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Rally Report - April 5, 2009 PJ Planthire and Groundworks Ltd Charterhall Stages Rally, Saturday 4th April Ruler Rules At Charterhall It was a sunny, showery, windswept Charterhall which greeted the disappointing list of 43 starters for the PJ Planthire and Groundworks Ltd Charterhall Stages Rally, but those who didn’t turn up lost out. A new route and much work by the organisers had resulted in a much smoother event with first-timers to the venue pleasantly pleased. SS1 – 6 miles, slimy Michael Glendinning and Fiona Douglas were fastest over the opening test (6m 55s) and Billy Gower wasn’t. He had the engine out mid week and asked someone to put a new clutch in while it was out. It was the wrong clutch! By the time the Subaru got to the stage finish, the clutch was welded to the flywheel and going no further. Glendinning was the only driver under 7 minutes despite the slippery, slimy surface after a winter of inactivity, but only 8 seconds behind was Gavin Ruler and Plug Pulleyn in the EVO3 (7m 03s) with Ian Paterson/Paul Whyte best of the rest on 7m 18s. Peter Hunter/Keith Richardson were fourth quickest (7m 23s), Richard Dickson/Sandy Dobie only 2 seconds slower (7m 25s) and Stuart Paterson/Colin Maxwell first time out in his new Subaru sixth fastest on 7m 30s. Kev Dunn’s hopes took a dive on the opening test when the Subaru started overheating due to a leaking radiator and at service they bunged some Radweld into it. First time out in his new ex-Paterson Subaru, Kevin Johnston celebrated with a spin. SS2 – 6 miles, marbly Glendinning matched his first run time (6m 55s) despite running over his bumper: “It just fell off, and I didn’t hit anything,” said Michael, “ and I only fitted it mid week to replace the old one!” Ruler had improved though (6m 58s)a and broke the 7 minute barrier despite the brake pedal “going long” on him. Both Paterson hd improved their times too, Ian on 7m 01s and Stuart sharing 7m 14s with Peter Hunter. Davidson (7m 17s) had improved his time too despite problems with disc pad ‘knock-off’ with the cheeky little Citroen C2R2 of Gareth White and Mick Dickson on 7m 18s. Dunn was still in trouble but after investigations found that the radiator had actually burst, it wasn’t just a leak, so it was changed before the next stage. After a decent start on the first stage, Richard Dickson struck trouble on the second when a driveshaft broke but at least he was able to limp back to service. Alan Gardiner had a big spin in here but going one better was Lee Hastings with two pirouettes. SS3 – 5.2 miles, dry Ruler was all revved up for the third one, matching Glendinning’s 5m 58s with Ian Paterson (6m 03s) getting up to speed after a sluggish start. Richard Dickson was back on the pace (6m 11s) from Davidson (6m 20s) and Graham Willcocks/Matty Fox in the Manta on 6m 21s. Alan Gardiner was getting cocky again after his spin on the previous stage, but this time he whacked the bodywork between his door and the rear wheel arch but there was no mechanical damage, while Ian Timpson was up to similar tricks backing into the bales. SS4 – 5.2 miles, dry There was one driver under 6 minutes for Stage 4, and it wasn’ t Glendinning. The white Subaru was parked up not long after the start. A rear driveshaft had broken and it looked as though there were broken bits inside the diff, so Michael pulled off rather than risk further damage. Ruler was now in the lead (5m 58s) from the Patersons, Stuart setting a 6m 03s for the stage while Ian was on 6m 10s after a lurid spin on to the infield: “It was a gear too high and a ball too much” explained Ian graphically afterwards. Third fastest were Lee Hastings and George Myatt (6m 04s), who were plagued with overheating problems, while sharing 6m 12s behind Paterson were Peter Hunter and Kev Dunn, with Willcocks quick again on 6m 13s SS5 – 6.0 miles, dryish Ruler was out in front again on this one (7m 02s) from Ian Paterson (7m15s) and t’other Paterson (7m 22s) but this is where it all went wrong. Stuart had got well out of shape under braking for a chicane. It was either hit the chicane or take avoiding action, but given his impetus, the avoiding action was on the wrong side of the chicane, so he was penalised. The penalty was exclusion, which Ian felt unfair, so when Stuart started to put his car on the trailer, Ian pulled out of the rally and did likewise – then they both headed off to their favourite chippie in Hawick! Davidson was next quickest on the stage (7m 24s), but unbeknownst to him at this point was the fact that he had moved up to second place. Peter Hunter was only a second slower while, Dunn rounded off the fastest half dozen with 7m 28s. After a slow start, Lee Hastings was getting up to speed, but a front puncture on this test and a rear one on the next destroyed any hopes of a result. At least his troubles weren’t as bad as Peter Hunter’s. A small underbonnet fire erupted at the stage finish requiring some nifty footwork with the fire extinguishers. And after a few quick times of his own, Willcocks finished this one with wide grin and bent front wing! “The steering wheel slipped out of my grip, and we mounted a banking!” SS6 – 6.0 miles, wettish Ruler was able to relax a little now and his (7m 14s) was only 4 seconds faster than Davidson’s 7m 18s. Dunn (7m 38s) was followed by Alan Gardiner/Robin Nicolson in the MkII (7m 46s) from Cook (7m 50s) and Andrew Timpson and Lee Kerr (7m 54s). And just when Kevin Johnston was getting the hang of his new Subaru, the guy he was catching in this stage spun, causing Johnston to have to come to a halt till the culprit sorted himself out and got going again. SS7 – 9.3 miles, dry again On the final stage, Davidson took his first fastest time (11m 02s) by 3 seconds from the victorious Ruler with Willcocks blasting round three laps of the airfield in the Manta to record third fastest (11m 07s). Cook was fourth (11m 09s) from Dunn (11m 11s) and Timpson (11m 17s). So it was Ruler and Everard in the Fuzznag Rally Spares Mitsubishi who emerged victorious on their first visit to Charterhall. That means they’ll need to come back and defend the win next year! The Classes There was an unusual 100% finishing record in Class 1 for 1400cc cars, cos there were only two starters! Bruce Hay in his Nova beat Alan Little’s Peugeot 106 Rallye by 3 minutes. Both were first timers, so the objective was to get to the finish, but Hay’s class win was topped by a creditable 17th overall. That’ll look good on his next seeding form! As for Little, he was a shade lucky for he put it off on the second stage, but managed to keep going. There were four crews battling like dingbats in Class 2 with ‘Dangerous Des’ Campbell getting the drop on his rivals in the 206. Christopher Singer in the Peugeot 106 wasn’t far off the pace and was narrowing the gap to Campbell to such an extent that he took 2 seconds back on the fourth test. Gareth White had got off to a slow start too in the wee Citroen because the rear end was hopping about a bit too much for his liking on the first two tests, but he took a lump of time out of Campbell on the third to get himself back into contention. Meanwhile, the fourth member of this squad was the venerable Monty Pearson mixing it with the youngsters. According to a co-driving Colin Aitchison: “He got the first stage perfect and then he thought he knew it all – so we ended up hitting a couple of tyre markers on the second, on one occasion right up on two wheels, and lucky to land back on four!” Sadly, it all came to nought for Campbell on the fifth: “I thought it was all under control. We were sliding round a hairpin on full lock, and the inside front wheel just caught a post in the grass and broke the bottom suspension arm and pulled the driveshaft out.” One down, three still battling. Next to suffer was Gareth White, no damage, but a huge spin on stage 6 dropped him back from Singer and behind Pearson. And there positions stayed with Singer pleased that he had made up for his panel bashing exploits at Crail with a class win here at Charterhall. Pearson also had another huge spin but he collected it all together to just hold White off by 4 seconds at the finish. Garry Pearson therefore finished fourth in class in the Peugeot 205, allowing ‘the ol’ man’ to beat him - otherwise he’d be insufferable to live with said Jaggy – while Calum Atkinson was fifth in class in another 205. In a surprising sixth place was newcomer Sean Robson. The head gasket failed on the first stage, but the team were right on the case and had it changed in 40 minutes for the next one, then on the final stage the water pump packed up but he finished 18th overall. Iain Haining would normally have been right up there, but a selector fork broke in the gearbox on the second stage. After fishing out the broken bits he finished the rally with only 3rd, 4th and 5th gears and sixth in class plus valuable points in the Five of Clubs Championship. Similarly Ryan Borthwick would have been expected to go well in the 206, but the new engine installed during the week was overheating. The cause was found to be two pipes connected the wrong way round (he blamed his Dad of course!) and a burst oil cooler sprayed oil on the brakes in stage 4 although this was solved by by-passing the oil cooler. Scott Hunter had a bad day too in the 205. The cut-out switch cut out three times in stage 2, then a fuel relay failed on the fourth stage and puncture capped his day. Carin Logan got another finish in the Saxo on her fourth event despite a spin and clouting a tyre barrier. Johnny Thorburn and Neil Clark clinched Class3, and were lucky to do so, when they almost went the wrong way at the split on the first stage, although it was Allan McMorran who was quickest on the first stage and then his fuel pump failed on the second. Thorburn also had to contend with a temperamental starter motor towards the end but it’s not such a big problem on single venue events – unless you go off and stall it! Doug Logan was third in class after replacing his Escort’s blown diff mid week with a standard unit which made getting out of the corners quickly a bit more difficult but at least it lasted. Fourth was the father and daughter pairing of Graeme and Jordan Mack in the Hyundai, with a ‘rusty’ Graeme building up pace till the final stage where he managed to spin three times! Fifth was Alan Heard, who finished despite sideswiping the Escort – on the co-driver’s side of course. The only other non-finisher was Allan Wallace in the Astra. He fixed the fuel pump on stage two but when it stuck in 5th gear in the final stage, that was him out. There were 4 starters and 4 finishers in Class 4 with Nick Cook taking the spoils from Graham Willcocks and the Escort of Chris McCallum who broke a rear suspension link on stage 2 but that was fixed at service. Steven Bell was fourth in class on his first rally, the ex-autocrosser using his rear wheel drive MkIII Escort that was first logbooked way back in 1983! ***** Results: PJ Planthire and Groundworks Ltd Charterhall Stages Rally 1 Gavin Ruler/David Everard (Mitsubishi EVO3) 51m 16s Class 1 * * * * * |