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Northern Road Rally ChampionshipBULLETIN NO. 6, SEPTEMBER 2003 9TH
/ 10TH AUGUST – ROUND 7, MONKTON MOOR GARAGE ST WILFRID’S
ROAD RALLY, RIPON MSC Some 54 crews travelled from all corners of the country to gather at Ripon’s HQ on one of the warmest days of the year. The atmosphere at the start was very sociable, in some ways it seemed a shame to have to leave the bar to go and do a rally! The downside of the warm evening was that there would be plenty of windows open during the night, but despite this increasing the possibility of noise complaints, as far as I know there have not been any which is good news. There
were no fewer than 41 experts competing, among them a dozen historics,
the top guys competing in the HRCR Nocturnal Challenge. Last year’s
winning driver, Jamie Turner, was unable to make it, so brother Owen had
the extra pressure of stepping in to lead away a top quality field.
There were 43 ANCC contenders having a go, which I think may be the
highest turnout since the 80’s and even better when you consider that
another six were involved in organizing or marshalling. All time
controls and many passage checks were manned, there were more spectators
out than I’ve seen on a Yorkshire event for some time and they behaved
themselves and got to see some good action, so all in all it painted a
healthy picture of road rallying in our region. The
route was a good variation on previous years, as ever the majority being
on map 99. Some very fast roads were used, made even quicker by the dry
and clear conditions, so there was some scope to get away with minor
wrong slots, overshooting boards, etc and still clean sections. The
first time card took crews South West out of Ripon, with a short but
tricky standard section, which took time from a third of the field,
before the first regularity section, over the classic Dallow Moor road
and finishing down the long, straight, but very dusty white on Pateley
Moor. All crews dropped time here, fastest was car 1 on 13 seconds, just
2 seconds ahead of Jon Lawson & Chris Pringle, who like the
remainder of the field had to contend with dust raised by the preceding
car. A quick trip over Brimham Rocks lead to a standard second timed to
the second, over Heyshaw Moor to Yorke’s Folly. Again the top twenty
experts were mainly penalty free here, but this time some of the novices
also plotted and drove quickly enough to clean this and the standard
section to the minute that followed.
There
was a short transport section along the B6265 before another short
standard section through Skyreholme to Appletreewick. The route
instruction for this was a pretty simple herringbone with the PC’s
marked on it, but in their haste some crews drove straight past the code
board before the slot left off the B road. This caused a little
controversy and a few queries at the finish, but the penalties stood.
The vast majority had got it right, the route instructions were correct,
the board was where it was supposed to be and not hidden as some
suggested so it was the correct decision in my opinion. The first card
was rounded off by a run down the B road from Burnsall, down the short
Barden white and then over the moors to Eastby. This section proved to
be surprisingly tight and everyone dropped at least a minute, some two.
A number of crews had already retired by this stage, most notably car 1,
who had run out of road at one of the 90’s at Skyreholme and been
unlucky to find a tree in their way rather than just a ditch. Car 3, Guy
Robinson & Charlie Wheeldon had manifold problems on their Proton
and elected to call it a night, John Haden & Steve Porter suffered a
leaking fuel tank on the Subaru, while Nichola Hillier & Dave
Broadley got just three miles in before the Metro’s gearbox gave up
– that after having to change an exhaust manifold before the start… Clerk
of Course Adam Roper thought he’d test the water and had given the
route for the next section out on the first route card, effectively
making it pre-plot. The route went over Kex Gill Moor then via West End
to the not as map hairpins at Hoodstorth, again very quick roads and the
majority would clean the section. The following standard section went
from Blubberhouses down towards Otley, featuring a lay by with four code
boards in, included at the last minute after the loop via Low Snowden
had to be removed just a few days before the event. The next regularity
used the narrow yellows from Farnley via Lindley triangle and again
didn’t trouble the leading crews. One final standard section from
Fewston to Pennipot Lane lead crews back up off map 104 to petrol at
Monkton Moor Garage, where the first card’s penalties were already on
display and tea, coffee and biscuits were served at a ridiculously cheap
price. Nineteen crews would clean the second card and with the
retirement of car 1, Jon Lawson & Chris Pringle held a narrow lead
over Carl Hawkins & Iain Tullie, with Terry Martin & Simon
Bentley, Stan Featherstone & Mike Ogram and Dave Chapman & David
Taylor all less than a minute behind. A
short transport section then took us to the remaining regularity and
four standard sections North West of Ripon. The first of these, through
Clotherholme Farm, was easily cleanable and took crews onto another
white at Potgate Farm. From here, the regularity section used the
service road and farm tracks adjacent to Lightwater Valley, which have
made up part of a stage on the organizing club’s Riponian Stages in
the past. As it is private land, the distance to the intermediate time
control could be less than two miles and with two manned passage checks
to negotiate too everyone was set to drop time. Many crews reportedly
had ‘moments’ at various points, most notably at the 90 left near
Stainley Hall, including Carl & Iain who despite a spin went on to
post the fastest time and take a narrow lead over Jon & Chris. The
remaining sections looped around Swinton Park via Ilton, where many
picked up an odd minute’s penalty, before finishing with an easy run
down the B road from Masham to Tanfield. In
the end just four minutes separated the first twelve crews, biggest
movers on the last card being Stan & Mike who dropped down to 8th,
the Holdsworths who climbed from 12th to 7th and
Andy Beaumont & Mike Petch who recovered from 20th to 14th.
Among the Novices, Martin Langley & John Thornton were a very
creditable 16th overall and 2nd in class, with Ian
Beech in 19th and 4th. We had three halves of
Historic crews out on the event, Stan Appleton was 6th Historic,
David Wilson 8th and Heather Appleton 10th. Many
thanks to Adam, Bernie, David, Steve, Lee and everyone else at Ripon for
a well run and enjoyable event, rounded off nicely with a good breakfast
back at the Club house. I have had a few questionnaires back already,
don’t forget to fill yours in and let us know what you thought of the
event. 23RD
/ 24TH AUG – ROUND 8, TBM CUTTERS THREE SWANS RALLY,
SELBY & DMC “By
dropping time at just two controls all night, Andy Beaumont & Mike
Petch took their first win together on Selby & DMC’s TBM Cutters
Three Swans Rally. Twenty-seven
starters tackled the route of 120 miles in North Yorkshire, which
included less than a mile of unsurfaced roads but proved a real test for
crews, the route cards using an interesting mixture of navigational
techniques. Winning
the Experts class with an excellent second overall, Adrian Green and
Mick Fern were one of three crews tied with the eventual winners after
the first time card. All of them would go on to ‘clean’ the second
card and were only separated by the tie deciding section timed to the
second, before Beaumont pulled away in the final third to win by two
minutes. Jon
Lawson and Chris Pringle were fastest through the tie deciding section,
dropping just 4 seconds, but failed to maintain their recent run of top
four finishes due to an incorrectly recorded code board later in the
event, the five-minute penalty dropping them to seventh. Stan
Featherstone and Mike Ogram were the only crew to ‘clean’ the third
time card, elevating them to fourth at the finish, just behind John
Haden and Roger Hage who took the Masters class win. John and Oliver
Ross won the Novice class in eighth. Beaumont’s win moves him up to fourth in the ‘Kent Cams’ A.N.C.C. drivers’ standings, which Lawson still leads, while Fern now heads the ‘C.A.R.S.’ A.N.E.M.M.C. navigators’ table.” Seem vaguely familiar? Well, I am probably breaking some copyright law but that was the article that was sent to Motorsport News, some of it was edited out but it was pretty close, although because I mentioned ANCC and ANEMMC in the last line, I didn’t mention either championship earlier in the article. MN chose to edit the last line, so apologies to John Chadwick if it looked as though I was just being selfish by only mentioning ANCC! As
Steward on the event I had the privilege of seeing the navigation and
route before you lot did and I must admit I thought somebody might clean
it all bar the section to the second, maybe everyone is out of practice
doing more testing navigation, get yourselves out on the Danum next
month! That said some of the timing was quite tight, demonstrated on the
first section where everyone dropped time at STC3. When the first time
card results were handed out to crews during the event, everyone thought
that Sandie & Paul Taylor were leading with no penalties. It turned
out they had already retired…. The route moved up the East side of map
105, reversing a couple of bits used on the December event but mostly on
new roads, before heading up onto map 100 for a run up Castle Howard
straight, around Grimston and Yearsley Moors and along a little used
gated narrow yellow past Foxfoot Hay before heading South through
Easingwold for the final sections. There
seemed to be mixed reactions to having breakfast at Macdonald’s, it
provided a spacious venue where we didn’t have to worry about
disturbing local residents, even if the food might not have been
everyone’s cup of tea. Or should that be McFlurry? Results didn’t
take too long, despite a re-issue and nobody seemed to have any queries,
which is always good news for the Stewards… Very
well done to Andy and Mike on their first win together – Mr. Petch,
remember, has won the Beaver too in the past, although you wouldn’t
think so as his acceptance speech was a bit rusty! A great result too
for Adrian Green & Mick Fern in second, Mick has been gradually
working his way up the top ten on events in his first year in our
championship and is back with ‘regular’ driver Nick Topliss for the
Hall Trophy. Other navigators out with different pilots on the Swans had
mixed results – the Hage brothers particularly: it was good to see
Roger out after a few events off, he said he had a bad night but ended
up third alongside John Haden. Richard meanwhile was defending last
year’s win alongside Jamie Gratton-Smith who has been doing a bit of
stage navvying this year, they had a mare of a night, a six minute wrong
route on the first section would have been enough to drop them out of
contention on its own, but a stonking 26 minutes at STC25 sank them
completely, at least they found the control eventually so it was better
than getting a fail! With regular nav David Taylor on holiday, Dave
Chapman had David Wilson on the maps, they were going well until the
final third and ended up 12th, enough to keep Dave second in
the drivers’ table. During
the course of the night I went to have a look at a stop and give way
junction, the second one in the middle of the section timed to the
second. Well it was supposed to be SGW but a number of crews seemed to
ignore the STOP part of the instruction. I am pleased to say though that
only one of the offenders was an ANCC crew, they know who they are and
were duly told off! On this occasion they were lucky not to be penalized
or excluded, something to note for all of you for next year – there
will be driving standards observers out on all events, as required by
new MSA regulations, observing SGW’s as well as general driving
standards and excessive noise. Many
thanks to Selby for putting on a good event and the often neglected
‘thank you’ too to all the marshals, they were a bit short leading
up to the event but it was good to see all controls eventually covered
on a bank holiday weekend. The
latest tables are attached as usual, with eight rounds gone some
competitors will now be dropping scores. It is very pleasing to see that
so many people have been out marshalling and some of you twice already
to take advantage of the maximum 35 points available (remember the
marshalling score only counts as ONE score in the final total). There
are a few top ten names missing from the entry list on this weekend’s
Hall Trophy, so a chance for those of you that are having a go to make
up a few places. See you in Clitheroe. Iain FORTHCOMING
EVENTS
6TH
/ 7TH SEPTEMBER – ROUND 9, HALL TROPHY RALLY, CLITHEROE
& DMC Entries
are still being taken for this event on maps 98 and 103. It features
lots of whites including a run through Gisburn Forest. If you don’t
like the sound of that please come along and marshal. Contact Simon Daly
on 01200 427011 for all enquiries. 4TH
/ 5TH OCTOBER – ROUND 10, DANUM RALLY, LINDHOLME MSC Definitely
running and regs should be with you soon. Map 112 is the field of play,
the navigation is usually a good challenge and the route doesn’t use
many whites, so good crews in a shopping car stand a real chance of a
good result. All contenders should receive regs through the post, if not
contact David Wilson on 0114 244 1971. 1ST
/ 2ND NOVEMBER – ROUND 11, VISUAL PACKAGING COSSACK RALLY,
EASTWOOD & DMC Clerk
of Course Roger Hage and team will no doubt have the usual high quality
event for us, although there seems to have been a little less publicity
for it this year. I do know though that regs are due out on 18th
September and the event once again starts in Grantham. Early entry is
advised to avoid disappointment – this event was voted the best ANCC
round in 2002. 29TH
/ 30TH NOVEMBER – ROUND 12, MAPLE GARAGE BEAVER
RALLY, BEVERLEY & DMC 6TH
/ 7TH DECEMBER – ROUND 13, CSMA RALLY, CSMA NORTH WEST Regs
also out soon for this event, which starts near Clitheroe – free
breakfasts for early entries, but cheques won’t be cashed until the
end of November! |