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Rally Report - April 14, 2009 Howford Hydraulics Tarmac Stages Rally, Saturday 11th April Thrilling Times at Ingliston The Howford Hydraulics event was a cracker. At the start of the final stage it could have gone either way. One lock-up, one overshoot, one spin or even a missed gear could have decided the outcome. As it was neither of the top two made a mistake and victory belonged to Tom Morris and Colin Harkness in the Metro 6R4 - just! Bruce Edwards and Jim Smith were second after a nerve tingling chase in the low slung Darrian. Dry and sunny conditions greeted the 68 starters. In fact, it was almost warm in the afternoon. Even the April showers stayed away, so the dry conditions gave the two wheel drive lot a chance to get their rubber working and take on the total traction mob. But whilst all eyes were centred on the battle at the front, my top drivers on the day were Chris Abel and John Boyd, plus Pete Gibson in the wee Nova. Abel and Boyd both got into the top ten as a result of neat and tidy lines, carrying speed through the corners, while Gibson's antics were simply hilarious. How that wee Nova stayed shiny side up I don't know! SS1 - 4.88 mls The bright yellow Metro of Tom Morris and Colin Harkness covered the Ingliston terrain like a sunburst at 9.00 am on the Saturday morning and were rewarded with the first fastest time of the day (6m 13s) but reigning Tarmack Champ, Bruce Edwards and Jim Smith were spoiling for a fight. They were only one second behind in the Darrian. Over 10 seconds further behind were Alan Gardiner and Robin Nicolson (6m 25s) in the MkII with Chris Abel and Will Philip in the Clio on 6m 28s. First time out this year, Robin and Vanessa Hamilton were fifth quickest in t'other Metro (6m 30s) with the Subaru Impreza of Billy Cowe and Robert Paterson (6m 33s) sixth quickest. SS2 - 4.88 mls Captain 'Plastic Fantastic' Edwards did the business (6m 07s) on the second stage, four seconds quicker than Morris (6m 11s) - battle on! Gardiner had narrowed the gap (6m 18s) but it wasn't enough to challenge the top two. Hamilton and Abel tied on 6m 22s with Cowe on 6m 24s, but Hamilton was already in trouble. "I'm having to pump the brakes," he said, "I think it's the master cylinders, so I've got no chance of getting the brakes fixed today." Still that gives him lrenty of time to get the job done before Mull! SS3 - 4.59 mls Morris responded with a 6m 19s to Edwards' (6m 16s) on the third stage, the Metro was now only a second away from the lead. The other Metro was on the move too. Hamilton's (6m 31s) was better than both Abel (6m 36s), and John Boyd and Malcolm Robertson in the wee Fiesta ST (6m 37s), while Gardiner was slipping back a wee bit on 6m 38s. He had been trying harder tyres on these two, but went back to mediums after losing time to Hamilton. SS4 - 4.59 mls Morris really had the bit between his teeth on this one (6m 08s) and pulled away from Edwards (6m 16s) while Gardiner had psyched himself up a wee bit better this time to tie with Hamilton on 6m 28s. Three drivers shared 6m 32s, Abel being joined by Ross Fernie and John Young in the Escort Cosworth, and Michael Glendinning/Fiona Douglas first time out in Glendinning's new MkII. Mind you, Glendinning had already 'marked' his new car. The Subaru driver quickly learned about the wayward ways of MkIIs when he skelped a bale on the first stage! After a couple of quick times on the first two stages, Chris Abel had been tinkering with the suspension settings for the next two: "We went the wrong way," he grinned, "so we changed them back again!" Also getting up to speed was Shaun Sinclair. He had been using up part-worns all day, but they were too soft, although he had managed to source some harder tyres for the afternoon runs. SS5 - 4.65 mls With four stages gone, Morris had a 7 second lead over Edwards, but it was reduced to 5 seconds when Edwards was fastest (6m 23s) from Morris (6m 25s) and both had pulled out over a minute on the rest of the field. And just when he was thinking all his mechanical troubles were behind him, Gardiner's Escort spluttered to a halt. No, it wasn't mechanical, it was electrical! Whatever, the luckless Gardiner was out again. Allan Brodie and Camerona Fairbairn were third quickest (6m 34s) this time in their MkII. Hamilton was on 6m 38s ahead of young Boyd (6m 41s) and both Cowe and Glendinning on 6m 42s. And after a top six time on stage 4, Fernie was now having to back off. A seal had gone in the turbo although he was determined to finish. SS6 - 4.65 mls Edwards did it again (6m 15s) on the sixth test, four seconds quicker than the Metro (6m 19s) which had a rather different profile on its return to the service area. All was explained when a Marshal trotted back to the Morris bivouac with bits of the broken front wing under his arm! Hamilton was now coping better with his 'long' brake pedal, but 6m 37s wasn't going to trouble the top two. Fourth quickest this time were Shaun Sincalir and Alec Brown in the Lancer on 6m 38s, ahead of Cowe (6m 39s) and both Abel and Glendinning on 6m 41s. SS7 - 4.92 mls The Metro and the Darrian looked like Tom & Jerry on the penultimate test. The cat (6m 16s) was actually quicker than the mouse (6m 17s), but by only a second, and ensuring Morris still had the rally lead - by two seconds! The nearest to this pair was Sinclair (6m 40s), with Cowe (6m 46s) despite the loss of fifth gear, ahead of Hamilton and Boyd sharing 6m 47s. Another losing gears was the Mitsubishi of Duncan Wardrop. He had already lost second gear and was now worried about the rest, although he finished well down the leaderboard in 26th place. SS8 - 4.92 mls It was now down to the final stage. One mistake either way, and the other would have it. The Metro streaked off into the distance, the V6 howl echoing around the dear green place that is Ingliston, and stopped the clocks on 6m 09s. As the Metro came to halt beyond the finish line, Morris got out of the car to see what Edwards was up to. As he did so, the Darrian blasted into view across the Flying Finish line - sideways! It was a mighty effort, but not quite enough. His 6m 11s had allowed Morris to win by 4 seconds. Sinclair was again amongst the quicker times (6m 33s) from Abel (6m 36s) and Hamilton (6m 42s) and a whole bunch of drivers on 6m 43s. But it was Tom Morris who was left chuckling: "Did you see Bruce coming across the finish line of the final stage? He was totally sideways. That was commitment." It certainly was. ** The Classes Tom Morris won the big class from Robin Hamilton, Shaun Sinclair, Billy Cowe, Ross Fernie, and Jim Sharp and David Hope just outside the top ten in their Imprezas, while Bruce Edwards was Class 4 winner in the Darrian ahead of Chris Abel, John Boyd and Michael Glendinning. Ian Forgan was fifth in Class 4 after a frustrating day trying to keep disc pads in the Escort. Apparently it was just eating them. Andrew 'Billy' Bird was sixth in his rear wheel drive Astra, but he too was suffering brake troubles all day. Fergus Gray was seventh in the Peugeot 106 from the Astra of Ray Cummings who had survived a big tyre-smoking overshoot early on in the day. Not winning Class 4 was Chris McCallum. A con-rod came right through the block on SS4 and no amount of fibreglass and duct tape was going to fix that! Wattie Warwick headed for home early too, the Escort's engine expiring on the second stage. David Seed eventually called it a day on the penultimate test. The Escort had actually stopped in SS4 but the engine management system was still playing up. Paul Stuart was another non-finisher, breaking an Escort halfshaft in SS6, but that was after fixing a broken throttle spring - he wedged the throttle open with pages torn from his Timecard book! Gordon Halley burst the sump on his 206 over the yump on SS2 and plugged the holes with fibreglass which lasted another three stages before he was forced to pull out. Gary Keenan didn't last much longer. The Manta's exhaust manifold was disintegrating and even with bits from the service van welded in, it was getting noisier all the time. Drew Barker managed the perfect pair, breaking a driveshaft on the first half of the rally and then breaking the other side in the afternoon, but finished. Andrew Daniel was last man home amongst the 45 finishers but it didn't look promising after a core plug popped out on the 7th stage. It was tapped back in for the final run and he made it, albeit some two minutes slower than his previous run. Allan Brodie won Class 3 in his Escort, but the expected challenge from Barry Lindsay didn't happen. The Peugeot 106 broke a driveshaft on the first stage. Kev Monaghan was therefore second in class after trying Pirellis on the first two, Michelins on the next two and switching back to his preferred Pirellis for the final four. Geoffrey Harkness was third in Class 3 in his Corsa from Christopher Singer (Peugeot), Gareth White (Citroen) and Chris Anderson (Puma). Gordon MacKay failed to make the finish when a driveshaft broke and Neil Thompson's promising start to the day was foiled by a broken brake calliper and alternator bracket while Kevin Storie's departure was rather more dramatic. As Raymond Mann's results succinctly put it at the finish - Coupt! Fortunately, both he and Stuart Wilson were OK as they stepped from the rolled Corsa. Graeme Sherry was 7th in Class 3 despite needing push starts at the final two stages when a battery terminal broke and Simon Martin was eighth although his brake pedal was going long on the final stages and needed bleeding between runs. Pete Gibson and Adam Bradford won Class 2 in their Nova, but of more interest to them were points in the AS Performance North of England Tarmac Championship. Although Kev Monaghan took the points in his 16 valve Corsa, the 8 valver of Gibson was only 3 seconds behind at the finish after a gravity defying display of driving. Second in Class 2 was Jamie Stewart trying out a new 'gripper' diff in the Peugeot 205 for the first time. His times tumbled once he got the hang of the thing, and once he realised that as long as he got all his braking done early he could give it the full beans all the way through the bend and out the other side. Steven Irwin was third despite fuel surge affecting the Nova, but that wasn't his only problem. He started the fourth stage on four tyres and finished it on five! And no he wasn't cheating, one of the tyre markers had got wedged underneath the sill of the Nova, so it was hardly an advantage. Will Harley was fourth with fading brakes and a down on power engine. He had just fitted carbs in place of the 206's fuel injection on the Thursday before the rally but they obviously need a bit more work to get the jetting right. Fifth and sixth in class were the father and son team of Colin Smith and Frazer Smith, both in Peugeot 205s. Initially, Frazer was the quicker of the two, with faither spinning more often than he was pointing forwards, but age, experience and skill (so he says) won the day when he stopped trying so hard and started to drive properly. In fact, two stages from the end, they were tied on identical times, with faither winning out by 9 seconds at the finish. Kevin MacIver was seventh in another 205 and might have been higher had he not "spun on just about every stage!" Steve Ross broke a driveshaft on the third stage and Gary Ross retired late in the day, probably due to an earlier head-butting incident with a hay bale when he punctured the 205's radiator. Stephen Bethwaite was the Class 1 winner, despite almost wrong-slotting on stage 3 due to scattered tyres, from Tracey-Louise Muir who was driving husband Gary's Ford Ka. Tracey is having her Peugeot's engine rebuilt in time for the Granite and was moaning about the lack of pace in the Ford: "It might be fast enough for Gary, but it's too slow for me!" D'you know, I feel sorry for Gary too. Drew Gibson and Ian Stewart failed to finish due to engine problems and young Kenneth McRae was forced out when his gearbox started losing gears. Stewart's problems started on the first stage with a faulty distributor which then broke on stage 2 and although it was repaired with bits of tie-wrap the Mini was destined to go no further. Lachlan Cowan also failed to finish after spinning and clipping a bale early on then smacked the other side of the 106 later, but a Maximum on SS6 when he broke a driveshaft put paid to his chances of finishing. ** Results: Howford Hydraulics Tarmac Stages Rally: Class 1 **** |