{"id":446,"date":"2012-06-08T08:35:47","date_gmt":"2012-06-08T07:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asperformance.com\/?p=446"},"modified":"2012-06-28T08:36:17","modified_gmt":"2012-06-28T07:36:17","slug":"netrc-jim-clark-national-results-may-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asperformance.com\/event-news\/netrc-jim-clark-national-results-may-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"NETRC Jim Clark National Results May 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Andy
Andy Davison and Mike Curry in their BMW M3 E36<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Beemer is back.\u00a0 Andy Davison and Mike Curry were back together again in the BMW M3 to take the top crew award on the Jim Clark National Rally.\u00a0 The car has been out of commission this year getting rebuilt and finally made it\u2019s return on the closed public roads of Berwickshire.\u00a0 On the opening 2 short tests in Duns, the car wasn\u2019t suited to the tight stuff and they would go to bed on Friday night in 39th place.\u00a0 However, come the morning and a chance to stretch legs and use their power on some long straights, they quickly moved up to 14th at service.\u00a0 Progress on the repeated loop of 4 stages continued as they moved up to 12th before dropping time and 3 places over the final 2 stages.\u00a0 The car was it\u2019s usual reliable self and exceptionally quick as the smile on the driver\u2019s face confirmed.<\/p>\n

Although Davison and Curry were the top crew, the co-driver to take top points was Paula Swinscoe.\u00a0 Paula was sitting with Matt Beebe in his MG ZR190 and had a great run to finish 12th overall.\u00a0 Chris Anderson and Chris Thirling were our next crew up.\u00a0 The Durham boys carried out slight modifications after the last rally when engine issues meant it was running hotter and with lower pressure.\u00a0 One of the changes was to fit an additional oil cooler.\u00a0 They were having a steady start until an oil cooler split on the first run through Abbey.\u00a0 This slowed them mainly due to oil getting onto the brakes and the driver\u2019s side of the windscreen being smeared with lubricant.\u00a0 They reached service in 22nd place and managed to by pass the oil cooler and were quickly on their way.\u00a0 They also picked up their pace now and take back almost 90 seconds on the re-runs of the last 2 tests to finish a fine 16th place overall.<\/p>\n

In 19th place overall was the beautiful Ford Escort Mk2 of Barry Renwick and Ken Bills.\u00a0 The past sponsor of our championship wasn\u2019t too happy with life on Saturday morning as he felt the steering was \u2018loose\u2019.\u00a0 Once rectified in service he upped his speed with more confidence now and took over a minute off his times over the morning lap of 4 stages.\u00a0 By the end of the rally they\u2019d moved up 8 places to 19th overall.<\/p>\n

Kev Monaghan was making his initial appearance of the year with Steve Dargan co-driving.\u00a0 Kev\u2019s regular navigator Chris Purvis is still recovering from a nasty work accident and not able to rally at the moment so Steve jumped into the hot seat.\u00a0 Kev was frustrated with the first half of the rally as he felt the greasy surface made life interesting enough without any problems.\u00a0 He did suffer a few overshoots and lost the back end of the car 3 times in the testing conditions.\u00a0 At service he softened the suspension a little and tried some softer compound tyres too.\u00a0 It seemed to work and despite losing his paddle shift later on in the day (and reverting back to the conventional gearstick) he took over 90 seconds off his morning\u2019s lap times.\u00a0 They Tynemouth crew ended up in 25th place overall and took maximum class points in our championship as well.\u00a0 Just over a minute behind the Vauxhall Corsa were Alex Laffey and Jack Morton in the Ford Fiesta R2.\u00a0 Alex debut run in our championship was a reliable one and his only problems were catching slower cars.\u00a0 His managed this feat on both runs over Abbey St Bathans tests when he lost over 25 seconds and with it the class victory on the rally.\u00a0 By the finish he\u2019d lost out by just 2.7 seconds.\u00a0 Chris Williams was back out with a different driver since the North West Stages.\u00a0 Tim Daltry isn\u2019t registered for points but Chris helped him to a good run and finish 28th overall in the Peugeot 205 GTi.<\/p>\n

Taking 6th place points in the driver\u2019s section is our current championship leader Paul Swift.\u00a0 His rally got off to a good start, as he was able to showcase his day job skills in the tights streets of Duns.\u00a0 The huge crowds loved it but he way near the lower end of the time sheets.\u00a0 Come Saturday morning he upped his pace and on Abbey St Bathans he just missed hitting a deer while the Ayton stage almost caught him out too.\u00a0 Hitting a large puddle on the entry to a corner caused the Escort to understeer and he only just managed to miss a stout bridge parapet.\u00a0 Leaving final service, Paul had moved up to 20th overall but into the second run of Abbey St Bathans and it all started to fall apart – literally.\u00a0 The alternator bracket broke and the engine temperature soared.\u00a0 He stopped to try and cobble a fix by strapping the alternator tight but it worked loose on Edrom.\u00a0 This time he took the alternator off and tied a shoelace around the water pump, which unbelievably got him to the end of the rally.\u00a0 Although he considered retirement when he lost over 23 minutes in the final 3 stages, the reward for his dogged determination was another 10 points towards his haul of championship points. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Our final finishers were Drew Barker and Shona Hale.\u00a0 A steady start around Duns in their Vauxhall Astra was planned but that all went wrong when they hit the kerbs at the roundabout and smashed the radiator.\u00a0 They were now dead last and were only allowed to start on Saturday under Super Rally rules but with a huge time loss.\u00a0 A cautious run through the long, slippy Abbey stage gave them confidence that the car was working again by the end of the event they had finished with 2 crews behind them – so it didn\u2019t end all bad.<\/p>\n

Our first 2 retirements both never even made it to the first stage on Saturday morning.\u00a0 Janice Moore was partnering the non-registered John Indri and they were lying 3rd overall after the 2 town centre tests on Friday evening, when they were involved in a fire at the re-fuelling point.\u00a0 Janice was still in the car when the flames started to flare up but got out safely and was unhurt but a little shocked.\u00a0 Eddie O\u2019Donnell Jnr brought his Ford Escort from the Isle of Mull but only managed to 2 Friday stages before engine problems stopped his progress.
\nCaroline Lodge was sitting in for Phil Jobson and the gearbox of their Ford Escort started losing gears on the long Abbey St Bathans stage.\u00a0 By the time they reached the stop line they only had 4th left so decided to call it a day.\u00a0 At the start of the rally, Pete Gibson and Josh Davison had high hopes of another good result on a rally they love.\u00a0 All went well on the Saturday morning tests and with no dramas to report, they were happy in 18th place.\u00a0 Shortly after the start of the re-run Fogo stage, Pete just clipped a hedge with the front of the car and span.\u00a0 He got going again but the radiator was damaged and with 3 tests still to go, they decided not risk the engine any further.
\nKeith and Jackie Richardson brought their usual Ford Escort Cosworth to Duns and after a cautious run through Abbey St Bathans stage, they were making their way steadily up the leaderboard when they stopped in Fogo.\u00a0 The Malthouse Boys return to the series was short-lived as they were one of several crews who went off in stage 3.\u00a0 Going down the hill towards the mill they misjudged the greasy conditions and locked up.\u00a0 Jeff\u2019s reactions to try and save the car were to go for the handbrake \u2013 so they went off backwards but hit a tree so hard they bent the shell of their Peugeot 205.\u00a0 Phil Morton and Jo Emma Hind were our final retirement with their Fiat X19.\u00a0 Problems locating a replacement gearbox after the last rally at Ingliston when they retired with a broken box meant that a standard specification one had to be fitted for this rally.\u00a0 This one only last until the end of the Edrom stage before it cried enough and the crew headed home.<\/p>\n

Once again Colin Pagan\u2019s team from the Berwick and Border Ecosse Motor Clubs managed to produce a great event.\u00a0 It\u2019s a huge challenge for crews and cars alike so special thanks go to all the organising on a job well done.
\nAnd in less than 3 weeks we\u2019ll go into the second half of our season with round 6 of this year\u2019s championship.\u00a0 Tynemouth and District Motor Club are resurrecting the Turnbull Trophy after a 5 year absence.\u00a0 Problems with the Army granting access to Albemarle Barracks has meant the rally has been mothballed lately but recent changes have opened up this fantastic venue once more.\u00a0 The rally will take place on Sunday 24th June and the organisers are offering approximately 85 stage miles made up of 8 stages on asphalt and concrete surface on runways on the Airfield and perimeter roads.\u00a0 The rally was always very popular with competitors in times gone by so we expect the entries for this year to be at a premium – details of the rally can be found at http:\/\/richard-burns.com\/tdmc\/turnbull<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Beemer is back.\u00a0 Andy Davison and Mike Curry were back together again in the BMW M3 to take the top crew award on the Jim Clark National Rally.\u00a0 The car has been out of commission this year getting rebuilt…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[14,13,8,7],"post_series":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asperformance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asperformance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asperformance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asperformance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asperformance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/asperformance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":451,"href":"https:\/\/asperformance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446\/revisions\/451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asperformance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asperformance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asperformance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446"},{"taxonomy":"post_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asperformance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_series?post=446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}