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Please Take A Moment To Read & Sign

/ Spadeadam Motor Club

Hi all,
As keen motorists and competitors we are often thankful for the services of the Air Ambulance and it would be great if you could support them by signing this petition requesting that they do not pay VAT this would give them a great boost and we need at least 100,000 signatures to make the government do something the online petition is at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/29349  
please sign and pass this link to all you know. 

If you wish further info go to John Fife’s blog at Jaggybunnet.co.uk

George

Rally Results (December 2011)

/ Spadeadam Motor Club

Jonathan Lodge on his first event of the year navigated his way to 25th Overall (1st in class) on the Roger Albert Clark. Caroline Lodge finished 2nd in class/27th O/A on the same, main event. On the Sunday Clubman event on the RAC Phil Jobson & Jerry Hettrick were setting good times until the gearbox locked solid and retired on the spot. David Coleman & Josh Davison had a ‘off’ in the snow of Ae the first stage missing SS2 but then rejoined for the remaining mileage but were classified as DNF.

RAC Ramblings 2011

/ Spadeadam Motor Club

By Caroline Lodge

As Jonathan had been, persuaded (bullied) into navigating for Jim Valentine on 2011 RAC.  I was quite happy to follow the event and had been provisionally booked to navigate a chase car. However following a call from a Manx guy called Higgins this all changed and I was going to be competing against Jonathan and Jim in another 2 stroke Saab.

This was going to be a bit of challenge for both of the Lodges, Jonathan hadn’t done any map reading for a very long time and  I’d never met my driver before, he’d only driven the car once before and hadn’t rallied in the forests for over 20 years! Was I worried? Was I heck, in the words of Joey Ramone, it was a case of ‘Hey! Ho! Let’s go!’

One week before the event and the chaos began. My maps and the car decals etc were in the Isle of Man, the car was in Huddersfield and I was obviously in North Cumbria. Jonathan had his maps but he also had his car stickers etc, but ‘his car’ was in London! The Royal mail did well out of Team Saab that week with various parcels and packets whizzing up and down the country. Finally all the various paperwork, stickers, road books, maps etc were all with the right people.

But on Tindale Fell the chaos continued, you could hear cries of, ‘don’t you dare mix your stuff with mine!’, ‘that’s my road book – put it down’, ‘No, I haven’t seen your ****ing marker pen.’ Being the kind and loving wife I helped Jonathan to prep his maps and went through some of the stuff with him – won’t be doing that again!

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Congratulations…

/ Spadeadam Motor Club

 ….to Barry & Michael Lindsay.

Winners of The AS Performance North of England Tarmac Rally Championship 2011

Barry & Michael Lindsay

Barry & Michael Lindsay

 (Photo © Y. Petry / Spadeadam Motor Club)

Been a bit busy again

/ Spadeadam Motor Club

By Carlione Lodge

Barry told you about the SMC results at Ingliston in last month’s edition of TT.However  the following weekend saw us back there again, this time with only one seat in the car for the Ingliston sprint. For a change the weather was good to us, a bit windy but a lot drier than last time. We were both using the Corsa, and I was first out. I think that my role in all this is to warm the tyres for Geoffrey.

The route was the same as last year, but I’m still convinced that the hairpin somehow gets narrower when I get into the driving seat! First practice run, nothing remarkable, just trying to get the hang of the car again, I’ve not driven it since October last year. Before the second practice run our team manager for the day (Barry), suggested that, as the time wouldn’t count in the results, I should just ‘go for it’ and see what happens. So I did, and couldn’t get out of the car for laughing at the finish. There are 4 main corners on the route and it kind of went wrong on 3 of them! Lots of screeching (from the tyres not me) and lots of sideways stuff, at one point I really thought that I was going to take the timing beam out! –the tyres were well warmed for Geoffrey. But I was quicker. Another practice run, I was quicker again but a bit more in control. By now I’d knocked 2.05 sec off my first time but was 4.24 sec behind Geoffrey.
After Lunch it was time for the timed runs, I did better again despite lifting in the esses –and being told off for it! Final run and I didn’t get away from the start very well. But was a little quicker again, but so was Geoffrey. At the end of the day Geoffrey came 3rd in class with 48.43 sec, I was 2 places behind with 52.27 sec. That’s 3.84 sec difference. I’ll
catch you one day Mr Harkness.

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