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Stephen Thompson came away from the Pendragon with the result that he and David Crosbie had been working towards all season with a good turn of speed that was matched this time by some better mechanical fortune.<\/p>\n
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According to the metrological seasons, this second weekend in September suggests that we\u2019re getting well into autumn now.\u00a0 Somehow the scene at Warcop Ranges on this weekend\u2019s Pendragon Stages didn\u2019t come up with the necessary evidence to back up this theory.\u00a0 Yes, there was some moisture on the rough grass just after sunrise, but the temperature for most of the day was in the mid teens Centigrade with only the occasional cloud covering a warm sun.\u00a0 And with lots of green still shining on the many trees and bushes, you could easily be forgiven for thinking that this rally was being run weeks earlier this year.<\/p>\n
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The Dumfries crew of Stephen Thompson and David Crosbie has suffered with mechanical issues on the two rounds of the championship run in Scotland this year.\u00a0 But on their venture into Englandshire, they finally got their rewards with an excellent 6th<\/sup>\u00a0overall.\u00a0 On the opening Pinsent Way stage they were 5th<\/sup>\u00a0quickest and although the remaining 7 tests weren\u2019t as kind to them, their consistency paid off.\u00a0 An intermittent misfire, thought to be linked to a crank sensor, slowed progress a little over the afternoon\u2019s 4 stages but the boys were still well happy to finish in 6th<\/sup>\u00a0overall, take the class win and top championship contenders.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Callum Atkinson took a good set of points from finishing 9th<\/sup>\u00a0overall in a Peugeot 205 driven by the non-registered Ross Hunter.\u00a0 And just 6 seconds behind was Rob Snowden in his stunning orange Ford Escort Mk2.\u00a0 Rob hasn\u2019t competed since Croft in January when a man with lots of money who liked his engine tempted him.\u00a0 They did a deal and the man got the engine leaving Rob with the money.\u00a0 This little pile was invested in an upgrade to brand new 2.5 Duratec engine and 6-speed gearbox and they were working a treat.\u00a0 First time used in competition and Rob was over the moon with the car\u2019s reliability and a great result.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Hillman Avenger of Kenny Moore and Richard Wardle was next up in 12th<\/sup>\u00a0overall.\u00a0 Yet another one to report a good, clean run at a venue that Kenny very much enjoys.\u00a0 Not a mark on the car by the end of the day and both door mirrors still intact too.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And finishing right behind was our championship\u2019s current leading driver, Alistair Hutchinson.\u00a0 Things started well for the opening couple of miles before he coasted to halt and pulled off the road.\u00a0 It took a fair bit of fiddled with fuses before he found the one for the ecu had failed and once replaced and belted up he realised he was beached on the verge.\u00a0 A few hefty shoves from the marshals got him on his way, albeit 5 minutes later, to start a fight back from 83rd<\/sup>\u00a0place.\u00a0 One fastest time and the remaining six were all top eight times shows just how hard he was pushing to get back up to 13th<\/sup>\u00a0overall at the end of the day.\u00a0 A very satisfying drive for our man from Mickleton but the reality was that he only added 2 more points to his championship total due to the dropped scores rule now coming into play for him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Neil Thompson was next in his Vauxhall Corsa and his day certainly wasn\u2019t problem free either.\u00a0 On the opening run he snapped the clutch cable and used up all his 15 minutes penalty free lateness cobbling a change before SS2 and then an engine mount failed on the next test.\u00a0 From a lowly 29th<\/sup>\u00a0at first service he proceeded to charge of the field to go into the final stage in 12th<\/sup>overall.\u00a0 Sadly for the lad from Dunfermline, a driveshaft let go in the final stage and the loss of over a minute also dropped him down to 16th<\/sup>\u00a0and 2nd<\/sup>\u00a0in class.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Another crew returning after a 7-month break since the North West Stages were the Constantines.\u00a0 Their little red Corsa made a tardy start before steady progress up to 14th<\/sup>\u00a0position just after lunch when they had problems with 2nd<\/sup>\u00a0gear.\u00a0 To make matters worse and on the very last stage they too lost a driveshaft and ended up down in 21st<\/sup>\u00a0overall.\u00a0 Two Corsas both having driveshaft issues on special stage 8, mmm<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Just 3 seconds behind and taking the up to 1400cc class honours on the rally were Stephen Bethwaite and Ann Forster. \u00a0 The morning stages were good with only tyre changes used trying to improve times.\u00a0 Coming up the penultimate climb before the finish of stage 6, it was a heart in the mouth job as the little Vauxhall Nova coughed and spluttered as they almost ran out of fuel. They pointed the finger of blame at a dodgy gauge.\u00a0 The West Cumbria MC crew were on it again for the final pair of tests and safely made it to the end.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Barry Renwick and Paul Hughes were our next points scorers in a rather lowly 27th<\/sup>\u00a0overall.\u00a0 They probably lost out on the opening stage with the awarding of a notional time.\u00a0 However, this would pale into insignificance on the first run through Toddygill when they went the wrong way at a split junction.\u00a0 Their remaining 5 stages were all recorded as top six times but the damage was already done and it was too late to make any real impact on the leaderboard now.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The historic Ford Escort Mk2 of John Nicholson and Peter Littlefield finished right behind Barry\u2019s Proton Millington.\u00a0 After a steady opening stage ended in 53rd<\/sup>\u00a0place John made good moves up the timesheets to go into the final stage in 26th<\/sup>\u00a0place.\u00a0 Halfway through Haybergill they rolled to a stop when the fuel pump packed in.\u00a0 About 30 seconds, and 2 places were lost, as he changed across to the spare pump and still record yet another finish.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Whickham Motor Club\u2019s Gary Laverick \/ Phil Kenny ended the day a mere 3 seconds behind the Escort.\u00a0 The crew felt mixed emotions at the finish, as this was their best drive this year and their Ford Puma would have finished higher if they hadn\u2019t been stuck behind another similar car for a few miles of Bale Hill 2.\u00a0 The 30 seconds or so lost were one thing but the engine got rather hot followed so close for so long without cool air and now gives them some concerns.\u00a0 It got them to the end of this event but will need a good inspection before it\u2019s next run which will hopefully be the Cheviot Rally.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bruce Lindsay got a late call from the non-registered James Munro to sit in his Peugeot 205.\u00a0 Bruce was a little concerned before the rally, as he couldn\u2019t understand a word his driver was saying in his braw Scottish accent.\u00a0 Fortunately, his driver must have listened and understood Bruce as they made it to the finish in 38th<\/sup>\u00a0place after a clean run.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Drew Barker and Shona Hale were another crew not seen out since the North West Stages and brought the tartan Corsa for another attack on Warcop.\u00a0 Their day didn\u2019t go according to plan as the wee Vauxhall\u2019s\u00a0first and second gears would go AWOL intermittently all day.\u00a0 Given that there are quite a few steep hills to tackle with just a 1400cc motor to drag the beast up to the tops, this all suggests it could be a difficult experience for them.\u00a0 But they were still smiling at the final control \u2026<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Our final points go to Stuart Walker. \u00a0His rally will probably be remembered for the maximum stage times he was giving when he struggled through the second pair of tests with a failing alternator.\u00a0 The timesheets show his penalties as 40 minutes so a loss of about 20 minutes was never going to be recovered and a poor 51st<\/sup>\u00a0overall was his final placing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We had quite a few retirements starting with Lee Hastings and Julie McGuire who rolled their Subaru a couple of miles into the rally.\u00a0 They tried to pass a Darrian, dropped off the edge of the road, came back onto the road, and clipped a very old tree that put the Impreza over.\u00a0 No casualties but a very frustrated crew.\u00a0 Terry Martin retired after the Darrian\u2019s gearbox gave up on SS2.\u00a0 Former champions Barry and Michael Lindsay made a welcome return to our championship after almost 8 months but the gearbox of their Peugeot 106 started giving them some grief after a few miles. They tried a couple of stages with 3rd<\/sup>\u00a0gear keep jumping out but felt it wasn\u2019t safe to carry on so called it a day.\u00a0\u00a0The same test claimed Kevin Mathers and Craig Forsyth when aball joint broke off the hub putting them into a ditch.\u00a0 Alistair Inglis \/ Tom Hynd rally ended with their Lotus Exige being swallowed up by a Land Rover sized ditch on stage 3.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The next test saw Gareth White and Harry Marchbank leave the fray after a clipping a rock that smashed a wheel and flipped them onto the side.\u00a0 They slid down the road for 100 yards and left the car looking very second hand by the time it was retrieved from the ditch.\u00a0 They were 9th<\/sup>\u00a0overall and leading the 1600 class at the\u00a0time too.\u00a0 It was good to have James Thomson out for the first time since the North West Stages in February but he only lasted until stage 6 when he was forced out with bad stomach pains and a \u2018thick head\u2019 according to the driver !\u00a0\u00a0Alistair Haw and Chris Lees unfortunately wrote off their Peugeot 205 last month on the Tyneside Stages but managed to salvage some components and build into a bare 309 shell.\u00a0 The \u2018new car\u2019 was going well and they were up to 37th<\/sup>\u00a0after the penultimate stage before a misfire and then resultant loss of power forced them to switch the engine off.\u00a0 Our final retiree was Jane Nicol back from living her dream in a Focus WRC on the Galloway Hills the day before.\u00a0 This time her mount was a 1400 Puma that stopped in the last stage when in 39th<\/sup>\u00a0place.<\/p>\n Another big thank you goes to Miles Whitelock and Kirkby Lonsdale Motor Club with assistance from Eden Valley Motor Club and Northallerton Automobile Club for yet another testing Pendragon Stages.\u00a0 The attrition rate of 44% seemed higher this year but it\u2019s a venue that\u2019s still enjoyed by competitors, well most of them who didn\u2019t damage their cars.<\/p>\n We\u2019re only left with the\u00a0Ford Parts<\/strong>\u00a0Cheviot Stages Rally run in memory of Keith Knox as our final rally.\u00a0 Once again Whickham and Hadrian Motor Clubs are co-promoting the rally that will take place on Sunday 9th<\/sup>\u00a0October.\u00a0 It\u2019s very likely that most of the roads used on the recent Tyneside Stages will be used once more.\u00a0 The rally will be using Otterburn Ranges again as crews will attempt 12 stages covering about 60 competitive miles. Entries are now open and the link to the online system can be found at\u00a0http:\/\/www.cheviotstages.org.uk\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Stephen Thompson came away from the Pendragon with the result that he and David Crosbie had been working towards all season with a good turn of speed that was matched this time by some better mechanical fortune. According to…<\/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":[15,12,28,14,25,36,35,13,8,42,34,7,30],"post_series":[],"class_list":["post-938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-event-news","tag-brake","tag-brake-fluid","tag-champion","tag-championship","tag-drag-racing","tag-performance","tag-race","tag-racing","tag-rally","tag-sprint","tag-tarmac","tag-tarmacadam","tag-trophy","entry","no-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asperformance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"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=938"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/asperformance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":940,"href":"https:\/\/asperformance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938\/revisions\/940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asperformance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asperformance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asperformance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=938"},{"taxonomy":"post_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asperformance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_series?post=938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}