Northern Stage Rally Championship

Bulletin 4 – May 2007

 29 contenders took part in last Sunday's Nunns Mitsubishi Bloodhound Stages, the popular multi-use event at Swinderby near Lincoln . The results show some impressive results for contenders. In fact every class (except the over 2-litre 2WD category for which we don't have a championship class) was won by ANCC contenders! Winning the event overall was York 's Chris Myers in his Mitsubishi Evo. I'm not sure if this is Chris's first win but it's the first I'm aware of - well done Chris! Another fantastic result came from Alistair Hutchinson / St John Dykes, winning the 2-litre class and finishing 3rd overall in their Northern Autogas Renault Clio, quite remarkable bearing in mind there were 37 over 2-litre entries.  Brett Mitton also took his Escort to second in class, 7th overall behind the Clio. The 1400cc class was won by Andy OKane / Phil Clowes in their Nova. But it was the 1600cc class that was closest fought amongst contenders. We had 4 of the top 5 in class registered for the Championship. On the day it was the contingent from Tyneside that was victorious. Kevin Monaghan / Chris Purvis won the class in their Pirtek Corsa ahead of Garry Salmon / Steve Dargan's Nova. As usual, there were some crews that weren't so fortunate. The abrasive surface of Swinderby took its toll, in fact several contenders had already packed up by the time I got there with the kids! It was good to meet up with several of you during the day. If I didn't bump into you it was nothing personal - my kids were more interested in watching the action than chatting in the service area - who can blame them!

 The results now see Alistair Hutchinson leading the overall drivers Championship (361) from Brett Mitton (314) and Jonathan Bean (300). St John Dykes (361) leads the navigators' Championship from Ian Vickers (300) and Chris Purvis (252).

 Brett leads the Multi-Use drivers (314) from Alistair (245) and Garry Salmon (240). St John (245) leads the multi-use navigators from Steven Dargan (220) and Chris Purvis (212).

 Not surprisingly with 3 of the 4 tarmacadam events to date being also multi-use rounds, the same names are cropping up in the tarmacadam challenge at the moment. Alistair (361) leads from Brett (314) and Garry (260). St John (361), Steven (240) and Chris (232) are the top three tarmacadam navigators. This could start to change later in the year as the remaining tarmacadam events are all multi venue rather than multi-use.

 There is a bit of a breather now until the next events

 Next Events

 Dukeries Rally, Saturday 16th June. www.dukeries-rally.co.uk

The next forest event will be based at Southwell Racecourse with 45 miles of stages on the Nottinghamshire forests. Entry fee is £375 or £300 if you are a driver entering your first forest rally or you're competing in a N1 or B8 car. Event contact is Joanne Smith on 01623 480410

 Opposite Lock Rally, Saturday 21st July.  www.slaithwaitemc.co.uk

Regs will be out soon (I know - I've just finished them!) for the next multi-use event. There will be approx. 50 miles of stages at Manby Showground near Louth on a mixture of sealed and loose surfaces.  Entry fee is £185. Free camping available on site with BBQs on Friday and Saturday night. The event has been oversubscribed for the past 3 years so please get your entries in early. Any questions please contact me - contact details below.

 Good luck in the Nottinghamshire forests if you venture out in June.

 Mike