North of England Tarmacadam Championship first round
Chris Grieve and Paul Makepeace take the spoils on a snowy Christmas Stages. Driving their usual mount of a Peugeot 106, the youngsters from west Northumberland emerged as top championship contenders on a very wintery rally yesterday. Although the engine of their little car might have lost out in the power stakes to many others, the lads scored with a good tyre choice that provided the grip in the snow, ice and slush that their opponents’ struggled to find. A trouble free drive for the ex Legend racer would see the crew take a fine 7th overall in the rally with maximum points and the lead in the championship.
Next up were the Lindsays in 10th overall. The Carlisle crew tried hard all rally and at the end of the day, the panel damage to both doors showed they were sometimes just over the edge of control. As ever though, they embarrassed most of the rally finishers with bigger, more powerful machinery. And in third place were our reigning champions, Michael Glendinning and Andrew Roughead. Although the four wheel drive of their Subaru Impreza provided better grip, the changeable conditions on stages still caught them out occasionally. Michael may have been disappointed with the number of spins he suffered as he lost count. He was pleased though as he didn’t hit anything during these gyrations !
Just about everyone had a similar story to tell about the lack of grip, wrong tyre choice, spinning, hitting tyres / bales / Armco or just having lots of traffic to contend with. Chris Myers and Matt Whattam complained of poor tyre choice on their Mitsubishi Evo9 for the opening stages but improved in the afternoon to finish 14th; right behind in his Mitsubishi Evo7 was Craig Pennington. Craig was happy just to start the event as his co-driver dropped out late on and he still didn’t have anyone to sit beside him 30 minutes before the start – a broken co-driver’s window resulted from contact with the scenery on the first stage and he finished the last stage with a straw covered bonnet and wing; Paul Swift and David Cox were debuting their immaculate, new Mark 2 Escort but even with all of Paul’s professional driving skills he struggled with poor tyres; Paul Dolan was another with the wrong tyres fitted in the morning but was happy to move up from 77th overall after stage 1 to finish 25th; even though he was feeling unwell Chris Clark had a trouble free day in his Ford Ka to end up 30th.
Of those who suffered bigger problems, Ed Todd and Andy Brown couldn’t get grip in the morning and suffered several spins. He was making some progress in the afternoon until the heavy drizzle arrived and then he realised his wiper wasn’t working – he arrived at the end of the last stage with zero visibility and glad the day was over; Geoff Simpson / Mick Johnson had an argument with one of Croft’s famous green and yellow Armco barriers and the Mitsubishi Evo X looks a bit second hand now; Andy Davison / Mike Curry just couldn’t get the power from their BMW M3 onto the road – they did get the crowds entertained though with huge slides; Bill Bates and Kari Bosworth lost a wheel from their Peugeot 106 on the first stage and took a stage maximum; and finally the same fate befell poor Chris Anderson when his Ford Fiesta stopped on the second stage.
Northallerton Automobile Club once again should be congratulated on running a slick event in trying conditions. Although they may have been praying for ‘better weather’ than last time when they struggled just to get the rally to run in all the snow, they still had to fight the additional elements of ice and snow. Fortunately, the situation wasn’t so bad this time around and by the end of the day a steady thaw was turning most of the stages into slush or even a clear track. Never the less, Ian Jackson and his team put an awful lot of effort into making the rally a success.
The Cartersport Jack Frost Stages on Sunday January 16th is the next round of the series and will also be based at Croft again. This rally will be run on a similar format to recent years and the organisers are putting on 8 stages with a mileage of about 36 competitive miles Those crews who are interested in taking part will need to get their entry in by Tuesday 4th January for this one. The entry list stands at 45 at the moment but there’s sure to be lots of interest now that the Christmas Stages is over. The link for the rally is www.darlington-motor-club.org.uk/series_home.php?seriesid=27
And now some more details about the third round of the championship – the Legend Fires North West Stages. The rally is scheduled for the Friday 4th and Saturday 5th February and will be based as usual in Blackpool. Once again the Norbreck Castle Hotel will be the headquarters with all the pre rally stuff, start, parc ferme, finish and presentation happening there. The organisers of this popular event are offering 75 miles of sealed surface stages within a compact route of only 130 road miles. Although the Regulations have only been available for a couple of weeks, there are currently 74 crews registered to enter and the maximum entry is 100. The first 90 are accepted on first come – first served basis and final 10 will be at the organisers’ discretion. It goes without saying that anyone considering doing this rally should get their entry in as quickly as possible. Full details are available the event’s website www.nwstages.co.uk