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Bulletin – 08/09
After three forest rallies the 2009 SG Petch ANECCC Stage Rally Championship headed north of the border for the closed road stages of the Jim Clark Reivers Rally.
The weather was hot just like the action on the stages, which probably resulted in a number of incidents that caused delays and cancellations of some stages for the later runners. There were new names at the top of the SG Petch ANECCC points scores, Yorkshires Jeff McNeil/Fred Roberts (Subaru Impreza), even with a mystery problem which meant the car would not start on some occasions, but despite this and a spin on the 2nd stage, and a stall on the startline of the 3rd stage with the car taking 25 seconds to restart, they led from start to finish. In second were fellow Yorkshire crew of Gavin Read/Craig Jenkinson (Subaru Impreza), who had to change a front strut at first service after it was damaged by a heavy landing on the 3rd stage.
In 3rd place after 3 stages were current 2nd place championship crew of William Jarman/Mark Fisher (Escort Cosworth), despite having a turbo pipe coming loose on the second stage, but a delay coming out of first service resulted in a 1 min and 30 second penalty, dropping them to the back of the field, but a clean run over the later stages pulled them back up to 44th overall and 8th place championship points. 3rd place championship points therefore went to Peter Thornton/Tim Hobbs (Subaru Impreza), who had an incident free run un till stage 7 where they ran wide on a square left causing some cosmetic damage to the front of the Subaru.
First championship 2WD car home were Marcus Noble/Brian Hobbs (Ford Escort MkII) in 37th position overall, they were one of the first crews to be stopped by the stage blockage on stage 3, and apart from this suffered no further problems. 2nd 2WD and 5th championship contender were Geoff Wilson/Sean O’Neill (Ford Escort MkII), who reported no problems all day. Charlie Taylor/Steve Bieby in their historic spec Ford Escort MkII collected 6th place points on their first visit to the Jim Clark Rally, despite the car being on unsuitable forest suspension, and having brake problems on stage 6 along with the steering wheel coming loose.
Just over 1 second behind were the class 3 winning 1600cc Vauxhall Nova of the UTS rally team Pete Gibson/Adam Bradford, in 43rd place overall, having reported no problems. 9th place points were the class 1 winning team of Kevin Dunn/Alison Woodcock (Vauxhall Nova), this 1300cc car having considerably less power than the Subaru Impreza they ran earlier in the season. 10th place points went to the local Duns crew of Johnnie Thorburn/Steven Gillies (Peugeot 205), they were running a standard diff in the car when the original one caused problems in the week leading up to the rally, but this and the rear shock absorbers and brakes starting to fade on the later stages didn’t hold them back too much.
The last two points scoring crews were affected with stages being stopped with Michael Davison/Ali Procter (Proton Persona) only getting 3 competitive stages, which may have been a blessing as the gearbox was starting to make strange noises, and Andrew Benn/Richard Cooke (Vauxhall Astra) getting 4 competitive stages, out of 8 run, but despite that they enjoyed their first run on the Jim Clark Rally. There were one other crew who finished, but this week husband and wife team, Tracy Louise and Gary Muir, were not competing together but were both co-drivers, Gary got the family bragging writes in 72nd overall with Tracy Louise in 92nd.
There were a number of SG Petch ANECCC Stage Rally Championship competitor retirements, with 4 of them dropping by the wayside on the first stage. Reigning champions Richard and Edwin Cook had reverted to their Vauxhall Astra but stopped half way through the first stage with a large hole in the side of the engines block. Kev Monaghan/Chris Purvis (Vauxhall Corsa) stopped at the same point as the Cooks with a broken driveshaft. Darren Grimston/Richard Ross (Ford Escort MkII) had a new engine since the previous one expired 2 weeks earlier on the Tour of Hamsterley, but the car started jumping out of 2nd gear after 2 miles, followed by the replacement engine pumping out all its oil.
The 4th retirement on this stage was the Peugeot 206 of Des Campbell/James Braithwaite, they had competed on the Jim Clark National Rally that had run on the Friday and Saturday, but had retired on the Friday night after hitting a rock and damaging the rear suspension, during Saturday they repaired the car, but on the first stage on Sunday the top radiator hose blew off, when they stopped to fix the problem Des was scalded by boiling water, hopefully he hasn’t been too badly hurt. The final two retirements were Gary Cooper/Jon Riley (Subaru Impreza) who suffered fuel pump problems, and Nick Woodman/Alex Benn (Ford Escort MkII) who were competing on their 5th rally in 4 weeks, with the clutch slipping ,
This leaves the current championship standings as follows:-
Drivers: - Richard Cook 67 points, William Jarman 43 points, Charlie Taylor 41 points, Geoff Wilson 30 points, and Marcus Noble 25 points.
Co-Drivers: - Edwin Cook 65 points, Mark Fisher 45 points, Steve Bielby 42 points, Giles Dykes 33 points, and Richard Cooke and Sean O’Neill tied on 32 points,
The championship stays on tarmac for round 6 with the Tyneside Stages on Otterburn, this year the rally is a joint promotion between Alnwick and Berwick Clubs, and a 70 stage mile route is being planned which will be competitively priced. Regs are available on the rally website www.tynesidestages.co.uk
On July 12th it is back to the forests for the Greystoke Stages which joins the ANECCC championship for the first time, after a very successful first running in 2008. As in 2008 the rally will be run solely in Greystoke Forest, the current testing ground for M-Sport and the BP/Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team. For the event the stages will be re-graded and should be in great condition. The format will be similar to 2008 with 35 stage miles and servicing completely contained within the forest, with an entry fee of £295. regs are now available at www.greystokestages.co.uk
If anyone has any questions please contact.
Gordon Dundee
S G Petch ANECCC Stage Rally Championship Coordinator
Home - 0191 3773228
Mobile - 07799 140427
E-mail - gordon@dundee.fsworld.co.uk.
Posted in Bulletins on: May 26th, 2009