North of England Tarmacadam Rally Championship – May Bulletin
Barry and Michael Lindsay’s well judged pace on the Squarepage Systems Rally helped them to 5th overall and take yet another set of maximum championship points. The Dunfermline Car Club organised rally was run at the old Ingliston Race track that’s adjacent to Edinburgh Airport where 8 stages were set out for 40 miles of competition. Saturday’s rally was run around the usual tight confines of the Royal Highland Showground but with an added twist. The organisers managed to gain access for the first time to the garden section of the complex and with a mix of narrow, blind sections; a jump over a bridge and fast perimeter roads it added some variety to the usual straights with square corners.
The opening 2 stages were damp after some overnight rain but the Lindsays seized the opportunity to transmit all their car’s power onto the road and were 4th overall while the more powerful cars struggled with wheel spin down straights as well as out of corners. This was a lead they would never lose despite Barry Renwick / Ken Bills getting within 3 seconds at the lunch halt. So with the confidence of true champions, they “backed off” to the finish but still managed to go 7 seconds faster on the final stage which just happened to be a repeat of stage 7.
Gareth White and Callum Atkinson registered their arrival in the championship with a fine second top points score as they finished 8th overall in the rally. Driving the ex Jason Pritchard Citroen C2R2 Cup car, they adapted well to the venue and reported a trouble free drive. Their times got better as the day progressed and they ended up just 1 second and 2 seconds shy of the Lindsay’s Peugeot 106 on the last 2 stages. It looks like the youngsters will keep our class leaders honest on future rallies and not only push them very hard but bring more variety with their French machine.
And from a championship point of view, the drive of the rally was from Andrew Fry and Michael Hunter. Using their Rover MG ZR, the young Dumfries crew drove with commitment to find themselves up to 14th at halfway. A push in the afternoon’s stages would see the 1400cc powered car move further up the leaderboard to finish a fantastic 3rd in championship and 10th overall in the rally.
A brief mention for David Hope / Fiona Gourlay driving a Subaru Impreza to 11th overall and Dave Seed / Mick Morpeth in their Ford Escort G4, just 1 second behind. Once again both crews were starting their championship year with good solid performances and the Ford crew will be rueing the 23 seconds they lost on the first slippy stage as they just couldn’t make up the time lost over the remaining 7 tests. Paul Dolan and Derrick Fawcett’s championship hopes continued to progress ever upwards with a solid 14th overall. The Northallerton crew felt robbed of a top 10 finish when they broke a drive shaft on the very first stage. They crawled out of the test and the resultant loss of over 1 minute meant that they were only 36th fastest after stage 1. But they just got their heads down and with the Evo 7 now working the way Mitsubishi had intended, they charged back up the time sheets to score more valuable points
As for the retirement’s list – well young Matt Thompson’s move across from the navigator’s seat ended with a lack of drive (and gearbox oil) in his Mitsubishi Evo IX on stage 4; Peppe Planeta and Giles Dykes retired their Ford Fiesta after stage 2 with engine problems and started the long drive back to the Isle of Man earlier than planned; Hexham’s Chris Grieve had to call it a day when his Peugeot 106 retired at the lunch halt as he investigated the source of his poor handling – it turned out to be the limited slip diff not working; and finally Barry Renwick and Ken Bills in the immaculate Ford Escort Mk2 retired from 6th position on stage 5 with a noise on the transmission – it sounded as though it could be expensive so they decided to save the car for another day. On a brighter note when the rally lost a few crews from the effects of the Icelandic Ash Cloud, we only had one non starter who was stuck in the southern hemisphere.
And so after 4 rounds of the championship, Alistair Hutchinson still leads the driver’s table from Barry Lindsay and Paul Dolan. While across in the co-driver’s section we have St John Dykes ahead of Michael Lindsay and Andrew Lees.
A big thank you goes to Dunfermline Car Club for putting on yet another well organised event to their usual high standard and once again this venue has proved that a well driven car with less power can be quicker than the boys with the big motors.
The next rally in the championship is the Jim Clark National based at Kelso Racecourse but run on the closed public roads around the Duns area. This event will tag onto the tails of the International Rally run on the 28th and 29th May. The event regulations and entry forms have been out for some weeks now and over 50 entries have already been received by the organisers. As mentioned in earlier bulletins, entries will close at the discounted rates on May 4th. All information is publicised on their website www.jimclarkrally.com and anyone considering doing the rally should be aware that the organisers do not print or send paper copies of anything unless requested. Anyone having trouble accessing the site should contact either Colin Pagan, on 07967 478765 or David Malthouse on 07792 226914 