ASP / NETRC Tyneside Stages Results 2014

Two in a row for Stone and Williamson. Driving their usual Skoda Fabia WRC on Sunday’s Wilkinson Maintenance Tyneside Stages, they were a happy crew after a very fast run over the Otterburn military ranges with an ultra reliable car. In fact their only issues to talk about were the weather and tyres. Despite the heavy rains on Saturday, the rally was run in mostly dry conditions with just the odd shower making tyre choice a tricky decision in the changeable weather. However, the Blackpool South Shore Club boys were up to the challenge and precise driving reduced any risk to give them a 4th overall placing at the final control and another maximum haul of points.

Next up were Alex Laffey / Jack Morton and both have recently experienced outright rally victories. For Alex it was on the Rally of the Midlands while just the previous weekend, Jack had his fastest ride ever around Epynt. The youngsters felt they’ve been a little too cautious over the opening tests before a spin into one of the chicanes on the first Ridlees Cairn run dropped them about 30 seconds. They were getting quicker as the day wore on and ended up 8th overall. Rounding off the top ten was co-driver Giles Dykes who was enlisted to guide the non-registered David Tinn around in his Proton Satria S2500. Despite a scare over a seat issue at scrutineering, the boys got a new one fitted in time to start the rally and record a good finish.

Keith Robathan finished right behind in 11th with only intercom problems slowing him down and his co-driver even had to resort to hand signals at times. Any worries over the refettled back axle were all in the driver’s head as it worked fine after seizing on the Wednesday night before the rally. Having played his ‘Joker’ on the event means that Keith now jumps to head the driver’s table. Darren Doherty had to run with a new co-driver after Stewart Merry couldn’t make it to Otterburn and so Ron Roughead stepped up to fill the left hand seat. Ron’s been a Clerk of the Course on earlier rallies over Otterburn so was bringing a wealth of relative experience into the Subaru. They were 6th fastest over the opening run at Makendon but slipped down the order with a couple of slower times on the second afternoon loop to finish in 12th overall.

Peter Stephenson and Ian Windress were next up in 18th overall. It must have been over 20 years since Peter was last over the ranges and he remembers that the Tyneside’s Competitor Liaison Officer Tom Herron being of the maps that day – or was it all the information in Tom’s head ? A steady run in the Ford Focus rather than his usual Subaru would see them happy to make it back to the Airstrips in one piece. Jim Sharp and Craig Wallace were next in the Stranraer man’s Mitsubishi Evo 9 and a steady drama free day would see them finish in 20th overall just 5 seconds ahead of Alan Oldfield and Ken Bills. The York man is still coming to terms with his change of car from the Darrian that he started the season with to his Proton Satria S2500 he’s contested this event and managed to bag more useful points.

Barry and Michael Lindsay finished 23rd overall with no problems. This was Dad’s first time out again after their roll on Hamsterley and he settled quickly back into the groove. Although 23rd sounds a lowly position, Barry says he wasn’t going any slower this time out just the stages suited the bigger motors better and anyone watching couldn’t fail to be impressed by his commitment. Next up were Barry Renwick and Steve Dargan in their Ford Escort Mk2. Barry’s another who hadn’t sampled the ‘new roads’ since they were ‘upgraded, widened, smoothed and generally changed’ since the nineties. A steady approach was the order of the day as they acquainted themselves with a venue that has bitten Barry in the past.

Andrew Plunkett and Paul Firth were out in their Subaru Impreza. It’s been sometime since they contested a rally and then it was with the green Honda Civic. After a slow first loop they quickened the pace to end up 38th. Right behind the Tynemouth crew were Neil Thompson and Katie Stimpson in their Vauxhall Corsa. This was Neil’s first attempt at Otterburn and he knew he was rubbish over the opening stages. He then picked up to a comfortable pace and finished just 1 second behind Plunkett / Firth.

Geoffrey Harkness and Caroline Lodge had another trouble free run in the little Vauxhall Corsa ahead of another trio of Vauxhalls – Alan Cowan in his Astra and Tom Middlemiss / Richard Stewart in their Nova and Stephen Bethwaite / Ann Forster in the baby Nova. Our final classified finisher was Michael Farmer bringing his Ford Focus home in 55th place.

A quick mention of the crews who never made it to the final control and starting with Darren Atkinson and Phil Sandham. They had a spectacular off over the flying finish of Yardhope that totally wrecked the Ford Escort – fortunately both crew walked away unhurt but are very sore now. Ed Todd and Andy Brown only lasted 6 stages before a damaged engine mount on one of the yumps out of Redesdale Camp forced them out; Alistair and Andrew Hutchinson only completed the first loop before a noisy gearbox dropped them out – shame as they were leading their class up to then; the Peugeot 206 of Mark Thompson and Phil Kenny stopped on SS6 with clutch problems; Nick Thorne and Gordon Clark were another to just manage the opening loop of 3 stages before a driveshaft failure; the Vauxhall Nova of James Thomson / Alison Woodcock didn’t even make it to the end of SS1 before the throttle lever on the carbs broke and finally the Forgans. Ian and Kathryn had one of those days when things weren’t going their way and the final nail in the coffin was the diff failure on the first left hairpin of stage 8. They managed to limp back to service and an early bath.

Thanks go to Alnwick and Berwick Motor Clubs for putting together a slightly different set of stages. The rally did get fragmented with a couple of accidents and they lost the final pair of stages too.

And the rallies just keep on coming at the moment. We just have time for a quick breather before we’re in action again this Saturday – 9th August – when we head to southwest Scotland. Solway Car Club will host the www.usedcarparts.co.uk Solway Coast Rally based at Dundrennan near Kirkcudbright. The organisers already have a full entry so it’s all looking good for the weekend ahead. More details can be found at http://www.solwaycarclub.co.uk/2012-solway-coast-rally

And then after another 4 weeks, we’ve the Mark Bortwick Motorsport & CRG Motorsports Pendragon Stages on the 7th September. Once again it’s another full entry with over the maximum number of 80 already received for our annual run over the Warcop Ranges. There’s more information at the rally website – http://www.pendragonstages.co.uk