North Of England Tarmac Championship – JMCR result

Current champion driver Michael Glendinning is back at the top on the Jim Clark National.

Berwick and Border Ecosse Car Clubs organised the annual Bank Holiday feast of rallies run over the closed roads of Berwickshire. Once again we had the chance to take in 120 miles of competition running with the top tarmac crews in the country. This was broken down into 22 miles run on Friday evening and then 98 on Saturday with the last 49 run without an opportunity to service. The weather would keep all crews guessing for most of the weekend with its variability; generally it was dry and windy with the occasional heavy downpour thrown in to liven things up.

Driving his usual Subaru Impreza, Glendinning was making a return to the series after a brief break and was immediately quick out of the blocks. His only problem was catching a slower car on the last stage but even so he took a 2 minute lead at the end of Friday and would never be headed. But he didn’t sit back after that he continued to push on and at the half way service he held a brilliant 4th overall in the rally. He dropped 30 seconds and 2 places on stage 12 but still went into the final stage in 6th overall. Unfortunately he picked up a puncture and he dropped over 5 minutes in the stage but still finished a fantastic 9th overall and well ahead of the next championship contender.

Andy Davison and Mike Curry, (BMW M3) were next up in 10th overall place. The Northallerton driver was another who we haven’t seen since the snows of Croft but he was hoping for better luck this time. He took a cautious approach to the changeable weather conditions when opting for intermediate tyres on the Friday run and he went to bed that evening in 19th place. He pushed harder on Saturday and steadily moved up the leader board and was only slowed by an overshoot on the first run through Swinton. He ended up in a field and luckily managed to drive out with the loss of just over 1 minute and slight panel damage.

Next up was Pete Gibson, our 3rd placed driver who was pleased to get to the finish. Pete isn’t competing much this year and felt his driving was very rusty on the 3 Friday stages as he got up to speed again. He was another to lose out to a slower car running in front of him but was content with 21st overall. As Saturday’s morning loop of 5 stages neared completion, he’d moved up 7 places before losing his brakes and almost 4 minutes in Swinton 1. Luckily for him, it was straight into service where the problem was fixed and he could start attacking again from 22nd. He managed to move up to 14th place, again, in the remaining 5 stages and he was very pleased to finish the rally after his 100 mph crash last year on the Swinton stage.

Next up were former championship sponsor Barry Renwick and Ken Bills. Barry’s been away shopping in Ireland and come back with a ‘brand new’ Mark 2 Escort. The car looked absolutely immaculate and drew lots of onlookers when in service. Barry only drove the car very briefly on the night before the rally so took a safe option of wet tyres for Friday’s 3 tests. The car never missed a beat all Saturday either and they were happy with their 19th place overall.

And finishing right behind was Kev Monaghan / Chris Purvis. Kev too has been spending his pennies on a new car but unlike Barry, he’s built it all himself. It was a good first outing for the new Corsa even though he endured a few teething troubles. The starter motor failed after the first stage and could only be changed the next morning after parc ferme, the alternator belt came off and caused a little grief, the engine felt down on power and he was running slicks all rally which wasn’t much fun when the heavens opened every now and then ! Having said all that, the lads were over the moon to finish 20th overall and win their class into the bargain too.

Dave Seed and Mick Morpeth were next in their Escort G4 and happy as ever to get to the finish. Once they’d fixed their suspension problems early on Saturday morning they’d moved up to 29th overall before being caught out on the first run through Swinton. They lost over 2 minutes with a huge spin that took out a hedge and some precious time trying to regain the road.

Paul Swift had a character building rally. He was happy to make steady progress on a long rally and glad to get to the end. On the penultimate stage the car stuck in 4th gear and although he found other gears on the next road section, the box became jammed in 4th again just after the start of the last stage. His time loss was minimal compared to the penalty he received for leaving parc ferme early.

The father and son duo of Michael and Josh Davison struggled with an intermittent misfire for the first half of the rally. It was eventually traced to a faulty fuel filter and despite incurring some road penalties getting this sorted out. they were happy to get a clean run thereafter to the finish.

Our last championship finisher was Simon Stewart / Doug Levee in their 1400 Vauxhall Corsa. They boys were keen to get a good run after bad memories from last year’s Clark and this time they managed to make it to the end. They were another to suffer from a rally long misfire when the engine didn’t want to run below 5000 rpm which made the road sections difficult but on the stages it was usually not so bad.

First of our 3 retirees was Stuart Baillie and Dave Cranston. The Scots didn’t get a chance to shine before the turbo of their Subaru started playing up and they retired their Impreza after the Abbey St Bathans test. It was good to see the husband and wife team of Chris and Kath Singer out again after their bad run of mechanical luck last year. They’ve acquired a Citroen Saxo and despite a sticking gear lever, had a steady run to end Friday in 20th place. They moved up a couple of place on Saturday’s first loop of stages before retiring after hitting a telegraph pole on the outside of a 90 left in Eccles 1. And finally, Gareth White and Callum Atkinson didn’t have as good a rally in their Citroen C2R2Max as the previous weekend. A steady start by the boys from the Borders was brought to an early end with mechanical woes after the Swinton stage.

There’s little change at top of the championship tables as Barry Lindsay still leads Paul Swift but Michael Glendinning now moves into 3rd ahead of a tying Chris Grieve and Pete Gibson. There’s no change at the head of the co-drivers with Michael Lindsay still in front of David Cox, Ann Forster, Paul Makepeace and Mick Johnson

Once again our thanks go to Colin Pagan who leads an army of volunteers from the Borders and beyond to run this super rally weekend. We move just a few miles south into Northumberland for the next rally – the Tyneside Stages. It’s our first visit of the year to Otterburn on July 31st when Alnwick and Berwick Motor Clubs promote this classic event. Regulations are expected to be available in the next week and full details can be found at  www.alnwickmotorclub.co.uk