North Of England Tarmac Championship – Tyneside Stages

Andy Davison takes top championship points on the Tyneside Stages.  Driving his BMW M3, the lad from Northallerton managed to get a clean run most of the time with only one problem all day.  Andy, co-driven by Mike Curry, was quick out of the blocks being 7th fastest on the opening stage and by second service he was up to 4th overall – making a mockery of his seeding at 31.  As others gained speed in the afternoon, he dropped down a place before he lost just over a minute on stage 7.  A rear tyre had delaminated and although he was slowed by the little problem, it didn’t cost him any places and he finished a fine 5th overall.  The car looked a little second hand by the end after he lost both door mirrors and the front wings carried the evidence of regular contact with chicane bales but he was a very happy man back at the Otterburn Leisure Centre.

Paul Hughes took the co-driver’s laurels as he finished in second place overall, just 25 seconds behind the winner.  Paul was sitting in the hot seat of David Turnbull’s recently acquired ex works Subaru S11 WRC and they had a trouble free day getting accustomed to the new car.

Taking second place for drivers was Peter Taylor.  The youngster from Spadeadam was out in his Renault Clio R3 with last year’s top co-driver, Andrew Roughead, sitting alongside.  The pairing are often competing in the BRC and were using the Tyneside as a test session before the Ulster Rally.  A good play around with suspension settings was very useful as they set competitive times all day and after almost 90 miles, they were just 4 seconds behind Davison / Curry in the BMW.

Next up in our championship was Alistair Hutchinson driving his Renault Clio.  The Northallerton man was driving as hard as ever and was only slowed on stage 3 when he picked up a misfire.  He luckily found a wire rubbing out on the engine and after a quick fix in service he continued up the leaderboard to finish a fine 9th overall.

Our current championship leaders were next along in their usual Peugeot 106.  Barry and Michael Lindsay put in their usual committed performance to win the class and finish 13th overall.  However, what was not usual were the battle scars of contact out on the stages.  Barry set off into the first stage 30 seconds behind a guy who’s never been to the venue before and by half way through the 9-mile stage he’d caught up with him.  Even with lights on and horn sounding the poor guy wasn’t aware of the presence of the little 106 for several miles.  Just before the end of the stage he backed off a little for a ‘flowing section’ and the pocket rocket shot up the inside line to get ahead before the fella turned into the Peugeot damaging the co-driver’s door and window.  This didn’t really halt progress for the rest of the day and another good set of points ensured they increase their lead at the top of our championship table.

Behind the Lindsays were local boys Chris Grieve and Paul Makepeace in another Peugeot 106.  The lads have suffered with a bad run of mechanical problems since the Croft rallies and were keen to record some points again.  In the weeks leading up to the rally, the car’s benefitted from new engine, shafts, new brake pads and it was all worthwhile as they managed to get to the finish in 16th overall and second in class.  Their only ‘troubles’ were keeping the car on the black stuff as they pushed hard and found the grass didn’t provide the same level of grip.

Another crew to record a cracking result were Chris Anderson and Chris Thirling.  The Durham lads were 16th overall in the Ford Fiesta on the first stage to confuse the seeding committee after they were set off at 66.  Special preparations after the recce meant they found early speed that they could maintain for the rest of the event.  Unfortunately, they lost out when they were awarded a notional time on the final stage and they dropped 3 places without turning a wheel in anger !

Kev Monaghan and Chris Purvis were another crew to suffer a similar fate with the same incident. However, after their first stage panic, they were very glad to get to the finish.  A water leak was discovered in first service and they used up nearly all their lateness fixing what turning out to be a problematic gasket.  That’s 3 good results in 3 rallies with the new car now, let’s hope their Otterburn jinx is over too.

Dave Seed and Mick Morpeth enjoyed a trouble free day in their Ford Escort G4.  Only minimal time was lost when they caught and passed a couple of slower cars and more useful points gathered on the rally pushes them into our top 10.  Another crew to enjoy themselves were Gareth White and Callum Atkinson.  The lads from St Boswells were using their newer car, the C2R2 Max, and it’s reliability would bring them home in 24th place.  Classified right behind them, but sharing the exact same time penalties were the Knox brothers.  Kevin and Jimmy were making a rare appearance in the Honda powered Ford Sierra and recorded a bit of a frustrating day.  A niggling misfire and unreliable brakes prevented the boys making good progress on a regular basis but, as ever, they were as happy as ever at the finish.  A further 2 and a half minutes back was the consistent Geoffrey Harkness and Caroline Lodge.  Driving their usual Vauxhall Corsa, the Spadeadam team were happy to report a trouble free day.

Our final 2 finishers were the family crews of the Davisons and the Malthouses.  Michael Davison and son Josh struggled with brake problems on their Proton Satria for most of the rally.  However, by the end of the day it was the clutch that was giving more concern but they made it to the finish with Josh pushing the car into the final control.  Jeff Malthouse had his nephew Graham reading the notes for him as he wheeled out his Peugeot 205 once again.  The lads were short on match practice but still enjoyed a trouble free run to 46th overall.

Such a hard event always catches out crews and we had 3 championship contenders that suffered on the day.  Paul Swift and David Cox were the first to go, just a couple of miles from the end of the opening stage.  A downhill medium left over a wicked cattle grid saw their Ford Escort leave the road and roll into ditch.  Both crew members escaped unharmed but the race has already started to find panels for the next rally in less than 2 weeks time.

Chris and Katherine Singer had a lucky escape after a huge crash.  Their problems started in the week leading up the event when a coming together with black faced tup meant lots of cosmetic work was required to get the front end of the Saxo looking more the way Citroen had designed it.  Once the rally started, things seemed to be going well as they were leading arch rivals Michael and Barry Lindsay by 11 seconds after 4 stages before a right rear puncture on the next stage saw them lose 30 seconds.  Battling hard to make up for lost time, it all went wrong as they left Featherwood Farm on stage 7.  Approaching the uphill jump over cattle grid, Chris changed into 6th gear before taking off and then the front offside wheel studs sheared !  Landing with 3 wheels on their wagon they managed to stop the car before the next junction and then wander off on foot to find the offending wheel way down the road.

Our last crew to suffer were Edward Todd and Andy Brown.  Driving the unusual GTM coupe the Durham crew lost time on stage 4 when they made minimal contact braking into the back of the misfiring car in front.  Their recovery up the leaderboard was going well until 2 miles from the end of stage 8 when the diff gave up.

A big thank you to Alnwick and Berwick Motor Clubs for staging the Tyneside Stages, sponsored by Wilkinson Maintenance and Alba Water.  Once again the value of clubs working together produces a good event as the Military Ranges of Otterburn provides a stern test for competitors.  The organisers coped well with the delay on stage 1 after a car rolled (the crew unharmed) and the more serious incident on the last stage when a member of the public needed urgent medical attention.  Unfortunately, almost 30 crews had to be disappointed at missing the chance to have a go on the longest stage of the day.   And the organisers found some warm and sunny weather too – shame about the midges though !

Next rally in the championship is the Solway Coast Rally, sponsored by Usedcarparts.  This event is new to our series and will run on Sunday 14th August.  Solway Car Club are promoting the rally that offers a total mileage of approximately 70 miles and will contain 8 special stages totalling approximately 42 miles. The stages will take the form of 85% sealed military range roads and 15% loose surface roads.  The event will start and finish at the Military Ranges, Dundrennan, near Kirkcudbright.  Scrutineering will take place on Saturday 13th August [15:00 – 18:00] and Sunday 14th August [07:00 onwards] at the nearby Girstingwood Rally HQ Complex

The entry list is now open and will closes finally on Saturday 6 August 2011; the entry fee is £229.90.  Although the organisers haven’t managed to arrange a recce, they will have route notes and DVDs prepared by Scotmaps (Bill Sturrock) that will be available in various formats.  There’s lots more information available at http://www.solwaycarclub.co.uk/cgblog/10/usedcarparts-co-uk-Solway-Coast-Rally/

Also here’s another quick mention on round 9 of this year’s championship – the Pirtek Lindisfarne Rally.  It’s back to Otterburn on 11th September for 11 stages and just under 100 miles of competition over the fantastic military roads of Northumberland.  You will find all the details are available at Tynemouth Motor Sport Club’s website –http://richard-burns.com/tdmc/lindisfarne