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Northern Road Rally ChampionshipBULLETIN NO. 2, APRIL 2003 Firstly
my apologies to those of you receiving bulletins 1 and 2 at the same
time – those of you who were out on the Ryemoor should have got
bulletin 1 by hand, but unfortunately the remainder never got posted
out, either by snail mail or email. Looks like my wages will be getting
cut again for poor performance! As some of you will be aware March and
April are ridiculously busy months for me as Ilkley & DMC run the
Jubilee Historic Rally, with which I am heavily involved. This year even
more than ever I seem to have done nothing but eat, sleep and historic
rally for the last month, so I am afraid I have been neglecting you guys
and girls. Thank you for your patience, I haven’t had any of you phone
me to moan, unless you just couldn’t get through!! Hopefully the
remaining 2003 bulletins will be with you a little more swiftly than the
last two. Despite
the lack of championship communication, the last two rounds have been
reasonably well supported and this weekend’s VK Derbyshire once again
boasts a full entry, although as ever those of you without prepared cars
are sensibly choosing to give it a miss. No doubt one or two of you will
be out marshalling. I haven’t reprinted it this month but just a
reminder of the calendar corrections from the March bulletin: the Danum
is currently postponed, Lindholme hope to fit it in the calendar later
in the year; the Beaver has moved to 29th / 30th
November and the CSMA (Lancashire) Rally on 6th / 7th
December is now the reserve event. As I have not heard to the contrary,
I am assuming all the other events are up and running, you should have
just received regs for the Witch Way (those who registered at the
Ryemoor should get them early next week). Here’s
what happened on rounds 2 and 3…. 1ST
/ 2ND MARCH – ROUND 2, MOORLANDS & MEADOWS RALLY, MID
DERBYS MC A
clash with Lindholme’s Robin Hood Stages just down the road probably
took away a few crews, but we still fielded 29 contenders in the entry
of 36 plus a further 9 (that I know of so far!) who marshaled. The
Metrodome in Barnsley provided a spacious start venue, if a little
difficult to find if you were silly enough to leave your finals at home!
The
first half route was defined by tulips and took crews South West on map
110, with few crews losing time as the front runners approached
Bradfield and Strines Moors. A dodgy clock (?) meant that all crews
dropped at least five minutes on the section through Wigtwizzle up to
RTC11, but further back at TTC8, South Yorkshire Police had intervened
due to a number of complaints from the general public, which led to the
sections fro STC14 either side of petrol being cancelled before any
crews tackled them. The first half card then just had penalties at RTC
11 for the top half of the field, the top three as per seeding with John
Haden & Steve Coupland (Impreza) leading on 5:13 from Guy Robinson
& Charlie Wheeldon (Proton) on 5:35 and Carl Hawkins & Iain
Tullie (Nova) on 5:44. After
much discussion at petrol in Sheffield about the Police intervention, we
set off for the second half, minus one course car. The standard section
to the minute down to Ringinglow was very tight, only Guy & Charlie
in the very rapid Proton (an Evo 2 in disguise) managing to clean the
it. The it was down onto map 119 and a section to the second over Sir
William Hill near Eyam. Guy & Charlie were again the quickest and
following a wrong slot from John & Steve were now running first car
on the road. This proved to be unfortunate as the unwittingly drove
straight through the next control, picking up a fail and costing them
the event win as they were clearly the quickest crew in the second half.
A
blast over the Middleton and High Rake whites added to everyone’s
penalties, but the event then rather ground to a halt as, with the
second course car now also missing, the gates on the Peak Pasture road
off High Rake were still closed, resulting in much confusion, some crews
short-cutting to the finish of the section, some opening the gates
themselves. From there a transport section took us past Chatsworth to
what should have been the final section over Beeley Moor towards the
finish near Clay Cross. However the marshal had no navigation for us,
the section should have been pre-plotted courtesy of a handout just
after petrol, but at one of the controls we had cut. So that was it and
we all made our own way to breakfast. The
event had fallen apart in no uncertain terms, triggered by the Police
intervention, about which I cannot comment further as I do not know the
facts about complaints from the public or any PR issues that there may
have been. All I do know is that the MSA are taking a close look at the
event, so I am sure in the fullness of time we will find out what
happened. Despite
being shortened somewhat, there was enough of the event left to produce
some results, Carl Hawkins & Iain Tullie inheriting the win by
virtue of Guy & Charlie’s fail. Andy Beaumont & Mike Petch
took an impressive 5th overall on their first trip to
Derbyshire, although their Proton was sporting some underside damage as
Andy felt obliged to push on down the whites! John Haden’s wrong slot
dropped them to 6th, while Daves Chapman & Taylor had a
good run from car 19 to net 7th and second expert. The
Holdsworths narrowly edged out the Taylors by just 4 seconds to claim a
top ten slot, our remaining contenders all reaching the finish with the
exception of the Dimblebys and Craig Whitehead & Adam Roper, who
both retired in the second half. Joke
of the event must be “How many Geordies does it take to change a
wheel?” The answer in the finish car park appeared to be “None, they
just stand around and let someone else do it for them!!” Other answers
on a postcard please! Thanks
must go to the marshals, some of whom were left stranded when sections
were cancelled. Thanks also to the organizers for putting the event on,
I am sure they are disappointed that their efforts didn’t produce the
event they had hoped.
22ND / 23RD MARCH
– ROUND 3, RYEMOOR TROPHY RALLY, MALTON MC Another
clash, this time with the re-scheduled Alnite Rally in Peterborough,
again took away a few of our contenders also chasing East Mids and North
East Mids points. This event though, on maps 99 and 100, always attracts
a good number of local, non-championship crews as it is a no-nonsense
event and has built up a good reputation in its short history. As you
would expect the top ten was made up entirely of ANCC folk, with an
additional 28 contenders among the total entry of 35 cars. The
first half was a loop to the North East of Thirsk, with two regularities
at either end where all crews dropped time. Cracking roads, a dry night
and fortunately no fog! One similarity to last year though was the half
way leader – Jon Lawson & Chris Pringle, wheeling out the big
Legacy for the first time this year, proving that last year’s win was
no fluke with a 20 second lead over Bob Marhsall & Roger Hage then
Dan Robinson & Ian Gibbins. However Bob and Roger were one of
numerous crews who missed a board over Osmotherley Moor, so picked up a
fail to drop them out of contention. The second half took us up the classic White Horse Bank, over Wass and
Yearsley Moors and then Southwards to the finish just North of York.
Three more intermediates took time out of everybody on what was a great
route, with straightforward but interesting navigation. The standard
sections to the minute were timed about right too, the experts cleaning
them on the whole but wrong slots proving to be costly. One such section
was the downfall of the half way leaders – 4 minutes at STC23 near
Easingwold dropping them down to third at the finish. The talking point at the finish was code boards – none apart from
grass triangles were listed in the route cards, so it was a matter of
keeping your eyes peeled as you went along. Most competitors prefer to
know how many they are looking for, if not what area (e.g. between two
junctions), the penalty of a fail I felt was a bit harsh, even though
the organisers were up front about it in the final instructions and the
boards were generally very clear and not hidden. We somehow managed to
miss the most obvious one of the night! But it only takes one board to
cause controversy, Graham Wilcock and his team were as disappointed as
the competitors at the finish, as it had been their intention to put on
a simple event for all to enjoy. I think they did enough to convince
many crews to come back next year, I am sure they will give the boards
some thought before then! This
takes nothing away from the winners, Steve Featherstone & Mike Ogram,
who deservedly took the spoils after coming close in the past. Dan &
Ian maintained their first half pace to take an excellent 2nd, Sandie
& Paul Taylor put their recent poor form behind them with 4th,
ahead of the Dimblebys to make it an all ANCC top five (well I should
hope so!). Notable among the fails were cars 1 to 4, who all missed one
board each, Bob & Roger setting “FTD”, proving that 4wd isn’t
always an advantage as they were taking time out of Steve Webster &
myself in the Impreza all night! Many
thanks as ever to the marshals and the Malton team for a cracking route,
a bit of a PR issue on the first section apparently but hopefully that
has been resolved by now. You
should find attached the championship tables after round 3, consistent
results see Dave Chapman at the head of the drivers table, David Taylor
would be top navigator too but for a certain other Ilkley member :-). Mr
Lawson takes advantage of the new marshalling rule to collect 35 points
for his two duties. Please let me know if you were marshalling on the M
& M or Ryemoor and I have missed you, I haven’t had chance to get
the signing on sheets from the event organizers yet. Happy rallying, Iain FORTHCOMING
EVENTS
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 Starting and finishing near Skipton, 125 miles on maps 97, 98 and 103, with less than a mile of (smooth) white roads. Navigation is by in order references, most of which can be plotted in non-competitive sections. Some classic roads and tight(!) timing will ensure a result. Also ANWCC, SD 34 and a couple of others so should be a good entry. |