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Rally Report - Sunday 11 April 2010 PJ Plant Ltd Charterhall Stages Rally, Charterhall, Saturday, 3 April Ruler Reigns at Charterhall Winner of this event last year, Gavin Ruler returned to Berwickshire to run at number one on the PJ Plant Hire Charterhall Stages Rally. With Co-driver David Everard, they did it again, with an unflustered and fast run into first place. A close second were Richard Dickson and Sandy Dobie. They had been in the hunt all day but as the weather worsened they stepped up their pace as Ruler relaxed his. And finishing third in his first ever event, Dom Buckley Junior Junior was a surprise third with Alan Cathers. The nickname? This latest Dom is third generation and whether he likes it or not, the double Junior after his name looks like it will stick! But if Ruler was in control all day, his rivals weren't! SS1 - slimy, green and slippery Although Ruler set the quickest time on the first stage (7m 36s) it was only four seconds quicker than Dickson and Ian Paterson/Steven Marshall both sharing 7m 40s. Bob Grant/Peter Carstairs were next up two seconds slower (7m 42s) with Doug Brydon/Dave O'Brien first time out in their new Subaru in place of the wrecked Mitsubishi on 7m 43s. As for Fred Davidson. His day went downhill on the start line of the first stage. The Mitsubishi seemed to slip sideways as it hunkered down on scrabbling for grip on the loose pebbles, and then limped off the line. The diff had broken. And it had broken inside the housing so there was no chance of a fix at the rally. Unable to fix his first stage problem was Warren Fairbairn. After turbo failure on the recent Border Counties he fitted his spare for Charterhall, and it blew too! So now he's got two to send away for rebuild. SS2 - drying out Ruler and Grant shared fastest time on the second test (7m 32s) from Paterson (7m 35s), Dickson (7m 37s) and Chris Singer and Katherine Singer on 7m 40s. As for young Buckley, he was all weird lines and off the pace, but he was good on the brakes and early on the gas. Remember, he had never driven a rally car before, let alone a left-hooker. This time it was Stuart Paterson's turn to pack up early. The Subaru's gearbox had broken. SS3 - dry With conditions noticeably drying now, Ruler put some distance between himself and the pursuit on this one (7m 28s). Grant was only 5 seconds behind (7m 33s) with Keith Taylor/Paul Hughes third quickest on (7m 39s) as Dickson went backwards on the wrong tyres. Brydon was only a second slower (7m 40s) from Paterson (7m 43s) with Dickson and Singer sharing 7m 45s. SS4 - dry There were dark clouds building up on the horizon as Ruler set another quickest time on the fourth test with 7m 22s, from Dickson and Taylor (7m 35s), but getting in amongst the quickest times was the rapidly improving Dom Buckley Jnr Jnr/Alan Cathers (7m37s) with a much more tidy approach to corners. Doug Brydon was fifth fastest on 7m 39s from Billy Cowe/Robert Paterson (7m 41s). Bob Grant was just outside the top guns this time. He had broken a wishbone and limped back into service, but it looked as though nothing could be done, so he was another early retiral. And Chris Singer's run ended in the service are too. Chris thought he had broken a driveshaft but when the boys got the Mitsubishi up on the jacks, they found a broken diff, se he was out too. And then the hailstones shotblasted Charterhall, followed by rain. SS5 - wet With over half a minute in hand over Paterson and Dickson, Ruler had a cautious run over the wet tarmac, allowing Dickson to take a chance. His 6m 40s was some 8 seconds quicker than Ruler (6m 48s) with Paterson a further two seconds adrift (6m 50s). The slippery conditions suited Michael Glendinning and Ronald Roughhead too sharing 6m 53s with Gareth White/Mike Dickson in the wee Citroen while the Subaru of John Bainbridge/St John Dykes (6m 54s) was only a second behind the two wheel drive machines. Despite setting third quickest time, Ian Paterson's run was about to come to an abrupt end. He actually crossed the Finish and Stop line with flames seeping out underneath the car. A sprightly leap out of the car with the fire extinguisher quickly averted any serious damage but the wiring had been damaged and the Subaru was going no further. SS6 - wet It was Dickson again in the sixth (6m 27s) but by only 3 seconds from Ruler (6m 30s) with Glendinning (6m 33s) from Bryden and Buckley Jnr Jnr on 6m 34s and Bainbridge finding his feet on the slippery conditions with 6m 36s. Lee Hastings wasn't far off the pace but a holed radiator put paid to his chances of doing the final stage and finishing the rally. SS 7 - dry Despite pulling back 11 seconds over the previous two test, Dickson was trailing Ruler by 28 seconds - surely too much to pull back in 6 miles? It posed a tense decision from both drivers - settle, or fight? Ruler went 'super-safe' when he switched from racers to forest tyres: "I just couldn't risk the thought of a puncture," he explained. Noticing this, Dickson thought there was the glimmer of a chance here. Dickson went as hard as he dared in the still streaming wet conditions. He beat Ruler's time by 14 seconds. It wasn't quite enough, Ruler was home and dry - or perhaps not quite so dry! Second quickest (4m 29s) was young Buckley Jnr Jnr with Glendinning finishing the event with a flourish, third quickest (4m 35s) from Cowe (4m 36s) and Michael Horne/Robbie Mitchell (4m 37s) getting in amongst the top times just one second ahead of Ruler on 4m 38s. Ruler won after dictating the pace all day in a finely judged performance, but he was helped by the fact that many of his rivals hit trouble or threw themselves off. That also played into the hands of Dickson and young Buckley. And apart from the weather, it was guid crack! The Classes Despite a spin and a multi-point shuffle to get going in the right direction again on the 4th stage, Kev Dunn won Class 1 in his repainted smart looking Nova. Bruce Hay was second from Craig Smith who was hampered with no first gear, an increasingly intermittent second gear and then a misfire during the rain. George Knox made it round in the 'real' Mini despite a puncture at the end of the second stage while Alan Little was fifth, but lucky to survive hitting a large tractor tyre in the first stage which launched the 106 up into a mid-air spin. Fortunately it landed on all four wheels but pointing in the wrong direction. The irrepressible Charles Blair was classified as a non-finisher when the VW Polo broke a driveshaft in the third test but he came back out to do two more tests before the wee Polo decided it had had enough and told him in slight mechanical tones to give up and go home and get dried out. The rain certainly favoured the nimble little Citroen of Gareth White who actually finished in 9th place overall while winning Class 2 from Peter Taylor in the Fiesta. It was a better run by Taylor this time after a dismal outing on the Border Counties when the rear wheels kept getting clogged up by mud and stones in the forests. With no such problems at Charterhall the improvement in pace was noticeable. Des Campbell was an 'off-day' third, or maybe he's just getting a bit more mature as he gets older! He was using up old tyres all day but his biggest problem happened when he let a faster car past which then peppered the front end of the Peugeot with rubbly shrapnel! James Robertson was fourth in the other Citroen ahead of Steven Irwin and Alex Curran. Carin Logan failed to finish after two separate driveshaft failures and Michael Hunter's first run out in his 'new' Lada was ruined with an underbonnet oil fire. Michael Glendinning finished top two wheel drive car in eighth place overall and clinched Class 3 in the process from Mike Horne and Alan Wallace in the Astra. Late entry Martin Elsdon won Class 4 after a troubled day. The big-engined MkII was getting so much grip at times that it was snapping rear suspension rosejoints and the boys spent most of their service time, replacing the bushes with rubber units. Barry Renwick was second in another MkII from the Volvo of Tommy Heard. Gary Adam was on the case too, but bent the steering twice on the early runs before retiring after being punted up the rear by a car which couldn't stop as quickly as Adam's MkII. There were no surprises either in Class 5. It was Ruler from Dickson and Buckley Jnr Jnr - and no doubt he'll hate me for mentioning that double 'Jnr Jnr' again! Results: - PJ Plant Ltd Charterhall Stages Rally Class 1 **** |