ASP / NETRC 2015 Summer Stages Results
Summer success for Scots Feeney and Hale. The Summer Stages organised by Glenrothes Motor Sports Club would prove to be a happy hunting ground for this recently formed pairing and a fine 5thoverall finish saw them take top championship points. Having played their ‘Jokers’ on the rally has also propelled both of them to the head of their respective tables too.
Saturday morning at the Crail Raceway in the middle of June and the best summer weather that the East Neuk of Fife can produce turns out to be dry but cloudy and rather cold. Add in the onshore wind from the nearby Forth of Forth and it was certainly winter coats weather with not a sign of any sun cream necessary. Round 5 of our championship was set out on a big old airfield that looks out to sea and comes complete with lots of good wide, grippy tarmac roads mixed with a few narrow concrete sections closer to the derelict buildings and hangers that assumed the role of rally HQ and service area for a day. Oh and there were lots and lots of old tyres, not to mention a few bales, marking out the course.
Nigel Feeney felt that the opening pair of tests weren’t too good and he was unsure if it was the tyres or the transmission settings on his Subaru. A quick phone call to TEG and a much better afternoon in terms of times saw the red Impreza inch closer to the podium. However, a few good goes at removing the front wing and some 2-wheeled aerial acrobatics in the style of Paul Swift Stunts probably didn’t help the cause but it did make for interesting viewing. Despite taking fastest stage time on the final run, he ended up 1 second adrift of the tying 3rd and 4th overall crews but by taking double points on this rally Nigel now leads the driver’s table while Shona tops the co-driver’s section.
Finishing almost 50 seconds adrift was Stuart Baillie in his slightly older version of Japan’s famous all wheel drive rally car. Stuart accepts that he can’t quite compete with Nigel’s newer, more technologically advanced version but it doesn’t stop him trying very hard. He was teamed up with Ian Crosbie for the event and they consistently produced stages times around the top 10. They were no major problems to slow the pair down on their way to 7th overall, just a faulty intercom and a bit of overheating.
And rounding off the rally’s top 10 were Lee Hastings in yet another Subaru and Barry Renwick / Steve Dargan in their Ford Escort Mk2 – a modern classic car as they like to put it ! The Escort was quickest of the 2 cars over 6 of the 8 stages but still managed to end up 10 seconds in arrears. Lee’s times were very consistent and he didn’t suffer any problems to complain about but Barry felt he lost out with the traffic and being baulked by others, the 3rd stage in particular nearly saw him taken out by another competitor and he lost over 20 seconds in that stage alone. Undeterred, the smiling Tynemouth crew used their Joker to top up earlier consistent results and push them both into the top 3 of our overall tables.
The neat little GTM Coupe of Ed Todd and Andy Brown were next up in 15th overall. Once again the ‘wee beastie’ behaved itself mechanically with only a change to the rear pads required in the lunch halt. They had a daylong battle for 2nd in class and going into the final test they were 1 second down. Going one step beyond maximum attack wasn’t the best idea as they approached one of the chicanes just a tad too fast … and suddenly they found the rear end of the little red car attacking the bales. It was only after another spin further up the road that Andy thought he should rein in his man and settle for a decent set of points. The 33 seconds lost to his rival meant it was 3rd in class this time out but extra points for Jokers played, edge them both into our top 5 now.
Chris McCallum was next up in in his Ford Escort Mark2. Apart from an overshoot on SS3 that lost about 10 seconds, Chris had yet another boring, clean, run into 16th overall. His analytical approach came up with the theory that his new co-driver with being quite a bit lighter in weight was having a positive effect and helping him to another handy result. Team Winning was next up as Gordon and Robin Laird brought home their Ford Escort just inside the top 20. Only a full 360 spin on the third stage, put down to poor interpretation of the stage diagrams, and the resultant loss of over 20 seconds were the driver’s only complaint. After retirements on the last 2 events, getting a result this time felt like some progress.
Paul Ballantyne and Gordon Bruce were next in their pretty little Renault Clio. Their only delay in the day was on stage 3 when coming into a chicane; Paul reached his breaking point slightly more briskly than anticipated. The collision with a bale could have caused lots of panel and mechanical damage but luckily for the reigning Scottish Tarmack champion pair they got away relatively lightly with just about 20 seconds lost. Charley Sayer-Payne got a late call just 2 days before the rally to sit in with the unregistered Ross Carbry. It must have worked well for the duo as they went and won the up to 1400cc class.
Next up was a pair of duelling 1600cc cars – Liam Walling’s Peugeot 106 and the Ford Focus of Michael Farmer and Bruce Lindsay. The youngster from Consett managed a drama free day on his first visit to Crail, that means no driveshaft problems, and most times he kept his head down to improve his time on the second run at each pair of stages. And a further 18 seconds behind was the Ford. A change of limited slip diff since the last rally was meant to be a precaution but it also meant the Michael could drive the car and he was another who was delighted to see the final control for a change. After their recent runs of poor reliability, both these crews would feel getting to the end of a rally was a small victory of sorts.
The Vauxhall Corsa of Tom Middlemiss and Richard Stewart were next in both overall and up to 1600cc class as they finished in 37th place. It wasn’t their best performance and having a few wee mishaps along the way didn’t help their cause. Drew Barker was happier with his Vauxhall Corsa even though it’s got a smaller engine than Tom’s and is not ideally suited for fast open airfields. His only complaints were damage to the front bumper and having to change the front tyres for the final pair of stages. Kevin Mathers wasn’t our final finisher this time out in his very standard 1900 Peugeot 205. The cooling problems that dogged his last outing appear to have been sorted out and his only misdemeanour was a huge spin on the penultimate stage. John Nicholson and Peter Littlefield were our final classified finisher way down in 70th position. Their morning got off to a bad start when their Ford Escort RS2000 stopped out on the opening stage. After loads of fiddling they decided that the fuel pump had packed in and a quick change over to the spare had them up and running once more. Unfortunately they’d been accredited with a stage maximum and the loss of over 6 minutes meant they were always playing catch up for the remaining 7 stages.
There were only 3 retirements on the day and the first was David Crosbie when his non-registered driver’s Ford Escort stopped on SS4 with alternator problems; Nick Thorne and Ian Murray have swapped their Honda Civic for a Subaru Impreza and debuted the car at Crail. They both knew that it would be a steep learning curve on the day but enjoyed the first 6 tests before an intermittent misfire progressively got worse; and the final retirement was the Dad and Daughter crew of Bill and Kari Bates who were forced out on stage 6 when a front wheel came adrift.
We’re indebted to Glenrothes Motor Sport Club for making us welcome to their Summer Stages. The rally ran smoothly as they coped with 94 cars in the Senior event as well as the 9 ‘Juniors’ running in a ‘separate rally’ that was incorporated into the day. The stage changes and turnarounds all happened without a hitch and with a low retirement rate the organisers were running up to the limit with an access road closure. They were pleased to get all 8 stages run without any stoppages too.
It’ll be almost 7 weeks before we have the next round of this year’s championship as we return to England and Otterburn in particular. The 2015 Tyneside Stages Rally will once again be a co-organised event run by Alnwick and District Motor Club and Berwick and District Motor Club. The route will comprise of over 80 stage miles run over the Otterburn Ranges. Regulations are expected to be available to download any day now from www.alnwickmotorclub.co.uk/tyneside-stages-rally with entries opening on Wednesday 17th June. All our previous rallies this year have been oversubscribed, some within 24 hours of publication; so if you’re thinking of doing the rally get your entries in quickly.