NETRC Jack Frost Stages 2013 results
Maximum points for Metro Men. Simon Chapman and Michael Calvert took their Metro 6R4 to a fine 2nd overall on their first outing of the year, the Jack Frost Stages. And the aptly title rally more than lived up to it’s name with rally day starting with a little ice and plenty of snow covering the racing circuit at Croft. With the white backdrop and uncertain conditions, 9 championship contenders decided to chance their hand and play their ‘jokers’ too.
Darlington and District Motor Club promised 8 special stages covering about 45 miles for their annual single venue rally but only 54 crews would leave MTC1 as mechanical maladies and fear of slippy conditions reduced the number of starters.
It would be easy to assume that Chapman and Calvert were expected to do well on the rally as they had the right car, but like most folk they were struggling a little with tyre choice. The newcomers to our championship started the day with a 3rd fastest on the opening test but had dropped back to 4th by the halfway point. A bit of a push after lunch saw them get carried away and take out the flying finish of the 6th stage, as well as the 321 boards ! They settled down for the final 2 tricky stages and were content with their Michelins and to take a fine runners-up spot on the day.
Next up in 4th place were Paul Swift and David Cox. It would be fair to say that attention was largely focussed on our current champion driver after his short Christmas Stages. In the intervening period, he’d put lots of effort into acquiring and then fitting a new Millington 2.4 motor. Paul made a steady start with 5th quickest on the opening stage as he used the skills from his day job to best effect. As a ‘tarmac line’ started to appear in the afternoon he upped his pace only to be slowed on SS5 when a tyre set out by the organisers as a course marker became wedged underneath the front panel. Things improved until he hit another course marker – this time a tractor tyre – on the penultimate test. This time there was minimal time lost but the driver’s door became wedged closed. By the end of the day, Paul and David were more than content to bring the Ford Escort home as 1st rear wheel drive and 1st 2-wheel drive car. Oh, and he’s very happy with the new engine too !
Taking 3rd place, and a fantastic 5th overall in the rally, were Joe Cunningham and Daniel Kennedy in a Peugeot 106. Drawing on his experiences from rallycross, the youngster was able to capitalise on the tricky conditions to his benefit as the car was rarely seen travelling in a straight line on the morning runs. The Matador road tyres they were using provided excellent grip and they found themselves in 6th overall and 46 seconds behind Swift / Cox after stage 4. And things continued to get better in the afternoon as in the ‘drier’ and improved conditions, their incident free day saw them make huge inroads into the gap to the more powerful Ford. They felt that traffic hadn’t been kind and held them up on a few occasions as they caught cars but couldn’t overtake once on the snow and ice off the ‘tarmac line’. It the end, they didn’t quite catch Swift but there was only 3 seconds in it ! This was the sort of result that we’ve seen so often from multiple champions Barry Lindsay in the past, so the futures looking good for them. And having taken the gamble to play their jokers on the rally, their double helping of points pushed them right up the tables. Joe now leads the drivers while Daniel is just 1 point shy of the top co-driver.
Stuart Walker and Julie McGuire came home 7th in the Mitsubishi Evo9. The Bathgate man was quick from the off with a 7th fastest time and despite a slower time on the rerun stage, he was back into the groove on SS3. Although he was a little concerned at the start of the day about brake problems from his previous rally, you wouldn’t have known it as he pushed on at a consistent pace all day. His only damage happened on the third stage when he clipped a chicane bale and took the nearside door mirror off completely. It was a handy result for the Scots crew as they get their campaign off to a good start.
Next up in 8th overall and taking 5th in the championship points were Barry and Michael Lindsay. Driving their usual Peugeot 106 and mounted on Maxsport tyres for the day, they gave their usual 100% effort. Unfortunately, they didn’t pick up the usual rewards. Barry couldn’t pinpoint the exact problem as he opened his account just 14th fastest on the first test. Times improved but he had no mechanical problems or off road incidents to blame either. As ever they never gave up and were very committed – they even admitted to hitting something on every stage – usually it was a course-marking tyre but it was the stage arrows at the end of SS8. It certainly helped the Spadeadam crew as they not only took 2nd fastest on that final test, but also managed to jump 2 places and finish 8th overall into the bargain.
Alistair Hutchinson was reunited with St John Dykes for this event and another crew to play their joker and make good use of it. Having a couple of options on snow tyres was useful and after a good morning’s work, they were lying in 8th place. In the afternoon they lost out a bit as Alistair struggled with the rear end grip and they would bring their Renault Clio home in 9th place. 13 seconds adrift of the Lindsays is never a bad result but the Northallerton crew were disappointed to have lost out on the last stage when the Peugeot was 17 seconds quicker.
Another crew with mixed emotions at the end were Chris Anderson and Chris Thirling. The Durham crew were back with a refettled motor in the Ford Fiesta having found that they’d turned the bearings on the Christmas Stages. The opening stage found them languishing in a lowly 15th overall and they only managed to improve 2 places by lunch as they just couldn’t get their power down through the snow and ice. Their frustrations eased over the last 3 tests as more tarmac was available to use and the times tumbled to a 3rd fastest on SS8 to end up in 11th position. They’d head home pleased the engine had worked fine and looking forward to Blackpool.
Right behind in 12th place was Mark Thompson and Phil Kenny in the 2 litre Peugeot 206. From a start number of 27, Mark showed some committed driving over the slippy morning runs to find himself in 11th overall. However, once the stages were ‘reversed’ and the more powerful cars were able to speed up they lost out and would end the day in 12th place. Andrew Smith was next up in his Ford Escort Mk2. As with several crews already mentioned, Andrew struggled in the early tests and could only manage 24th on the opener. Things did improve and he felt more able to attack later in the day, as some panel damage would testify. The Malton man would make up 9 places by the finish and live to fight another day.
Paul Dolan enlisted the services of Brian Smith after his regular co driver found herself stuck in Halifax. The tidy little Vauxhall Corsa was equipped with some good road snow tyres and probably benefitted from running at number 59 on the road too. The Northallerton crew stopped the clocks in 23rd on the first test and the 2 run before lunch were well inside the top 20. However, they would be another to lose out during the afternoon, as the faster boys were able to make up time in the improving conditions. They were still delighted to come away with a fine 18th overall and a class victory.
It was good to have John Stone and Lee Carter join us for this rally but not with their World Car. The Skoda wasn’t ready to do battle with Croft so John decided still to contest the event in a Peugeot 206. The hardly used left hand drive version would be good practice for the forthcoming event that John sponsors – the North West Stages. Progress around the stages was a lot slower than the pair were used to both in the power and grip categories but the times weren’t far off the class leaders. Their 21st place overall finish would have been considerably higher had it not been for the problem on the first afternoon stage when almost 4 minutes were lost. It was down to another of those course-marking tyres becoming wedged under the front panel ! Still the Blackpool South Shore team were happy to have had some fun and to finish their first rally since June last year.
The Toyota Yaris of Colin Butler was refreshingly different. Partnered by young Joe Hutchinson, the 1 litre machine thrived in the difficult conditions despite dropping over a minute on the opening stage. Colin had loads of fun humbling ‘faster’ cars including the Subaru driver who moaned to him about being just 3 seconds quicker than Colin on a stage and only beat him on 2 others !
Another crew to make it over the border were Alan Cowan and Shona Hale. Their Vauxhall Astra was pretty reliable all day and their only concern being a precautionary drive shaft change. The couple from Dunfermline were still smiling at the stop line of the final test having enjoyed their rally.
Not having such a good run this time were Paul and Chris Alsop in the Talbot Sunbeam. Following their fine 12th overall on the Christmas Stages another good result was eagerly awaited. They struggled all morning and couldn’t better any top 40 times but felt happier with their afternoon runs. They obviously score better on tarmac than snow and 36th place overall isn’t a true reflection of their capabilities. Jon Olds was another that found life difficult. A game of 2 halves was his summary of a day in the Seat Cordoba although I’m not too sure which half he preferred. And our final finishers were Jimmy and Karl Knox in a Peugeot 106. This was Karl’s first ever rally and he was keen as mustard before the start. By the end of the day he’d not made any mistakes and really enjoyed his day. Not so sure about his uncle Jimmy who had been pushing the pedals and turning the wheel all day. He seemed a tad frustrated by the lack of right tyres for most of the day.
We only had 2 retirements on the event and our leaders after the opening rally were the first to go. Joseph Redmond and Luke Campbell returned with their Peugeot 306 but only had intermediate tyres and couldn’t get a hold of any winter ones on the day. Despite driving the first 2 stages in full, they were accredited with 2 stage maximums, as this was quicker than their actual times. With no sign of improvement they decide to go home and save the car for another day. And the Vauxhall Corsa of Geoffrey Harkness and Caroline Lodge only lasted until the early afternoon. The Spadeadam crew were having a reasonable day and Caroline was calling all the rights right and all the lefts left this time. It all ended half way around stage 6 when a couple of bangs were heard before the ball joint broke and the nearside driveshaft popped out.
Special thanks go to Darlington and District Motor Club for all their efforts in making the Jack Frost Stages in association with AUTOGAS 2000 and Cartersport run very smoothly. There are some folk who may say that it was a shame about the weather making conditions so slippy but an alternative view is that it added another variation into our championship this year.
Once again 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, why not give it a go and you’ll get some quicker updates on how our championship is progressing each rallyday. Our Twitter account can be found @nerallychamp – keep your eye out for more updates on the next event.
And there’s no let up as the rallies keep coming with the next one being just over a fortnight away when we’re off to the seaside. The third round of the championship is the Legend Fires North West Stages and this will take place on Friday the 8th and Saturday the 9th February. The Regulations were released just before Christmas and the organisers have almost received all the applications for the maximum 100 entries available already. If you’re interested in competing on this one it will be a good idea to contact the Organisers pretty dam quick.
The rally is always well organised with fantastic facilities at the event HQ, 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/