By Caroline Lodge

I actually thought the next weekend would be spent spectating. However following a call from Keith Taylor, I set off the following Sunday to compete on the Turnbull Trophy at Albemarle, sitting in a 2.5 Scooby with a bloke called Jim Sharpe.

After a quick hello and belt adjustment we were soon out in the car, last week I was in car 81, this week I was in car 6! I had asked Jim how he wanted the route calling, his answer, ‘ah just keep me right on the splits, it will be OK’, no pressure there then. Albemarle has everything, big wide corners, tight twiddly bits, chicanes, splits, hundreds of blooming cones and on this day LOTS of dust. Going flat in 6^th into a cloud of dust hiding a chicane is a bit exciting! Jim and I seemed to get on OK, we were servicing next to Barry and Mike so there was a bit of socialising too. My 12 car pal Charlotte turned up to watch with 22 month old Pip. This was Pip’s first rally and she loved it, her summary of the day was, ‘the cars go bruuuummmmm’. Continue reading →

By Caroline Lodge

The following weekend I headed over the border to compete on the Scottish with Rachel Clark, in the ‘Rally to Raise’ Micra. Rachel and I have had a lot of adventures together over the years but have never rallied together, so I was hoping that it went OK.

Rachel had worked hard to gain sponsorship and in fact if we had any more stickers  we would have needed a bigger car. We made room for our ‘2 specials’, we had a marriage proposal displayed on the wings, and also a tribute to our pal, Cath Simpson who had sadly died the previous week. She was a devoted rally fan, organiser and supporter. Cath was as superstar and if more people had even a fraction of her enthusiasm, dedication and drive, motorclubs and motorsport would be going from strength to strength. RIP Cath we miss you. Continue reading →

By Caroline Lodge

I teamed up with Jimmy Hall again for the first running of the Dmack Carlisle stages. It was quite nice to be doing an event so close to home. On the night before the rally I finished work and made my way to Murrays yard for scrutineering, we had to push the Peugeot in as the radiator had gone whilst Jimmy had been loading the car onto the trailer. That went OK despite the scrutineer appearing to have a complete sense of humour and personality bypass. I know it’s an important role but, perhaps the scrutineer’s handbook should include a paragraph on being civil and when a crew says ‘Hello’ the usual response is ‘Hello’. Grumble over, he is actually in the minority and most scrutineers are fine.

With a start time of 11.15am, there was plenty of time to waste in the morning, actually it’s worse than an early start, as you just want to get going. Anyway, the clock finally ticked round and we set off. The route of 3 stages done twice was nice and compact, also we had used some of the roads on the Pirelli, Jimmy appeared confident and happy so off we went. Arthur’s Seat, Newcastleton and Kershope, all went well, Jimmy was driving really well, and we only had one ‘moment’ on a hairpin. Jimmy told me off later for laughing during this, claiming he was actually trying to scare me. He’ll have to try harder than that!  Through all 3 stages we kept ‘catching the dust’ of our minute man. Jimmy mentioned this, to be told ‘just get on with what you are doing, if we catch him then we’ll sort it out’. Continue reading →

By Barry Lindsay

The Greystoke Stages were round 7 of the SG Petch ANECCC Championship which two Spadeadam crews were registered for. Myself with Caroline Lodge along side for my first forest event in tow years and in a different car. I got a Peugeot 206 earlier in the year to do a few forest rallies but due to mechanical problems this was the cars first loose event. They seeded us at 16 for this event probably looking at my tarmac results… With event running on OS maps, the reason for Michael Lindsay sitting out this event. Darren Martin and Martin Steele were seeded at 20 in the Subaru, but problems following the Scottish meant they wheeled out Tim Finches latest hire car – a Ford KA. James Coxon was navigating Mark Shaw in the Sunbeam at 34. David Coleman and Kyle Gass brought out the Skoda and were at 53 ahead of George Edminson and Peter Johnson on George’s first ever rally in the 1000cc Micra at 55.

Recent hot dry weather left the forest tracks bone dry and very dusty. Due to the layout of the route normally some stages slot in at the start of stages on 30 seconds gaps but then turn off to a different finish. But on safety grounds these were extended to 1 minute this would delay the event quite considerably and meant the awards weren’t presented until 7pm. Continue reading →