on stage 1 and missed a section. For this error he was awarded a stage maximum. He was another to play ‘catch-up’ for the rest of the day from 75th place and felt happy to find loads of reliability again with the car.
Mr and Mrs Jon Trenholme were next in their Subaru Impreza. The Malton driver was happy with his run despite his slow start when he dropped over a minute on the opening test and clouted a grit box in the dark of the final stage. Neil Thompson / Steve Dargan were another crew that were to suffer a stage maximum, on SS4, which dropped them from 18th place down to 48th in an instant. On the afternoon stages, normal service was resumed with 4 top 20 times that moved that back up the order to 27th overall. Neil was happy that mechanically the Vauxhall Corsa had been faultless on it’s first rally and he’s hopeful of better things to come. Peter Littlefield was our next points scoring co-driver as he settling in with the non-registered Steve Perry in his Corsa. And right behind was yet another Vauxhall Corsa – this time the green version driven by Geoffrey Harkness. After the car’s last run out at Warcop, the reprep consisted of a quick wash and away we go. No problems with belts jumping off this time out, just a little breakdown in communication with co-driver Caroline Lodge when he decided to go right at a split when she called it left ! Fortune was with the Spadeadam crew, it was Caroline’s wrong shout and their luck was in.
Paul Dolan was back in the championship after over a year out and this time it was with his ex co-driver Derrick Fawcett’s daughter, Rachel. He’s also moved on from his Mitsubishi and decided to run another of these popular Vauxhall Corsas. As Paul has the smaller 1389 cc engine on board, he had to learn how to peddle a front wheel drive car and with a lot less power than he’s used to. He’d only driven the car for a handful of miles before the rally so was happy to get a reliable run under his belt.
Jon Olds from Tynemouth is used to bringing out different cars and the Christmas Stages was the debut for his latest offering – a Seat Cordoba. He admitted the day didn’t go as well as he’d hoped and that’s without the loss of over 3 minutes on stage 6 when he ran out of ability and got stuck on the grass. Don Bramfoot co-drove for the non-registered John Nicholson on a very sideways outing to 53rd in the Ford Escort. Philip Kenny was a last minute stand in for the non-registered Colin Jarman when his co-driver cried off injured. Their Ford Escort suffered an occasional misfire that slowed their progress and they finished 55th.
The ever-cheerful Colin Butler enlisted the services of Giles Dykes for their run in a Toyota Yaris. They knew the 1 litre car would be slow with only 68bhp but were still surprised at how little acceleration there was. On one stage, Giles even checked the handbrake wasn’t on when they left the start line! Colin rung the little car’s neck all day setting five 4th in class times and always managing to keep comfortably off the last spot. He enjoyed the handling of the car but is now considering a more powerful engine. And our final finisher was Kari Bosworth who was in with the non-registered Kevan Neal. The little 1400cc Peugeot 205 just didn’t have the power to keep up with the competition and ended up second last.
We only had 3 crews retire from the rally, the first being our current champion driver Paul Swift and David Cox. Their day started well until halfway around the second lap of stage 1 when the engine let go without any warning. A huge hole now ventilates the Escort’s block and Paul was last seen wandering around with the top of the piston in his hand ! And fairing very little better was the 2012 championship’s 3rd placed crew of Chris Anderson / Chris Thirling. They’d stopped the clocks an excellent 4th fastest on the first stage before a deathly engine rattle forced them to turn off the Ford motor part way through SS2. Our final retiree was the little Nova of Andrew Fawcett and Chris Purvis. Andrew has scored some good results at Croft with his 1400cc-engined Vauxhall but this time it would be his uprated gearbox to cause him grief. He’d been slowed on the first test by a car that was too quick down the straights but too slow through the twisty stuff. Problems with the downshift emerged on the next stage before the box became stuck between reverse and first gear !
Big thanks go to Ian Jackson and his team at Northallerton for another well run Specsavers Christmas Stages Rally. They came up with a little bit of variation on the tests and not having to battle the elements must have been a welcome change for them. The balmy 10oC with only a little rain and wind are unusual conditions for the traditional slot between Christmas and New Year.
I hope that those of you who weren’t able to make it to Croft found the Twitter updates useful. And for those of you who haven’t tried it yet, I hope it will give you some quicker updates on how each rallyday is progressing. Our Twitter account can be found @nerallychamp – watch out for more updates on the next event. Speaking of which, it will be The Jack Frost Stages in association with AUTOGAS 2000 and Cartersport. The rally takes place on Sunday January 20th and will also be based at Croft again. This event will comprise of 8 special stages totalling approximately 45 miles, which will be on 100% sealed surface. The organisers haven’t received as many entries as the Christmas Stages yet but still have almost 70 entries placed. If you are considering doing the rally, then you will need to get your entry in by Tuesday 8th January for this one. The link for the rally is http://www.darlington-motor-club.org.uk/series_home.php?seriesid=35.
And finally for now, there’s more information about the third round of the championship – the Legend Fires North West Stages. Although the rally doesn’t take place until Friday the 8th and Saturday 9th February, the Regulations were released before Christmas and the organisers have received 69 entries already.
Rally HQ will once again be the Norbreck Castle Hotel in Blackpool, with its unrivalled facilities enabling scrutineering, indoor parc ferme and champagne finish ceremony all within the hotel’s own Exhibition Hall. The adjacent ʻRally Villageʼ promises to be bigger than ever with trade stands, simulators and displays to entertain the supporters and spectators. Once again the hotel has offered very favourable accommodation rates for the 450 hotel rooms assigned to the event. The organisers are retaining the popular format of recent years, with a Friday evening leg giving competitors approximately 10 miles of stages in the dark and that includes a spectator friendly stage on the North Promenade directly opposite Rally HQ. The event continues with Saturday offering a wide variation of stages at several different venues with about 75 miles of good quality sealed surface stages within a compact route of only 150 road miles. The all creates a very demanding event for competitors, with no hanging around. And there is also the promise of new stages this year too – one is close to the population of Preston and another to the north of the Fylde coast. For more information on this event, go to http://www.nwstages.co.uk/