ASP / NETRC results Keith Knox Cheviot Stages 2014
Stone takes another set of maximum points. After a controlled drive in tricky weather conditions, John Stone brought his Skoda Fabia home in third overall on the Cheviot Keith Knox Rally and in doing so, he notched up a hat trick of maximum scores in our championship this year. With his usual co-driver Carl Williamson away on foreign soil, John enlisted the non-registered Matt Whattam to sit alongside him for the final rally of our year. Having finished the opening run around Watty Bells in 3rd place, John consolidated that position for the remainder of the day. Tyre choice was always difficult over the nine stages as it didn’t dry up all day and there was quite a bit of mud about. And yet despite the damp conditions that prevailed on the military roads of Otterburn throughout the day, he brought the Dom Buckley Motorsport IRS-prepared car home with no problems at all and not a mark on the car.
Next up were Darren Doherty and Andrew Falconer in a Subaru Impreza. Going into the rally Darren was just ahead of Barry Lindsay in the driver’s table and already had one hand on the trophy. And for a change he had a bit of an eventful rally. On every stage bar 1, they were amongst the top 10 fastest times and the one he was 12th on came after he lost about 20 seconds with a spin. Mind he also admitted to having quite a tankslapper when he took off over a crest when side ways at 100mph ! Back at the finish the results showed a fine 7th overall and by finishing ahead of his rival, he’s taken the driver’s title this year.
Right behind Darren in 8th at the finish was his co-driver from earlier in the year Stewart Merry. He was sitting in with Simon Chapman for the day and was quite a tired man at the final control as he felt more worn out than after a 150-mile night rally in Wales.
Jim Sharp had a trouble free rally despite the slippy conditions and was relieved that his new engine performed without any trouble to bring him home in 11th overall.
Our outgoing champions Barry and Michael Lindsay were next in 15th place and taking yet another class win. Barry knew that he realistically had just an outside chance of retaining his title going into the rally but he still gave it his best shot. The problems of a misfiring engine on the Pendragon appeared to be cured and he attacked the stages with his usual vim. However, the slimy conditions certainly didn’t slow down our beloved Lad and Dad combination and at the finish Barry was gracious in defeat to a new worthy champion.
Finishing just 8 seconds further adrift were Keith Robathan and Phil Sandham in a Ford Escort Mk2. Keith was another to be running in a new engine – one he’d just collected from Plymouth days earlier and then driven back all the way to Aberdeen ! At the end of the opening test, the new pairing found themselves way down the timesheets in 31st place after a ‘bit of a moment’. They had a massive off 4 bends from the start that crumpled the right, rear quarter into the boot. They were kind of stuck too until Phil jumped out and pushed the car back onto the road having lost about 90 seconds.
Stuart Baillie and the non-registered David Crosbie, aka Bing, were happy to finish in 19th position after a good run in the Subaru Impreza. Stuart’s not a regular visitor to Otterburn so would lose out to some of those that were ahead of him. He had his usual complaint about ‘crap tyres’ during the rally but to be fair to him, these were brand new tyres ! It was probably more to do with the difficult conditions as lots of the other drivers had also voiced similar views.
And rounding off the top twenty were the Tynemouth crew of Barry Renwick and Steve Dargan. Barry’s usually a happy man behind the wheel of his Ford Escort these days but he was making a change and presenting his new VW Polo to Otterburn Ranges. Their plan was a steady run to see how the car handled and the pair were getting quicker as the day wore on while they were setting consistent times. They lost the intercom on the second pair of stages and then started to loose the clutch from stage 5. They had no clutch at all on stage 7 and had to be pushed off the start line which as fortune would have it was on a slight descent. The little car certainly looks the part and sounds pretty awesome as well.
In 21st and 22nd respectively were a couple of co-drivers sitting in with non-registered drivers. Michael Calvert was alongside Andrew Varley in his Ford Escort Cosworth while Craig Wallace was in the left hand seat of Billy Cowe’s Subaru Impreza.
Mark Thompson and Phil Kenny were next in 23rd place in their little Peugeot 206. Mark had spent more time and money on a new engine just before the rally so was hoping for a trouble free day. He needn’t have worried as the new motor performed faultlessly and the local boys had a good clean run.
Making their annual appearance on the event bearing their brother’s name, were Kevin and Jimmy Knox. The Whickham crew were out in a Ford Sapphire and it was good to see their smiling faces reach the final control once more. Kevin continued the family tradition of sideways driving to entertain the spectators and their only issue was losing 5th gear on the last stage after a particularly heavy landing.
And our final finishers were the jovial Scots Drew Barker and Shona Hale. The pair hit trouble on the opening run when the windscreen of the wee tartan Corsa misted up so bad that vision was rather difficult. A stage maximum left them bottom of the timesheets but after that they had a trouble free day to end up in 37th overall.
There were quite a few of our crews who found themselves on the ‘retirements list’ of the event and the first to go were Alex Laffey and Jack Morton who rolled their Ford Fiesta R5 just a couple of miles into the opening test; Kev Monaghan and Chris Purvis made it into SS3 before the power steering belt let go on their new toy – a Ford Escort Maxi; Simon Stewart / Doug Levee had fuel pump problems and took a maximum on the re-run Ridlees stage before being forced out; Ken Bills stopped after stage 6; the next test saw 4 crews leave – first was Giles Dykes when his driver’s engine failed in the Proton Satria; next was Stephen Bethwaite and Ann Forster having issues with the right rear hub of the little Nova; then the Nova engine of Tom Middlemiss / Richard Stewart went sick and lastly James Thomson and Alison Woodcock whose good run ended with a gearbox full of neutrals; and our last man to go was Michael Farmer when his power steering pump failed on the penultimate stage.
Once again Andy Kobasa and his team from Hadrian and Whickham clubs came up with a spot on rally – it ran on time, there were no delays with stage changes, the weather was kind for a change and we had results declared final in daylight ! They put on a good show in memory of the late Keith Knox’ 10th anniversary of his passing with a memorable display of images at Saturday’s documentation session and managed to get a 2 minute silence in the service area at 11 to allow everyone to show their respects.
A quick ‘heads up’ for our final event of the year that will take place on Wednesday 26th November. Get the date for the 2014 Awards Presentation into your calendars now and more details will follow soon.