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Northern Road Rally ChampionshipBULLETIN NO. 1, MARCH 2003 March
already and two events to report on, not forgetting a very enjoyable and
eventful awards presentation. More of these later, first of all I must
welcome those contenders who are reading one of our bulletins for the
first time. With 71 registered contenders so far, 23 are new to the
championship. I hope you all enjoy competing and marshalling on our
championship rounds, there is a good mixture of events to suit all
tastes and abilities. The
numbers reflect quite a number of last year’s contenders who haven’t
yet re-registered, if you are one of them I have only sent you this
bulletin as a reminder – it will be your last if you choose not to pay
up! Those
of you in the EMAMC or ANEMMC championships will know of the
cancellation of the Morning Mist and the re-scheduling of the Alnite. I
had hoped that we would avoided any similar disruption to our calendar,
but unfortunately Lindholme have informed me that they will not be able
to run the Danum on the planned date in May. At this stage the event is
postponed rather than cancelled, let’s hope they can sort out a date
to run later on in the year. At my request Beverley have kindly moved
the Beaver forward a week to the last weekend in November. This has
enabled me to nominate a very worthy event, the CSMA Rally over in
Lancashire, as our reserve event on 6th / 7th
December. Should Lindholme not be able to find a date to run the Danum
on, the CSMA will become the final round of this year’s championship. So
here’s what’s been happening over the last month…. FRIDAY
7TH FEBRUARY – 2002 AWARDS PRESENTATION Many
thanks to the sixteen award winners who were able to attend our awards
evening in Cleckheaton. The event is traditionally an informal affair,
with no disco or meal, just a few guests and a good social.
Unfortunately one of the star guests, Jonny Milner, could not make it,
but our other three British Champions, James Thompson (Touring Cars),
Richard Kershaw (Off Road) and David Mosey (Autotests) were very
entertaining and then kindly helped to present the awards. The whole
evening was again very capably and smoothly compered by our Association
Chairman (and RR championship steward) John Richardson, my thanks to him
and to Dave Sowman and Graham Whittaker who did the majority of the
setting up for the evening. After
vociferously representing road rallying against the notoriously loud
stage rally contingent, a good number of us went off in search of a
curry and some more beers. Needless to say, with eight of the
championship’s leading navigators involved, this almost turned into a
complete disaster: the first place we went to had no licence and the
second shut five minutes before we got there. After much milling around
the pulsating heart of Cleckheaton, we stumbled across a very unlikely
looking establishment, the name of which escapes me. Things were looking
even grimmer when we saw the vinyl topped tables and received our beer
order in cans! However the meal tasted surprisingly good and nobody
reported any side effects the day after. But I doubt we would choose to
go back there again! To
add to the entertainment Gav Smith and Mike Ogram apparently had a
domestic on the journey home and their rallying partnership appears to
have been temporarily dissolved. This seemed to trigger off a bit of
‘partner swapping’ on the Bruce Robinson, more on this later. A
small number of us then retired to the nearby Whitcliffe Hotel where the
beer drinking and conversation continued into the early hours. A very
reasonably priced hotel, close to the Sports Centre and happy to keep
the bar open as long as we wanted, so hopefully we will make an evening
of it next year too. Particular
thanks to the Cossack team from Eastwood, who not only made the long
trip up to collect the award for ‘best event’ but were also up for
the curry too and seemed to enjoy themselves! 15TH
/ 16TH FEBRUARY – ROUND 1, BRUCE ROBINSON RALLY, LINCOLN
MC&CC A
healthy(!) entry of 46 started this event from LA Fitness in Lincoln. A
gentle start gave the Novices a chance to ‘get into’ the event
although one of our former champions ‘attacked’ the first section a
little too literally and sustained some rear quarter damage to show for
it! The first half progressively got harder with a mixture of testing
navigation and short standard sections, with one regularity to the
second prior to petrol at Horncastle. The
first sections after petrol were surprisingly tight and all crews picked
up a few minutes in penalties. Then we headed for the double ford at
Biscathorpe, which didn’t seem any deeper than usual but claimed a
number of victims, among them Bernie Watkins & Adam Roper, the Ripon
crew’s Cavalier suffering terminal engine damage. From
here the route headed North for a spin around Binbrook airfield. This
got a mixed reaction from crews, some loving it, but many finding it
very difficult to find the correct route between rubble banks, despite
some arrowing, which was only any use if your lights were pointing the
right way! Four more short standard sections brought us to the final
section, a regularity at Wickenby, another disused bit of airfield with
more rubble heaps but familiar to some as it was used last year. I
thought it was a very good route with interesting navigation, but felt
that the time penalties in the second half ended up being more severe
than I think the organizers intended. Unfortunately Lincoln had a
nightmare with the results due to power cuts, computer problems and so
on, providing a bit of an unsatisfactory conclusion to an enjoyable
event. The results would have been postal anyway (as they always are on
this event), I think they are now final! The
first two places were a repeat of last year’s placings, with the
‘new’ pairing of Gav Smith and Simon Bentley going one better than
their 2002 Inter Association result to take third. Beverley crews are
out in force in this year’s championship, Tim Rodgers & Roger
Cunningham an excellent sixth and Dan Robinson & Ian Gibbins ninth
(second and fourth semis respectively). In between were the Holdsworths
in seventh and Mick Fern, alongside Martin Betts taking eighth with
easily the quickest run around Wickenby. ‘Last Minute Rallying’ were
once again in the awards, Nichola Hillier & Dave Broadley bringing
the trusty Metro home in the top twenty and second novice. Noteable
among the retirements were another new pairing, Carl Hawkins & Steve
Porter, who were flying in the second half only to break a driveshaft on
the last section. Unluckily they were slightly off route so were left
stranded, less than five miles from breakfast, waiting for the man with
the big van and the flashing lights… As well as Bernie’s terminal
bath at Biscathorpe, David Howell ran out of brakes and Simon Tate had a
tangle with another competitor, so it really was a nightmare for the
Ripon crews. ANCC
were well represented with 20 full crews and five ‘halves’ competing
plus numerous marshals too. So apologies if you haven’t got a mention,
hopefully your moment of glory (or disaster!) will come on another
event. Thanks
to John Dimbleby, Trevor Faulkner and all their team at Lincoln for a
good start to the season, plus all the marshals who manned fifty time
controls and a few pc’s as well. 1ST
/ 2ND MARCH – RND 2, MOORLANDS & MEADOWS RALLY, MID
DERBYSHIRE MC I
had hoped to get the full report on this event in this bulletin too, but
I have run out of time (as you read this on the night of the Ryemoor the
ink will probably still be wet!) so I decided to print what I’d got,
at least then you’ve had a something. A full report on the M & M
and the Ryemoor will be in the next one. Attached
you should find the championship tables after round 2. The
next bulletin with be you before the VK Derbyshire. Happy
rallying, Iain FORTHCOMING
EVENTS
22ND
/ 23RD MARCH – ROUND 3, RYEMOOR TROPHY RALLY, MALTON MC Tonight!
Hope you have a good run. 12TH
/ 13TH APRIL – ROUND 4, VK DERBYSHIRE RALLY, MATLOCK MC Regs
available now, should have reached you by post, if not contact Guy
Robinson (01246 590601). 10TH
/ 11TH MAY – ROUND 5, WITCH WAY RALLY, PENDLE DMC 17TH
18TH MAY – ROUND 6, DANUM RALLY, LINDHOLME MSC As
mentioned earlier, this event has been postponed, it will hopefully run
later in the year. CHANGES
LATER IN THE YEAR…. 29TH
/ 30TH NOVEMBER – ROUND 13, BEAVER RALLY, BEVERLEY &
DMC A
week earlier than originally. Thanks to BDMC for moving to accommodate
the reserve event: 6TH
/ 7TH DECEMBER – RESERVE EVENT – CSMA RALLY, CSMA NORTH
WEST (LANCS) |