Author: Spadeadam Motor Club

Calling All Novice Navigators

/ Spadeadam Motor Club

Are you terrified by tulip diagrams? Do herringbones give you the heebie jeebies? Or have you always wanted to do a 12 car, but didn’t really know where to start?  Do not fear… help is at hand.

Arghhhhh.. a herringbone diagram! Run for your life....

Argghhhhh… a herringbone diagram!!

Augusts’ club night (1st of August) will be a table top navigation night. This is your chance to come along and work out a route in comfort. Expert navigators will be on hand to help and answer questions. It may also be a good refresher for those that currently compete- novice or expert, driver or navigator. All welcome.

A “Novice only 12 car” is being planned for the Thursday after, where you can put your new skills to the test. (More details on that to follow.)

Spadeadam Motor Club’s Treasure Hunt, 2013

/ Spadeadam Motor Club

By Martyn Petry

(Aged 11)

The night had arrived for the Spadeadam’s treasure hunt 2013, with coming second place last year and my brother Graham and Uncle (Barry Lindsay) winning, I was eager to go one step better and win this time.

I teamed up with My Mam (Yvonne Petry) and my Granddad (Mike Lindsay). Granddad was driving so I knew we had a good chance of winning. Graham was with Gran and Geoffrey Harkness, so competition was good, there was quite a few cars out to compete.

Start was at Rickerby Park, through Linstock with clues all the way then onto Crosby and Newby no clues were allowed on Main roads, then onto the Airport these were hard clues and all the Lindsay family  should all have known them but they took some finding at least we know now!! Onto Irthington then scaleby eventually meeting back with all other competitors at Skitby.

It was a fun night driving around different places, looking for clues and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

At Skitby we had to wait until Uncle Barry had counted the results this was a nerve wracking time !! I thought we had done ok but we did have a few blanks that we couldn’t find or my Mam had just put silly answers in!!

The results were finally ready to be told so Uncle Barry started in reverse order

7th   Clive & Charlotte Alcock                                                             26 Clues

6th   Neil Henderson                                                                            28 Clues

5th   Caroline Lodge & Trudy                                                             29 Clues

4th   Nigel Harkness & Helen Gibbon                                               37 Clues

3rd  John & Christine Ross                                                                  39 Clues

2nd   Geoffrey Harkness, Kay Lindsay & Graham Petry             40 Clues

1st   Michael Lindsay, Yvonne & Martyn Petry                              42 Clues

In first place it was US!  Wow, we had won I was chuffed we had a staggering 42 points!  Only problem next year we have to set it up I’m dreading that !!! May need Uncle Barry’s help.

Rally Results (May 2013)

/ Spadeadam Motor Club

Pirelli Peter Taylor took his DS3 to 7th Overall (6th in class). In the clubman events – On Saturday Darren Martin & Martin Steele retired after being sucked into a Kielder Ditch. On the Sunday Caroline Lodge navigated  Jimmy Hall to 4th Overall (1st in class). Darren Martin & Martin Steele retired again with a blown engine.

Manx National Peter Taylor went to do some set-up work ahead of the Jim Clark, he came away 13th Overall (3rd class) Dee Addison navigated Alistair Tough but it was a short event for them when a propshaft let go on stage 1.

Plains – Caroline Lodge navigated Dave Edwards to 75th Overall (11th in class) despite a gearbox problem.

Pathfinders – Competitors report

/ Spadeadam Motor Club

By John & Christine Ross

We left home armed with maps 85 & 86 to meet up at Westlinton layby, for 7pm, only to be told by Mark, you can’t leave for seven minutes.

Received our instructions and began plotting the route, then off we set in hot pursuit of Nigel and Helen, found the first two clues, then headed for Fergushill, had a fair idea what the answer was, but were being closely followed by Neil and his co driver.

John decided he would go a different way round the route, so off we headed, to Scaleby, but it was a waste of time as we couldn’t find the clue. Then off the Laversdale and the airport, but the navigator didn’t notice I had missed the turning until we got to Seathill, so back we went. (Never rely on me for directions). As we guessed it was the Vulcan. Continue reading →

2013 Clubhouse Tour (Pathfinders) – Organisers Report

/ Spadeadam Motor Club

By Mark Taylor

Not a bad night for this years Pathfinders except that some were engaged getting things ready for the Pirelli/Richard Burns Foundation Rally. Should have been no contest really! Still, a turnout of 6 crews isn’t too bad and I had been concerned that entries after 19:30 wouldn’t have the daylight to get round fairly.

As always I try to test the crews. This year it was a red herring on the Grid reference at the start, spotted by our first starters Trudy & Caroline. It’s a good job I included a description of the start or I would have had a quiet night. I had a quick check of the clues to make sure I got the grid square references the right way around at least. Panic over. Continue reading →

A Short Guide To Rallying

/ Spadeadam Motor Club

Back in the late 70s Spadeadam MC produced a small booklet titled “A Short Guide To Rallying”.  This is now in the process of being revised and updated. It aims to give novices a basic grounding in event procedures and navigation types. It will be available to new & old members. It will also be included in the “Getting started in motorsport” section of the website.

All types of novice navigation used on Spadeadam 12 cars will be included.

If any organiser wishes to use a new type, it will be published in this newsletter, before the event, and then added to the website.

The original guide with Ian Robinson's hand drawn cover.

The original guide with Ian Robinson’s hand drawn cover.

The April Quiz (4th of April)

/ Spadeadam Motor Club

If you couldn’t make it to our April club night, here’s a small taster of what you missed. The questions were compiled by George Rutherford. Results can be found below.

Q: Who won the Irish Tarmac Championship in 2012?

 Q: In which category of racing is Lord Drayson promoting for a 2014 championship?

 Q: Which new WRC team will enter the championship in 2014?

 Q:  Which Scottish Rallycross driver regularly competes on the world stage?

 Q: What make of car is Touring Car ace, James Thomson, racing in 2013?

 Q: Who builds the P1?

 Q: Which drivers did the following navigators become best known by:

April 12 Car

/ Spadeadam Motor Club

By Neil Thomlinson

Aprils 12 car was to start at Gretna’s Halcrow stadium, based just on map 85 and covering about 70 miles including some whites. This 12 car was to attract 8 entries which were made up of 4 novice and 4 expert crews some of which were from neighbouring clubs.

After being told to take a map into the clubhouse it was clear that some route information was to be handed out, the novices were pre-plot so they were given the route and the experts were given 2 sheets of paper, one with the NAM’s on and the other with the Out of Bounds and Quiet zones co-ordinates. After plotting these all that was to do was set off.

Continue reading →

April Autotest (7th of April 2013)

/ Spadeadam Motor Club

By Barry Lindsay

The second round of the Autotest championship was held at Longpark Farm for the first of our grass tests. Ian Robinson was running the tests and had 10 new routes.

First & third tests were marshalled by Michael Lindsay. Geoffrey was quickest with 38 sec, followed by Barry & Richard on 40 sec then Neil T & John S on 41 sec.  On the re-run Richard, John S & Barry were tied on 38 sec, George & John R got 40 sec.

Eric Ritchie

Continue reading →

Rally Results (March 2013)

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Malcolm Wilson Rally saw James Coxon  navigate Mark Shaw to 47th OA (3rd in class) in the Talbot Sunbeam. Darren Martin & Martin Steele took there Subaru to 57th OA (11th in class), Mark Goodfellow took his Subaru to 76th O/A (15th in class)

Merrills Weeton Stages. A bad day for SMC members Barry & Michael Lindsay who debuted the 206 that had been entered for the Malcolm Wilson rally but hadn’t started that one. Here there day was short lived when a driveshaft snapped on the first stage. Richard Clark & James McWhir faired slightly better setting good times before a temp sensor failure reduced the turbo and retired when the engine didn’t want to play any more.