ASP / NETRC Cheviot Stages Decider 2016
Now that the dust has settled after the Pendragon Stages and our championship results up to and including that event have turned final, we’re looking forward to a thrilling finish to the competitive year at the Ford Parts Cheviot Rally run in memory of Keith Knox. We may not have as many potential winners going into this rally compared to some previous years, but we still have very close competition between the challengers.
Naturally most of the interest is in the overall driver’s table where 3 people can still take the coverted title. Our current leading driver is Alistair Hutchinson. The man from Mickleton took the lead of the championship on the Summer Stages at Crail in June when his little blue and yellow Clio took the top score. And although his lead was sliced in half at Cumbria’s Pendragon Rally, he still heads Barry Renwick by 5 points. Barry’s year got off to a flyer as he took maximum scores over the opening 2 rallies at Croft. After that great start his Proton lost some reliability with one poor score and two retirements down to electrical issues. It’s good to see that the car has been flying over the last couple of events as the Tynemouth man tries to recover the lost ground.
Both men have more than five ’scores on the doors’ and are already to the point of ‘dropping’ their lowest ones. This not only clouds the Maths a little but also means the permutations increase as to who adds more to their current total. It may be the man that finishes behind his rival on the day that actually accrues more points and potentially takes the title.
Neil Thompson lies in 3rd place and with the right results he could have equalled Alistair’s points total. Perhaps he’s decided to skip the Cheviot and concentrate all his efforts on the wee rally taking place on the island of Mull instead.
Blending the right mix of speed and reliability will play a big part in deciding the outcome of this year’s championship or quite possibly it might all come down to just a little bit of luck.
Across in the co-driver’s section it’s no less complicated as we find that this year’s crown could go to any one from three possible contenders. Ann Forster currently heads Richard Wardle by 6 points with Julie McGuire a further 7 adrift. All three of them will have to drop a score when the Cheviot points are added on but both Richard and Julie will be dropping their lowest score of 1 while Ann’s score to drop is a 6. It’ll not be straight forward working this out.
Some of the class winners appear to be sorted out but could all change if they collect top three awards so there’ll still be plenty of interest in how the classes shape up as well as the overall tables.
One fact that is certain is there will it be new names on the top trophies this year. Change can be good …
Entries for the Cheviot Rally haven’t been as plentiful as the organisers would have chosen. However after the cancellation of last year’s event due to military exercise on the planned rally weekend, the organisers are determined to run the rally this year. The entries may have closed for seeding already but the organisers will still be very happy to continue to accept latecomers right up until 18:00 on Wednesday 5th October. Anyone interested can contact the Entries Secretary Gordon Bradford on 07412 107269 or go to the event’s website, http://www.cheviotstages.org.uk/ for more information.