North of England Tarmacadam Rally Championship – Jim Clark Rally review

Michael’s a winner ! Michael Glendinning and Andrew Roughead driving a Subaru Impreza for the first time brought the car home in an excellent 5th overall and top championship contender on the Jim Clark National Rally. The car was previously used in Ireland before Michael acquired it and he was quickly in the groove setting fast times on the Friday night’s stages. He would re-start on Saturday as second championship contender but still half asleep. Despite a couple of ‘slow’ times he picked up his pace, including a stage win the second time around Eccles, and when Andy Fenwick / Lee Tindall retired they were neatly placed to pick up the pieces. Even a snapped shaft on the very last stage couldn’t slow the boys down to record their first maximum points score of the year.

Following along in second place was Rob Hornshaw and co driver Dave Boyes in their immaculate Ford Escort Mark 2. It was their first appearance of the year and a steady start would see them end Friday night’s stages in 30th overall. It took a couple of tests on Saturday before they could make progress up the leaderboard to finish 18th overall. The afternoon stages in particular were a little nervy as they drove the last 4 stages with the oil warning light on all the time but the engine held out.

Two places behind on the results sheet but right behind in the championship were the evergreen Corsa crew of Kev Monaghan and Chris Purvis. The boys from Tynemouth managed to find a good rhythm in the 1600cc engined car on Friday’s 3 evening tests and keep some of the more powerful motors behind them. They would endure some brake and chassis problems during Saturday but still continued to push hard despite the odd scare in the wet of the early afternoon. However, they kept the car on the road and it was good to see their huge smiles at the end as they were delighted to finish – something of a rarity for them over recent months.

Dave Seed driving his Ford Escort G4 was another happy man at the finish. Dave was teamed up with a new co-driver for the rally and reported only one problem of a puncture on Saturday’s first stage. He picked up the problem early in the stage and lost over 5 minutes to drop to 54th overall. His push over the remaining 6 tests would see him move up the order to end up a fine 26th at the finish. Duncan Wardrop and Ian Crosbie were relieved to complete a rally as they’re still getting used to their new Subaru Impreza. They didn’t suffer any major dramas all rally but gained some valuable seat time as they learnt more about the new car.

Propping up the time sheets after very character building experiences were Paul Hughes / James Knox ( Mitsubishi Evo6 ) and Ross Hunter in his Honda Civic. The Mitsubishi crew from Whickham lost over 20 minutes on the first run through Swinton when they ground to a halt with no fuel. They managed to ‘find some’ and get going again but they just didn’t have enough stages to make an impact on the huge time loss. And finally Ross Hunter, who comes from Newton St Boswells but never really had the opportunity to make use of his local knowledge. He suffered not one but two drive shaft failures – fortunately not on the same test. He lost over 35 minutes on the first run through Wedderburn to drop to last on the road and results. He recorded much more competitive times over the next 3 stages before another shaft went on the second attempt at Swinton – but this time he only lost about 20 minutes. A steady drive through the remaining stages would see him get back to the finish and at least take home some decent championship points.

So what about those crews who never made it back to the Duns finish ? The biggest disappointment must go to Andy Fenwick and Lee Tindall who retired whilst leading the rally. Driving the newly acquired Subaru S8 as campaigned by Richard Burns, the past winners of this rally completed the rally’s first stage, a short dash around the streets and industrial estate of Duns, a mere tenth of a second up on Bob Grant’s Subaru. But over the next 15 miles of Abbey St Bathans, they nailed it to grab a 30 second lead. They would resume on Saturday morning in the head of the rally and were controlling the lead until they entered stage 11 when the front brakes locked on and forced their immediate retirement. Bob Grant and Pete Carstairs endured a fraught rally with a huge spin and mechanical problems and their rally ended on Saturday afternoon when they were still in 3rd place. The diff being the suspected problem. Barry Renwick and Ken Bills moved up from their usual Ford Escort into the ex Steve Simpson Hyundai Accent for this event. Barry only drove the car for a few miles on the day before the rally and started the first stage a little uncertain. His steady run would come to an end on the penultimate stage when, having clawed his way up to 2nd place, he retired with no brakes at the end of the Wedderburn stage. The husband and wife team of Chris and Katherine Singer were making their debut with the ex Andy Fenwick Mitsubishi Evo6 but their run came to an end on stage 10 when they retired with drive shaft problems. And finally the Vauxhall Corsa of Simon Stewart / Doug Levee called it a day after mechanical problems saw them lose over 10 minutes on the last stage of Friday night.

Special thanks go to Organising Committee of the Jim Clark Rally, and in particular Colin Pagan the Rally Manger, for all their efforts in running this classic event. It proved once more to be a very demanding rally both for the car and crew and our annual opportunity to run through the closed public roads of Berwickshire. Great facilities and a great challenge, the rally deserves to be part of our championship.

Now that we’ve reached the halfway point in the championship, we still have Alistair Hutchinson at the head of the driver’s table – a place he’s held since the start of the year. He’s followed by Barry Lindsay, Paul Dolan, Paul Swift and Michael Glendinning. The co-driver’s table is a similar story in that St John Dykes continues ahead of Michael Lindsay, Andrew Lees, Andrew Roughead and now Chris Purvis. And a brief mention of the class leaders too – in class 1 it’s Andrew Fry and Michael Hunter in their Rover 200; class 2 sees Barry and Michael Lindsay in their Peugeot 106 out front; the class 3 leaders are Alistair Hutchinson and St John Dykes ( Renault Clio ); Rob Hornshaw and Dave Boyes lead class 4 in a Ford Escort Mark 2 and the big class is topped by Paul Dolan ( Mitsubishi Evo7 ) and Giles Dykes. It’s interesting to note that in the 5 rallies that have taken place, we’ve had 5 different overall winners. This keeps the championship wide open as we head into the second half of the year.

The next rally that we’re heading to is the D & W Brown Builders (Mull) Stages. This will take place at Crail Raceway on Saturday 3rd July. The regulations have been available for a few weeks now and the organisers are offering 61.6 miles covered in 8 stages. Dunfermline Car Club have already received 24 entries so far and the closing date for entries is 26th June,