Rally Results (October 2018)
Hero Stages – Darren Martin / Martin Steele finished 9th Overall 6th in class, Jamie Martin / Kyle Gass retired.
Adgespeed Stages – Caroline Lodge finished 16th O/A 3rd in class navigating Chris Thomas.
September Autotest Report
The September autotest was held near Calthwaite, with the new venue, thanks to Colin, Patricia & Sam Trotter. We had an entry of 18 crews, with 10 newcomers, 4 juniors and 4 ladies on the list.
Fastest on the first test were Barry Lindsay & Colin Trotter on 59 seconds. Followed behind by on 1m 1second; Jon Ross, Jon Stynes, newcomer Carl Barnett. The first person of the day to “kiss a cone” was newcomer Mark Salisbury.
Test 2, a repeat of test one, and once again, Barry & Colin shared fastest time, 56 seconds. Carl on 57 seconds was next, then Jon Ross, Jon Stynes, Helen Harkness and Mark. The first wrong test of the day went to Mike Burke, with Sade Burke also hitting a cone on that test. Read More
What Has Happened To Rallying?
By George Rutherford
45 years ago, while an active rally driver I was involved in the setting up of the Galloway Hills Rally which ran on the first weekend of December as an end of season fun event where drivers could bring Sponsors, mechanics and wives as a thank you for their contribution to another season. Unlike most Scottish events we had the party the night before the event, as running on a Sunday ferries were very limited for the many Irish crews getting back in time for work on Monday. Other Scottish events had their prize giving/party at the end of the event and virtually all competitors attended. normally having changed into more suitable attire. Read More
Rallye Mont Blanc 2018
By Allan Cathers
Rory and I got back from Morzine in the French Alps on 10th September where we competed in the Rallye Mont Blanc -Morzine 2018 in our Scottish Christmas Tree’s backed Ford Fiesta R5 run by Dom Buckley RSC. The Rally is part of the French Championship and had a good entry of 180 modern cars and 60 classic cars. There were about 28 x R5 cars and 2 x WRC cars which meant it would be a hard-fought Rally. Rory and I were seeded at No. 30 and the event was 240 Kms spread over 14 Stages around Morzine, Samoëns and the surrounding area.
Pendragon Stages 2018
By Barry Lindsay
Getting to the start of this event was a race against time as the 106’s disastrous year continued. Following needing a complete side and rear suspension following the gatepost indiscretion on the April Warcop. The Tyneside was short lived. A bump on a cattle grid on a quick corner saw the 106 rear pitched into the air and landed on the loose road edge then grass and saw the 106 head first into a bank then spinning down the road. Coming to rest on what was left of the suspension and only two wheels blocking the road. With only three weeks to the Pendragon could it be repaired? Oh, and the club’s Blue Streak to help organise which would remove one of the two weekends.
The stripping started as soon as the car was dragged off the trailer into its garage. Early diagnosis was I should withdraw the entry. Both chassis legs had moved, boot floor was twisted, and the floor and tunnel had moved where the seats were mounted. Then there was the bolt on stuff Bumpers that the paint was hardly dry on! Trims, radiator, panels, lights, complete rear suspension the list went on and on. Read More
Rally Results (September 2018)
Pendragon- Barry Lindsay & Caroline Lodge finished 27th OA and 7th in class after a stage max with a broken driveshaft and doing only one lap.
Galloway Hills – John McIlwraith finished 14th OA 2in in class9 in the Subaru.
Promanade Stages – Jamie Martin & Pete Johnston finished 48th OA (25th in class) in the Escort Cosworth, Darren Martin retired from the event on stage 5.
Mont Blanc – Rory Young & Allan Cathers finished 16th out of the 160 entries despite issues with catching cars and a car issue.
Summer Stubble Field Autotest
By Barry Lindsay
The July Autotest ran on a stubble field at the Plump to add variety to the Autotest championship. However, the surface change didn’t attract the entries that I’d hoped. The weather on the day didn’t help but the 10 entered all turned up and had a fun afternoon.
Test 1 – Nigel Harkness was quickest with 1m23 followed by Helen Harkness & myself on 1m30 the John Ross on 1m31.
Test 2 – Helen went quickest with 1m25 to lead the event ahead of myself by 1 second, Mike Burke next quickest on 1m29 ahead of Colin Trotter on 1m30.
Test 3 – I went quickest with 1m04 only 1 second ahead of Nigel on 1m05 then John on 1m08. Read More
Rally Results (August 2018)
Tyneside – Rory Young & Allan Cathers were 2nd Overall (2nd in class), Nigel & Helen Harkness were 37th OA (5th in class). Failing to finish were Barry Lindsay & Caroline Lodge who went off. Phil Jobson had engine / electrical trouble.
Grampian – John McIlwraith finished 23rd Overall (6th in class)
Goodwood Festival Of Speed 2018
By John Ross
Sorry I am a bit late in tapping away at the keyboard, but there was a little thing called the Blue Streak Targa Rally got in the way.
WOW, WOW, WOW. I think that would just about sum up the weekend, but no doubt some of you would like to know a little more.
The Goodwood Festival of Speed is a petrolhead’s dream, every supercar ever thought of, plus a few more; from the world launch of Maserati’s new Chelsea tractor, to the craziest vehicle I have ever seen, the Aston Martin Cygnet, but this was no ordinary Cygnet which is normally a Toyota IQ with a posh interior and a bit of body styling. This one had been sprinkled with crazy dust in that they had shoe-horned the AM 4.7Ltr V8 into it. This was a one off for a customer (presumably from the Middle East). Perfectly road legal but god knows how it would handle with all that power. Presumably the boys from AM had that sorted. It sounded fantastic as the mechanics revved it to the max making the whole paddock area reverberate.
Garage Woes
By David Garstang
1st July – Spadeadam demonstration auto test at Carlisle, The car was ready and already loaded on the trailer the week before, so it was a quick trip down the road to Carlisle auction mart where the carpark was rammed with polished cars of all makes and models. The Spadeadam team of volunteers had set out the auto test the day before and Barry then gave a driver’s briefing as there were a number of things that we had to abide by to ensure that we met all the MSA stipulations. Due to the very sunny weather that we have been having so far this summer the gravel area that we were using was bone dry and very dusty, so we had a democratic vote and decided to make Nigel be the sacrificial lamb to kick up a dust storm and see how many of the polished car brigade would come charging over with tyre leavers waving as the dust was blown over their cars. Unfortunately, due to a few complaints we had to abandon giving a demonstration of auto testing. At the end of the day as I was loading the car back onto the trailer the brakes decided that they were not going to work. As I have fitted new slave cylinders at the back and new callipers at the front I presumed it was an issue with the master cylinder. Just another job to sort out before the Hexham Northern Dales event on 15th July. Read More
Argyll Rally 2018
By Barry Lindsay
Round 4 of the SG Petch Championship was a new round for 2018 and was a little further than most we were used with, ourselves included. The Dunoon based event consisted of 8 stages. Three Spadeadam cars made the start, two-wheel drive cars ran first on the road so myself & Caroline Lodge were seeded at 107 which was 7th car on the road. In the 4WD Rory Young & Allan Cathers were at 7 in the R5 Fiesta then John McIlwraith at 18 in the Subaru, looking for points in the Scottish championship Subaru Cup.
Following a hectic driver’s briefing which saw 2wd crews running to their cars in order to make the MTC (Spadeadam don’t do running a brisk walk uphill was fast enough). Stage 1 Rory & Allan got 5m 00 which put them into a 6 sec rally lead. John got 5m39 then us with 6m06. Happy enough as it was 2nd in class but already 17sec of the class pace. A ‘Quick’ road section to SS2 where Rory & Allan were again quickest with 3m24 adding 7 seconds to their rally lead. John getting 4m04 then myself and Caroline on 4m 18 dropped us to third in class, only issue was the back suspension bouncing on the fast, bumpy sections. Almost straight into SS3, a massive uphill start didn’t help the 206. Dropping to 4th in class with a 6m24.
John got 6m12 but Rory & Allan were out. A puncture caused them to get onto the edge and pulled into a ditch. Read More
Summer Grass Autotest 2018
By Barry Lindsay
The second grass Autotest ran mid-June but this report wasn’t written for the newsletter copy deadline the week after so for those of you can remember back, this is how it unfolded.
Fourteen competitors arrived at the freshly silaged grass field at Longpark. Setting out the new layouts a test of routes to be used at the display the club were doing at the Cumbria Auto Show the week later…turned out to it never ran as dust prevented the display happening. However, test one of the new tests was one that no one had ever ran so this event was a leveller. Helen Harkness was fastest with 1m06 just ahead of Nigel Harkness on 1m07. Geoffrey Harkness and Barry Lindsay getting 1m09. Running new tests always produces wrong tests, Phil Hodgson, Andrew, Geoffrey, Mike, Sade & Lizzy Burke and Josh Shaw.
On the second run, Barry got the hang of his recently acquired 206 which was to be broken for rally car spares getting 1m 03, Helen, Nigel, Phil H and Martin Davies were close behind on 1m04 though, then Andrew J & David Garstang on 1m05. Read More
