NETRC Tyneside Stages Result 2013
Doherty takes top points. Driving his usual John Pye prepared Subaru Impreza; Darren Doherty finally opened his scoring account with a fine 6th overall on the Wilkinson Maintenance Tyneside Stages. This was a rare appearance on the Otterburn Ranges for the Manchester man and along with his non-registered co-driver Stewart Merry; it was to be a cautious run over the infamous military roads. The Doherty/Merry partnership worked well from the off and they completed the opening test in 6th place. No major concerns slowed their day as they continued to learn the roads with only a turbo boost issue to keep them on their toes.
Taking the top co-driver points was Paul Hughes. He was shoehorned into the Darrian T90 GTR of non-registered Washington James to keep the Irishman on the right track for his national championship campaign. A good run would see the new pairing finish in 7th overall and as Paul was playing his ‘Joker’ on this rally, a good haul of championship points too.
Andy Davison and Mike Curry were back out in the BMW M3 after their disappointment of the Jim Clark. The pair always goes well on these fast roads but this time their progress was slowed a little when they clipped a rock with the nearside front and bent the rim on second run through the Redesdale test. They were amazed that the tyre hadn’t deflated and with no spare to hand, they had to go carefully through the next 2 stages and 10 miles to reach service. They had a bit of a push on the final stage to try and catch the car in front but never managed it and had to settle for an excellent 9th overall.
Finishing a mere 20 seconds behind the BMW was the Fiesta S2000 of Alex Laffey and Jack Morton. A steady opening lap found them in 15th place at service. Unfortunately, they snapped a drive shaft, dropping about 30 seconds, on SS5 and had to go easy for one more stage to get back to service. The youngsters are gaining in confidence with every outing and 10th overall, 1st in class was another good result for them. As they both played their ‘Joker’ on this event, they’ve leaped up their respective tables with Alex now in 3rd overall.
Barry and Michael Lindsay were a bit nervous before the start wondering if the misfire that got the better of them on the Turnbull Trophy had finally been ‘cured’ after every possible relay and sensor had been changed. The Peugeot 106 seemed to start and stop on command and they headed towards MTC1 with fingers crossed. They need not have worried as once the flag dropped it was maximum attack time and the little missile just flew. And literally too as Barry acknowledged that he was sometimes spending too much time in the air over the jumps and landing on the car’s nose wasn’t too clever. They didn’t slow much in the afternoon tests either as they pushed on for another class win, by almost 9 minutes, and a fantastic 12th overall. Back at the Airstrips after 12 fast stages, Barry felt it had been a good high-speed recce for the forthcoming Lindisfarne Rally when he’s expecting a strong challenge from a local Vauxhall Corsa crew.
Next up were Dave Seed and Colin Tombs in the Ford Escort G4. This was only their second outing of the year and it turned out to even better than their first on the Clark. A brand new intercom meant that Dave could hear all the commands that Colin was giving him now and he was very happy after a trouble free rally to take 15th place overall.
Four places adrift was Giles Dykes with the non-registered Chris Rice in a Subaru Impreza. They collided with the second chicane on SS1, which caused a fair amount of cosmetic damage and knocked the tracking out. After SS6 they had a little bit of bother with the Environmental Scrutineer, but after fitting a new silencer were able to continue. They then discovered a puncture whilst waiting to start SS7 and quickly changed this before attempting the stage. After an overshoot on SS8, things calmed down and they finished 3rd in class N4 for the driver’s first finish over the Ranges since 2009 – a quite eventful rally.
One place and 15 seconds behind were the Mull crew of Eddie O’Donnell Jnr and Matt Ratcliffe. They had an eventful opening lap when their wipers failed as the heavens opened for the Riverside test and they dropped almost a minute in just 2.85 miles. On the next stage they boiled the brakes as they tried to play catch up and they arrived back in first service in a lowly 34th place. The service crew sorted out the brakes and the rain stayed away for the rest of the day so it was onwards and upwards as they climbed the leaderboard. They were happy to make 20th overall at the end of the day.
Next up was the Subaru Impreza of Derek Belbin and John Stanger Leathes. The Tynemouth crew were having a fun day in the car they just use for the Ranges and were only slowed in the afternoon by a leaking exhaust. As this leak was at the manifold underneath the car, there wasn’t enough time to try and fix it so they just braved it out for the last couple of stages. Derek’s highlight of the day was going over the flying finish of the last test side by side with the previous car he’d just caught !
Mark Thompson and Phil Kenny had a busy day in their Peugeot 206. He was another who lost out on slicks when waiting at the start of the second stage when the downpour came. He tiptoed through with quite a time loss and would arrive at first service in 42nd place. They made steady progress up to a final 23rd place despite leaking shock absorbers and brake problems.
James Thomson from Melrose was delighted with a class win and 28th overall in his 1400cc Vauxhall Nova. His only problem all rally was the offside front quarter light dropping out, apart from that the car never missed a beat all day.
The Honda Civic of Nick Thorne and Ian Murray were next having endured a ‘character building’ rally. Being baulked for over a minute on the second loop; having a puncture 500 yards into the penultimate test meant having to take a stage maximum and gear linkage / section problems on the final stage were their main problems – but they were still smiling at the end of the rally.
Jon and Alison Trenholme were very cautious going into the first stage, as they didn’t know the roads and had a poor finishing record over Otterburn. And although they got to the end of Redesdale1 in 46th place, the rest of the rally saw them make good progress up the leaderboard to 24th until the 12.66 miles of Bushman’s Crag1 when the turbo blew on their Subaru Impreza. They made it back to final service, topped it up with oil and then struggled through the final stage and recorded a finish – in 31st overall.
The little Vauxhall Corsa of Simon Stewart and Doug Levee were our final finishers in 33rd overall. Having the throttle jam open forced the Tynemouth crew to stop a few times on the first lap of 3 stages to try and sort the problem out. It wasn’t the start they wanted and just like the Honda Civic, they lost time stuck behind a slow car on the second lap. The afternoon runs were much better; although with just 1400cc power, they struggled up the hills and along the fast straights.
We had 6 championship crews who were forced to retire and the first were Ed Todd and Andy Brown. The little GTM Coupe went off in the heavy rain of Riverside1 when they slid off on a left 8 over crest. It took 6 minutes to get back over a ditch and onto the road. 500 yards into the next test, the oil pressure warning light came on so they stopped. Investigations found the belt had come off the oil pump pulley which was probably caused by the accident and / or a loose engine mount.
Darren Atkinson and Phil Sandham opened their championship campaign with a good couple of stages and their Ford Escort was lying 10th before a misfire slowed them. They tried to fix it in service and left MC3 but found it was no better so drove straight back into retirement. Josh Davison and Ken Bills were 2 co drivers in Darrians and they both went off on the second run through the short Riverside stage. Alistair and Joe Hutchinson were forced to give up when their Renault Clio kept blowing oil out of a breather and despite refilling; they started to lose oil pressure.
Our final 2 retirements both made it into the long penultimate stage before stopping halfway around. Chris Anderson and Chris Thirling endured problems for most of the day with their Fiesta jumping out of 2nd and 3rd gears. They couldn’t solve the problem but stopped from 14th place when a ‘death rattle’ was heard so they killed the motor and started the long walk back into service. Simon Chapman and Michael Calvert were fairing a lot better and were lying in 8th place until they too stopped their Metro 6R4 with gear linkage problems.
So we move on to round 8 of this year’s championship in less than 4 weeks time. The Fostek Lindisfarne Rally will take place on Sunday 8th September and it will have a very familiar feel to the Tyneside Stages too. The Otterburn Ranges will be the setting once again for another 9 special stages with approximately 70 stage miles on sealed roads linked by road mileage of approximately 45 miles. Tynemouth Motor Club has already published the Regulations and the entry fee is exactly the same as the Tyneside Stages – £355. Full details can be found at http://richard-burns.com/tdmc/lindisfarne
And 2 weeks after the Lindisfarne, we have the Stobart Rail Pendragon Stages. It’s the annual opportunity to run over Warcop Ranges, near Appleby. The Regulations have just been published for the rally and there’s more information available at the event website – http://www.pendragonstages.co.uk/