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ASP / NETRC North West Stages Results 2015

Podium finish for Feeney and Sandham. Driving his TEG Sport Subaru Impreza B13 for only the third time, Nigel Feeney found himself taking a well-deserved 3rd overall after yet another difficult North West Stages. The only problems the Prestwick man wanted to talk about were black and round – a poor choice on the Saturday morning loop when things improved after the change at lunchtime service and a puncture that didn’t really cost the boys any time. So it’s a great way to get his year under way with maximum points for another man new to our championship and more competition already for the title.

The format for the 2015 Legend Fires North West Stages was very similar to recent years with 27 tests squeezed into 24 hours of rallying – stages run in the dark, lots of tight road sections in and around a busy town oh and not forgetting a great rally HQ. The only change this year was the weather with a regular 5oC, some blue skies and sunshine thrown in on Saturday morning to give us almost balmy conditions !

Although Nigel gets the top driver’s points, Phil had to settle for second in the co-driver’s side as Andrew Roughead grabbed these honours on the day. He was drafted in to sit alongside double event winner Paul Bird in his Ford Focus and they were comfortable winners this year by over 2 minutes. That advantage would have been greater had they not been given a stage maximum on the first run through the Fleetwood Docks stage after some confusion at a split as they spun and found themselves going backwards down the ‘wrong’ route. It never affected their stranglehold on the leader board as they were accredited with 16 fastest times !

David White was next up along with his son Mathew back in the co-driver’s role after a ‘guest appearance’ on the Jack Frost. The car was working well and after Friday’s 5 tests the father and son pairing would start the next morning in 7th place. The first run through the Fleetwood Prom stage saw them pop the front offside tyre off the rim at the spectator popular tight hairpin left in front of the houses. With no spare on board, they had to do the rerun stage on the rim and the time loss on the stages was over a minute. But then with more confusion/pressure they were awarded 3 minutes of road penalties. All of a sudden the comfortable 6th overall became 34th ! Their earlier speed resumed and they’d managed to fight their way back up to 11th overall at the finish.

And finally making it to the finish in Blackpool was the Vauxhall Nova of Andrew Fawcett and Chris Purvis. Several times the pair have been going well on this rally but never got to the end but this year was to be different. Friday’s stages saw them end up in 23rd place after some debate over tyre choice. This wasn’t helped on the opening Saturday loop when they scrubbed a set of soft tyres in the ‘warm’ weather but a change to harder inters solved the problem. Unfortunately, they were now 37 seconds down on the class leader but over the next 6 stages pulled the deficit back to nose in front and eventually win the class by over 2 minutes. And having played their Jokers as well, both Andrew and Chris have shot up our leader boards.

Finishing in 17th overall were a very disappointed Howard Chopping and Jonathan Turnbull in their Subaru Impreza 555. A slowish start in the dark of Friday night would find them just outside the top 20. However, with some excellent times set around 5 of the 6 Weeton tests run on Saturday, they were in a very competitive 4th overall before Lady Luck deserted the Trackrod crew and they lost over 6 minutes off the road on the very last stage.

The Peugeot 206 of Mark Thompson was next and this time he had Alistair Hutchinson’s son Joe sitting alongside him. Mark doesn’t deny that he loves driving in the dark and from a lowly start number of 56, his reward was to be reseeded into 15th on Saturday morning. A snapped driveshaft on the first run through Fleetwood lost them over a minute and a half and dropped them down to 35th overall. A fight back against more powerful cars running in dry conditions wasn’t easy and they were happy to settle for 25th overall and 2nd in class at the end of the day.

Next up were Stephen Bethwaite and Ann Forster in the little 1400cc Vauxhall Nova. It was a bad start to Friday for Stephen when he reversed his trailer through his neighbour’s garden wall. Things didn’t improve once the event got underway and half way round the opening test they suffered gear selection problems – they were forced to complete the 5 night stages with only 3rd and 4th gears. At the first service the next morning the gear selector mechanism was quickly fixed by tightening a single 10mm nut that had forced the mechanism out of alignment. The rest of the day’s stages went well with the only complaints being tyre choice and getting too close to some of Weeton’s famous kerbs. They were very happy to finish their 7th North West Stages in 29th overall and 4th in class after all the time lost on Friday.

Right behind were Alistair Hutchinson / St John Dykes in the newly built Renault Clio. A steady start found them down in 42nd overnight before the car ran faultlessly through most of Saturday. They managed to move up to 20th and 2nd in class going into the final stage at Weeton, when a 50p fuel pump relay decided to stop working. They struggled back to the Norbreck but dropped to 30th overall and 4th in class. Most importantly though, there wasn’t a scratch on the new car !

The smiling Scottish duo of Drew Barker and Shona Hale were 39th in the wee Vauxhall Corsa. There only dramas were losing 1st and 2nd gears on Saturday morning’s 4 tests at Fleetwood Docks and Promenade but they once again made it to the end of a tough North West Stages. And the father and daughter of Team Bates were our final classified finishers. Bill still wasn’t happy about how the engine in his Peugeot 106 was running at scrutineering and his fears were confirmed on the night tests as they struggled to 83rd place. The engine was constantly cutting out and overheating but they did up their speed on Saturday to progress up to 41st at the final control.

With such a tough rally we always expected more than the usual retirement rate, but this year we lost 12 crews with mechanical maladies. The first to go was our current champion driver Darren Doherty who along with Andrew Falconer were forced out on the opening stage after hitting one of Weeton’s kerbs; James Sharrock / Stuart Faulds were next when lying in 14th position they dropped out with a broken rear damper / cracked stub axle; Craig Pennington only made it to Fleetwood before flames leaping out from under the bonnet of his Mitsubishi Evo9 ended his rally; Joe Cunningham snapped a driveshaft in Weeton on Saturday morning; Lee Hastings and David Crosbie called it a day at Fleetwood when the ECU started malfunctioning; Mark and John Burton couldn’t fix a leak on their Subaru’s turbo; Gordon Winning / Robin Laird ran out of brakes and into retirement at lunchtime service; Peter Littlefield retired after the fourth Promenade test with a damaged tca; event sponsor John Stone’s Fabia made it to Weeton in the afternoon before flames coming into the car ended and he and Carl Williamson’s rally; next to go were Jim Sharp / Sasha Heriot when an oil pipe came adrift on Weeton6; Geoff Simpson and Bruce Lindsay retired from 33rd after the turbo blew on the return visit to Fleetwood Docks and our final retirement was Kevin Mathers who made it into final service before suspension problems stopped James Thomson’s little Nova.

Once again the North West Stages was a terrific test of man and machine for a tough day’s rallying and everyone who made it back to the Norbreck Castle hotel had many tales to tell. It really is an achievement to complete this rally and our thanks go to the team of 10 motor clubs that make up Motor Sport (North West) Ltd. to organise such a great event.

It may just be the beginning of February but already we go into our ‘mid season’ break after 3 rallies in 6 weekends. Round 4 will be the DCC Stages planned for the 25th April when Dunfermline Car Club will be our hosts once again. We’ll be back with a further update before then …

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