North of England Tarmacadam Rally Championship – July update

Bob Grant and Pete Carstairs picked up yet another win on this weekend’s Crail Stages. Dunfermline Car Club’s annual visit to the derelict naval base in the East Neuk of Fife always provides good competition on good tarmac – and this time with good weather thrown in too !. 8 stages were planned to give 56 challenging miles of rallying for 99 crews. Driving their usual immaculate Subaru Impreza, the local crew were quick out of the blocks to grab a 13 second advantage over the next championship contender. And with enough controlled aggression, they would stretch their lead by being fastest on every stage despite picking up a puncture towards the end of stage 6. By the end of the last stage the difference to their nearest pursuer would be exactly 1 minute and yet again they have collected another maximum set of points.

And their nearest pursuer would be in the shape of Stuart Baillie in another Subaru. This maybe an older version of the Impreza but when prepared by Richard Clark, it’s always going to provide a threat. This was only Stuart’s second rally in the car but he found it quicker than his previous mount and was regularly just behind Grant and Carstairs until a little problem with car cutting out when going over the little loose section that was cutting up on stages 5 and 6. Switching into conservation mode to ensure a finish, he dropped over 20 seconds on the last 2 stages but was still half a minute clear of his nearest rival.

The battle for 3rd and 4th places would see a couple of Ford Escort Mark 2s fight it out all day long. Barry Renwick and Ken Bills were a few seconds quicker than Michael Glendinning and Andrew Roughead on most of the stages but a problem on the penultimate stage would see them drop over 30 seconds and eventually lose the fight by 12 seconds at the end of the day. Although Glendinning had reverted back from the Subaru he used on the Jim Clark, he pushed hard showing the crowds his sideways style of commitment – sometimes down the straights as well as around the corners. He reported no problems apart from the 10 seconds lost at the end of stage 5 when he spun just before the flying finish. Both Glendinning and Renwick would go home with huge smiles on their faces at the end of a tense battle.

Gareth White and Callum Atkinson brought their Citroen C2R2 home fifth after surviving an early scare when he lost the brakes on the first stage; current championship leaders Alistair Hutchinson / St John Dykes were next up despite a small fire in the air filter when in service and also completing the sixth stage with 3 wheels on their car – this was caused by hitting the loose section of road very hard and a tired wheel bearing crying enough; David Hope’s times in his Subaru Impreza improved as the day went on – his co-driver Fiona Gourlay struggled in the morning feeling unwell; Paul Dolan / Derek Fawcett moved up from their usual mount of a Mitsubishi Evo 7 to the latest version, an Evo 10 supplied by MSR, and spent most of the day getting used to the new car and it’s improved performance; problems included a huge spin on the first test when he was first car through after someone dropped engine oil on the racing line and he was another to pick up a puncture on stage 6; Chris Grieve had a steady run as he managed to record a finish after recent reliability issues in the transmission department look to be cured; Michael Davison / Jack Morton’s first rally this year in the Proton was trouble free; Kev Monaghan / Chris Purvis were very happy to make the finish after thinking about putting the car on the trailer after the first stage – very high engine temperatures forced the Corsa crew to short shift for the rest of the rally and a puncture, yes on stage 6, would see them lose over 4 minutes while they stopped to change the deflated corner; newcomers Barrie Thomson / Andrew Irving brought their immaculate Peugeot 106 home in 31st place overall and picked up the Best Improvement on Seeding award having started at number 98; Sarah Hunter’s run in her Peugeot 205 was spoilt when she lost over 2 minutes on stage 6 and finally Chris Clark enjoyed his day in the underpowered Ford Ka that struggled on the fast airfield stages.

Commiserations go to Andrew Plunkett when his Honda Civic’s engine let go on the opening stage; Andrew Fry and Michael Hunter whose Rover struggled with alternator problems from the off until they too stopped with engine problems and finally the husband and wife team of Chris and Katherine Singer who retired with a frustrating misfire.

There’s little change at the top of the driver’s table but Michael Glendinning has now leapfrogged Paul Dolan into second place behind season long leader Alistair Hutchinson. In the co-driver’s table, St John Dykes continues ahead of Andrew Roughead and Michael Lindsay.

Dunfermline Car Club are to be congratulated once again on running a cracking rally despite the internal troubles they endured in the weeks leading up to the event. The next rally in the championship is the Tyneside Stages and that will take place over the military ranges near Otterburn on Sunday 1st August. The event will contain 9 special stages with approximately 90 stage miles on sealed roads and subjective route notes will be available in various formats, the official supplier is Patterson Route notes prepared by “Patterson’s Pacenotes”. Competitors will get an opportunity to carry out a route reconnaissance on the day before the rally. 37 entries have been received already and entries will close on 19th July at noon when the organisers will start seeding but they will continue to accept entries until 27th July.