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Rally Report - Monday 3 May 2010 Squarepage Systems Stages Rally, Saturday, 24 April Determined Darrian Bruce Edwards and Jim Smith won the Squarepage Systems Rally at Ingliston in their wee Darrian, the second of this year’s Hankook Scottish tarmac series. Fastest times on the first five of the day’s eight stages earned them a comfortable lead in conditions which favoured both Edwards and the Darrian. And after a string of previous car troubles, Ross Fernie and John Young managed to keep all the greasy bits contained within the Escort Cosworth’s shiny bits to finish second overall, a result which puts them at the top of the points tables with two rounds gone. SS1 & 2 – 5.3 mls, greasy and damp With another event sharing the Ingliston venue, competitors had to be kept away from the exhibition hall so the site owners had allowed Dunfermline Car club to close off the road outside the hotel and use that as well. That resulted in a flat out drag from the start for a good 700 yards or so before the first open left into a square left which tightened! It was good spectating too, a bit like Santa Pod with corners – and slippy bits! And there’s nothing a like 2 litre Vauxhall Red Top at full bore at 9 o clock in the morning to get your juices running. Most folk got their starts just right and most coped with the first two bends, but an awfy lot completely misjudged the tightened bit and overshot on the early morning, dew topped tarmac. Not so Bruce Edwards and Jim Smith setting fastest times on both opening runs (8m 25s, 8m 18s) with Kevin Ross/Drew Sturrock (8m 27s, 8m 33s) on the ball on the first test but breaking a driveshaft on the second. Ross Fernie and John Young (8m 46s, 8m 23s) were on the case too, despite a big spin on the first test when Fernie put a wheel on the wet grass, while Barry and Michael Lindsay (8m 52s, 8m 37s) were impressive through that slippy opener. Where others were changing up once on the approach to the chicane before the Fairy Bridge before a hefty dab of brakes, Barry got two gears, a light touch of stoppery, and then shimmied through the chicane and away. That wee Peugeot turns in as sweet as you like. John Baird was back behind the wheel of a new-ish EVO9 with Stan Quirk (8m 59s, 8m 35s) but already he was coming under pressure from the demonic Kevin Dunn and Fiona Douglas (8m 55s, 8m 39s) in the wee Nova. Matt Thompson, the ex Junior RallyCross Champ must have wondered where he was after a series of pirouettes on the first stage, but got the hang of it thereafter, while Paul Dolan broke a driveshaft. Peppe Planeta’s rally was short-lived though. The four wheel drive Fiesta holed a piston. SS3 & 4 – 5.0 mls, dry There was no stopping the Darrian. The elastic was well wound up over the next two (7m 18s, 7m 15s) again from Fernie (7m 25s, 7m 20s) but already Ross was loading up the trailer. He broke another two driveshafts! And looking like a banana on Red Bull in a pinball machine, Dunn’s wee yellow Nova was up to third place after a couple of scorchio runs (7m 30s, 7m 21s). He might even have been quicker had he not dunted a bale and damaged the front end, but he still managed to demote Baird to fourth (7m 33s, 7m 29s) and Lindsay to fifth (7m 36s, 7m 35s) with Barry Renwick/Ken Bills getting to grip with the MkII on 7m 37s and 7m 28s. Next for the trailer home was Matt Thompson, with a broken gearbox, but Martin Elsdon was struggling. A faulty fuel pump was causing lots of problems and hiccups although he did manage to finish the event. SS5 & 6 – 5.0 mls, dry After lunch, it was still Edwards (7m 24s, 7m 24s) up front, but Fernie was holding station in second place (7m 43s, 7m 28s) while Dunn claimed he was taking things easy (7m 30s, 7m 20s) having discovered a cracked brake disc at lunch! John Baird was now getting used to the Lancer and becoming a bit more consistent (7m 41s, 7m 28s) and just keeping that other wee Terrier snapping at his heels at bay, the Lindsay Peugeot (7m 40s, 7m 33s). It was now Barry Renwick’s turn to load the trailer. The Escort had broken its transmission enabling Allan Brodie/Cameron Fairbairn (7m 40s, 7m 30s) to take up station in sixth place. SS7 & 8 – 4.7 mls, dry With just about a minute in hand with two stages to go, Edwards was able to relax a wee bit (6m 59s, 7m 07s) while Fernie wasn’t going to be tempted into anything rash (6m 58s, 6m 48s) now that the Escort was behaving itself. Not a phrase that could be applied to Dunn. On the penultimate test a driveshaft broke and the team worked miracles to get him back out on the track for the final run with 3 minutes to spare before incurring lateness penalties (6m 54s, 6m 48s). I don’t know what that boy has for breakfast in the morning, but I reckon they could have used it to bung up that bluidy volcano in Iceland! Baird was happy enough with fourth (6m 54s, 6m 53s) while Lindsay (7m 05s, 6m 58s) found himself going backwards as the track dried out during the day and Brodie (7m 01s, 6m 49s) rounded off the top half dozen, although who knows where he might have finished had it not been for a big spin on the first test of the day. Just failing to make the top six was Tommy Morris. After years of campaigning his Metro 6R4, Morris was finding the Escort a bit of a handful, especially getting it cleanly off the line. The Classes Adrian Stewart won the Historic class in his Mini while Beefy and Clarky didn’t. The Avenger failed to finish when the distributor broke (if you’re under 21 ask your Dad!). Kevin Dunn won Class 1 from Stephen Thomson and Stephen Bethwaite both in Novas, while Garry Muir was fourth in class after the wife let him drive the Citroen for the day. Gordon Halley managed to finish despite the clutch blowing itself to bits in SS2. It was replaced quickly between Stages 2 and 3 and the gearbox was finally bolted in during the lunch break! He finished 33rd overall. Andrew Fry finished 10th overall in his Class 2 winning MG despite the gearbox being held in place by a trailer ratchet strap for most of the event! William Harley was second, even after he finished the 4th stage dragging a dead back axle – the rear brakes had seized on! But there were fixed at service. Steven Porter was third and Alec Brown wasn’t. The Saxo broke a driveshaft on the first stage and he and Stewart Wilshire pushed the rascal for half a mile just to get over the line and get into service, but the Saxo wasn’t for playing any more. Barry Lindsay took Class 3 from Allan Brodie and Gareth White. David Tait got no further than the third test when the gear linkage broke, but he was using a standard diesel Peugeot gearbox anyway because his previous gearbox had broken. David Conley had two spins on SS1 and another on SS3 till h e worked out that the brakes were working better on the back than the front, and Chris Grieve’s LSD failed in SS3. And since there were broken bits rattling around there was no point in carrying on or it would have wrecked the box. Nigel Hepburn had a knackered clutch in the wee Citroen and it was jumping out of second gear, while James Thompson had the throttle cable snap in SS7 so he jammed the throttle half open to finish the stage and reach service. Bruce Edwards won Class 4 from Dave Seed who was lucky to finish after he spotted a brake pipe sagging underneath and tied it back up before it rubbed on the ground and got itself perforated!. Derek Masterton was third after patching up a holed radiator after SS3, while Drew Barker had survived a rush of blood to his brain, (or was it his feet – same thing anyway!) and attacked a tyre marker bending the Astra’s door and wing. Fergus Gray broke a bottom engine mounting but it was easily fixed at service as it was only a bolt which had broken. Chris McCallum got carried away and ruled himself out of things when he did an extra lap while Ian Shiells had a ball second time out in his BMW 318 – which had done some 143,000 miles or so before he converted it to a rally car. Dave Dalgleish retired for an unusual reason. An exposed bolt had been rubbing on the prop shaft and gouged a deep groove all the way round it. Lucky he spotted it before it weakened too far. Ross Fernie won Class 5 from John Baird and Tommy Morris although Stan Bradley retired with turbo failure. Jon Murray reckoned he started SS4 like Miss Daisy when the spark plugs fouled up, but they cleared half way round. He caught a car in SS2 and later admitted this was his first visit to Ingliston since 1995, and David Hope finished just outside the top ten using up old tyres. Results: 1 Bruce Edwards/Jim Smith (Darrian ) 60m 10s Class Winners: **** |