NETRC Ingliston Stages Results May 2012
Stuart Walker and Jack Morton take the narrowest of victories. Driving their usual Mitsubishi Evo9, the Bathgate haulier with the youngster from Whickham sitting alongside, would take their maiden maximum championship points on Saturday’s DCC Stages.
Dunfermline Car Club were our hosts for the visit to the Royal Highland Showground near Edinburgh Airport as the championship made it’s first trip into Scotland this year. The day dawned dry, sunny and with a wee nip in the air as competitors set off for the 8:30 start around the tight and twisty roads of Ingliston. And from the off we had 5 championship crews battling it out for each and every second.
Paul Swift and David Cox were quickest out of the blocks as they grabbed a couple of seconds from Chris Anderson and Chris Thirling in their Ford Fiesta. But on the next run our reigning champions; Barry and Michael Lindsay were quickest. So after 2 stages we had Swift / Cox just 1 second ahead of Walker / Morton and then Anderson / Thirling; Ed Todd and Andy Brown were followed by the Lindsays – and just 9 seconds separated the 5 crews. The second pair of stages saw Walker jump ahead of Swift after the Ford Escort crew had a huge lock up following the mid stage yump on stage 3 and had to take to an escape road. Ed Todd was now pushing harder in the little GTM Coupe after his cautious start when he was still concerned about the strain on his drive shafts. Meanwhile Chris Anderson dropped time when he started short shifting as he was worried about his engine pressure. The motor was a freshly rebuilt unit after it ventilated itself just 2 weeks earlier at MIRA. And so at the lunch break, our top crews were now separated by 20 seconds and reduced in number to 4 after Barry Lindsay took a stage maximum on SS4. His newly rebuilt Peugeot 106 hadn’t been driven in anger before the event and after 15 miles the throttle pedal ‘fell off’ giving Barry some cause for concern as he made it slowly out of the stage.
The afternoon runs were pretty much a reversal of the morning ones and again the lead would change hands. This time It was Stuart Walker who hit one of the many stout straw bales in his Mitsubishi and lost ground as Swift and Cox pushed hard and took a few chances on the ‘new stages’ to edge 11 seconds ahead. Todd and Brown had a spin on stage 5 when the driver confessed to not listening to his co-driver but the car still felt good and he was just 4 seconds adrift of Walker / Morton. The Fiesta of Chris Anderson felt better now the stage was running in a clockwise direction and with the engine issues stabilised, he was still going well albeit a further 10 seconds behind.
Into the final pair of tests and it was the Ford Escort crew that cracked under pressure first. They lost over 40 seconds on stage 7 by completing an extra loop as all the other 3 crews recorded the same time – 7:05. Although Swift and Cox were back on the pace over the final 4.7 miles, the damage had already been done and they would end up 10th overall and 4th championship contenders. Chris and Chris from Durham were still mixing it with their rivals and would just lose 2 seconds in their Fiesta over the final run to end up 15 seconds ahead of the Escort in 9th place. So going into the final stage, Walker still led Todd by 4 seconds but the little GTM managed to stop the clocks 3 seconds quicker than the Mitsubishi. The huge smile on the driver’s face at the final control told it’s own story that they’d really enjoyed that stage. Unfortunately for them, they had lost out by a mere 1 second.
What about the other championship crews ? Well first up was Dave Seed in his usual immaculate Ford Escort G4. Dave enlisted the services of seasoned campaigner Colin Tombs to guide him around the stages and they finished in 13th place. The guys had a steady run from 25th place after the opening test to slowly move up the leaderboard as the day developed. Just like most crews with rear wheel drive, they struggled in the dry and warm conditions to find the right rubber. By the end, their tyres were shot but they’d had a good day.
Geoffrey Harkness and Caroline Lodge made their first appearance of the year in their Vauxhall Corsa. As ever, they just kept their heads down and had a trouble free run to not only take 16th place overall, but the class victory on the rally too.
The Malton crew of Russ Radford and Graeme Bell did a solid job and brought the Ford Escort home on 20th place. It was the turn of Russ to drive the once pristine Mark 2 this weekend but he would end up with damage to the front panel and driver’s wing after contact with another competitor. His only other problems were with lack of the appropriate tyres and his gearbox, but fortunately it held out to the end. They would also collect the rally’s class winner’s trophies as well.
Local crew Drew Barker and Shona Hale were next up. A tardy start would see their Vauxhall Astra complete the first test in a lowly 35th place but after a clean run, steady progress would see them move up the leaderboard to 22nd place. They would go home a happy crew having enjoyed their day.
Barry and Michael Lindsay finished right behind them after a rally to forget. It would be a character-building day as the afternoon runs also saw them encounter drive shaft and electrical problems. On the final stage, the little maroon Peugeot coasted to a halt. As Barry fiddled around under the bonnet Michael managed to get the car started again. They completed the stage about 1 minute down.
Next up were the ‘Dad and Lad’ combination from Lauder – Nigel and Callum Atkinson. The Border Ecosse crew were in the minority as they were pleased to record a trouble free day in their little red, Peugeot 205. And our final finisher was Richard Clark in his 1600cc Peugeot 205. The experienced Carlisle man had a consistent day when he was always quicker on the second of the 4 pairs of tests. His only scare being on the final run of the day when he almost ran out of fuel.
Phil Morton and Jo Emma Hind wheeled out their unusual Fiat X19 but retired on the opening loop of the morning. A heavy landing after the mid stage yump caused terminal gearbox woes. Doing a bit better but only managing to complete 3 stages was Eddie O’Donnell Jnr. The man from Mull had a poor opening stage before upping his pace until he span in the fourth test. He couldn’t restart the Ford Escort and had to be towed out of the stage. Although he managed to fix the car during the lunch halt, he opted to run for an early ferry back home and save the car until The Clark.
Thanks go to Dunfermline Car Club for all their efforts in providing another different challenge for the championship. We now have a 4 week break before we’re back to Duns for the Jim Clark National Rally. Entries are coming in well with 57 received already and with the optional discounted rate of £645 closing on the 9th May, those wanting to compete need to act quickly. The final closing date is 1 week later on the 16th with the £100 higher charge added. The rally is running a week later this year but still on the Bank Holiday weekend. The action starts on the Friday night with a couple of tests in the centre of Duns before an overnight Parc Ferme and then the bulk of the event takes place on Saturday, 2nd June. This year the organisers are offering 102 miles of stages run on the closed public roads of Berwickshire. As is customary now, the rally will be based at the Kelso Racecourse – full details of the rally can be found at http://www.jimclarkrally.com/