ASP / NETRC Tyneside Stages 2015 Results
Sunday morning at 8 o’clock and the Airstrips service area on Otterburn’s military ranges held quite a tense atmosphere. The elements were causing some concern for drivers as the steady rain increased and so tyre choice was still a gamble. Some crews wandered from car to car seeing what their rival’s were planning to run but in the end most crews didn’t have much choice. They ran on the best rubber they had with them and kept their fingers crossed that they would make it safely around the opening 18 miles of competition
David Tinn was driving his usual MEM Proton Satria and is new to our championship but he had the experienced Giles Dykes to keep him on the right bits of black stuff. This was easier said that done in the wet opening loop and they did admit to having a few moments on the grass; they didn’t lose much time though and results showed they were in a fine 3rd place at halfway. A puncture in the afternoon dropped a little time and they eventually had to settle for 4th overall.
However, finishing just ahead of the Proton were a couple of ex champion co-drivers. The 2012 winner, Jack Morton was sitting alongside Damian Cole in his Fiesta R5 WRC and after a daylong battle just lost out to the rally winners by 12 seconds. Right behind was our 2010 champion Andrew Roughead who was guiding Alex Laffey around in his similar Ford Fiesta R5+. They were off the pace in the damp, morning runs and also picked up a puncture over the bridge in Quickening Cote but they still managed to finish 3rd overall.
Coming home with another handy result and rounding off the top ten of the rally were Barry and Michael Lindsay. As ever, the Spadeadam crew showed lots of more powerful cars how it should be done with a stunning drive as they brought their little Peugeot 106 to the finish to take yet another class win. Barry reported rather embarrassingly that they’d had yet another trouble free run, oh apart from a driver’s window that wouldn’t open. Carl Williamson finished 5 seconds behind while co-driving for the non-registered Richard Clews but over a minute clear of Nigel Feeney and Phil Sandham. Nigel’s Subaru Impreza completed the opening loop of the day just outside the top 20 but he felt that a poor tyre choice hadn’t helped his cause. After a change at first service, things looked up and he was much happier as he moved up to end the day in 16th position. And taking the prize for the only crew to finish in the same position as they started, 21st, were Stephen and Louise Hope. The Coltness couple were trying out new dampers on their Ford Escort Mk2 and it was Louise’s first time at Otterburn so they were delighted with their day and a good finish.
From 25th to 29th overall we found 5 of our registered crews. First we had Stuart Walker, who’s fit again after his wrestling match with a motor bike, and his only problem was a front left puncture in Riverside2; Barry Renwick / Steve Dargan were just 7 seconds adrift in the Ford Escort Mk2 – Barry admitted that he was over cautious in the wet and lost time during the morning tests but was happy that the car never missed a beat all day; the father and son pairing of David and Mathew White ended up in a lowly 27th after beaching their Subaru Impreza at the first T left on stage 3. They went into the test in 10th place and came out of it in 70th so 8 top ten times out of 9 stages run in the remainder of the day managed to drag them up the order to 27th at the finish; the Escort Maxi of Kev Monaghan and Chris Purvis were next despite the brake pedal going to the floor on the second run of Riverside, too much left foot braking didn’t help his cause; Chris McCallum was 6 seconds further back and his only problem was with the starter motor on his Ford Escort Mk2 and this meant that he sometimes had to resort to a few bump starts.
Michael Farmer and Bruce Lindsay were delighted to finish in 31st position and take the prize for best improvement on seeding despite trying to throw the car off the road just before the flying finish of the final stage. They seem to have found a good dose of reliability with their Ford Focus now and are starting to chalk up some decent results. Neil Thompson will probably hope that something similar is starting to happen to his Vauxhall Corsa as his was glad to finish the event. He had a few little issues with driveshafts but the important thing was that he finished. Andrew Plunkett and Paul Firth wheeled out their Subaru Impreza for the first time since last year’s Tyneside Stages. Once they got over how they managed to go backwards over the finish of the opening test, and still be in one piece, that settled down for another steady run to claim 35th at the finish.
Geoffrey Harkness and Caroline Lodge were next in the little green Vauxhall Corsa, their only problem being a vacuum pipe coming off the brake servo on SS5, this been quickly rectified at service; John Nicholson / Peter Littlefield easily won the Historic section of the event and then we have the Vauxhall Nova of Shona Hale with the non-registered James Thomson driving. A couple of off-road excursions, no intercom for one stage and an engine running a bit flat were their problems of the day. Graham Malthouse enlisted the services of brother Jeff to sit alongside him when his Dad couldn’t take part. No issues to report with their Vauxhall Astra on the way to 47th and a similar fate for Nigel Harkness and Helen Gibbon as they brought their little Corsa home in 55th position.
We managed to get 20 crews home but lost a further 8 on this popular rally. Phil Kenny was our first retirement when the Ford Puma he was sharing (co-driving in) lost all power after 4 miles; Paul Ballantyne and Graham Bruce made it into stage 3 before the engine of their Renault Clio let go; Kevin and Jimmy Knox called it a day when the power steering pump failed dramatically in the middle of a corner on the Dudlees test and nearly dumped the Whickham crew into the scenery; Lee Hasting’s engine starting misfiring in the same stage; Stephen Bethwaite/Ann Forster retired in second service with transmission problems (teeth breaking off the planet gear); Ross McSkimming and Charley Sayer-Payne made it into the first afternoon loop but stopped with an electrical problem on their Citroen C2R2; Alan Cowan and Katie Stimpson called it a day in final service with gear selection problems in their Vauxhall Astra and Tom Middlemiss / Richard Stewart were our final retirements when they stopped in stage 10 after a drive shaft failed on their Corsa.
It was a challenging rally for the organisers from Alnwick and Berwick Motor Clubs as their rally became fragmented with cars going off in the slippy, morning runs. They stuck with it even though the time schedule slipped somewhat until they decided to cancel the final 13-mile test. And now there’s little time for a rest as this weekend we’re back in action on the Solway Coast Rally. Once again the Dundrennan Ranges will open up for our annual opportunity to run rally cars in competition.
After this Saturday’s rally we have a 3-week break before the penultimate round of this year’s championship takes place. Entries for the Pendragon Stages are just like so many other rallies this year – and that means full. There’s time for some crews to drop out with issues before the seeded entry list is published but it’s great that once again our championship is running as part of some very popular rallies.