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Rally Report - Tuesday 4 May 2010 DW Construction Stages, Sunday, 2 May Serious Stoor By goad, that wis close! There was just one second in it at the end of the DW Construction Stages at Hallburn near Longtown last weekend, but when the dust settled, Gavin Ruler and David Everard were declared the winners by one second from Ian Paterson and Steven Marshall. But talking of dust, there really was some serious stoor getting whipped up during the day. At times it looked like Dakar monsters churning up the sand in the Sahara. Fortunately, there was a stiff breeze blowing across the airfield all day, but at times when cars were being caught those coming up in the rear were driving blind through a solid, gritty mist. And it did hamper most drivers during the day, some worse than others depending on where they caught the car in front at the split. Other than that, it was good crack and the burgers were thick enough to choke a greedy grizzly. SS1 & 2 – 3.7 mls To get things underway, Richard Stewart was running Course Car in the Subaru, and standing on the spectator banking he looked like something out of the Red Arrows, a tiny speck at the head of a billowing and colourful cloud. Only it wasn’t a dyed vapour trail, this was serious stoor billowing along behind him. Billy McLelland and Helen Brown were actually fastest on the first stage (4m 08s) but it all went wrong on the second, when the wheel studs sheared on the Lancer stranding the luckless pair on the opposite side of the airfield from the service crew! And so it was that after the first two runs Ian Paterson and Steven Marshall (4m 19s, 4m 10s) had already put some air (or dust!) between themselves and Gavin Ruler/David Everard (4m 24s, 4m 11s). Richard Dickson and Sandy Dobie (4m 22s, 4m 12s) were right on the case too, with Michael Glendinning and Andrew Roughhead (4m 30s, 4m 26s) the fastest of the two wheel drive brigade, but not by much, for snapping at the MkII’s heels was the wee Citroen of Gareth White and Keith Atkinson (4m 32s, 4m 27s) and Peter Taylor (4m 42s, 4m 37s) who had a guest co-driver for the day in the Fiesta, one David Bogie Esq. If Billy McClelland’s departure was premature, then Kevin Haynes’ was even more abrupt, when the gearbox failed on the Subaru in the first test. This was his first rally, so it provided an early lesson in the dark art of ‘rallying disappointments’. SS3 & 4 – 5 mls Paterson (5m 19s, 5m 13s) again set the pace over the next two tests with Ruler (5m 18s, 5m 18s) shadowing him relentlessly and in turn having to keep one eye on his rear vision mirror for Dickson (5m 23s, 5m 18s) who was going surprisingly quickly in a Subaru which was needing a new set of shock absorbers. There wasn’t much to choose between Taylor (5m 46s, 5m 39s) and White (5m 46s, 5m 43s) who had moved up to lead the 2WD category after Glendinning’s Escort suffered a problem with its differential. James Robertson was having a good run too (5m 54s, 5m 44s) with daughter Clare sitting alongside on her first ever rally with her Dad. SS5 & 6 – 5 mls It was Paterson (5m 23s, 5m 17s) again on the reverse runs after lunch, but both Ruler (5m 23s, 5m 21s) and Dickson (5m 27s, 5m 21s) were still there while Gareth White (5m 50s, 5m 38s) was coming under increasing pressure from both Taylor (5m 49s, 5m 36s) and Robertson (5m 35s, 5m 48s). SS7 & 8 – 3.7 mls Going into the penultimate stage, Paterson had 14 seconds on Ruler, but then it all went wrong on one of those ‘Oh, shit’ moments, when Paterson went for the brakes at the end of a fifth gear straight – and found nothing there! A stone had broken a brake pipe, and Paterson’s enthusiastic pumping used up the remains of the fluid on the other three wheels before he reached the stage finish, but more crucially, he had dropped 9 seconds to Ruler. On the basis of showing a dog enough of the hare, Ruler galloped off for the final run and blitzed it with the first sub-4 minute pass, to clinch a last gasp win with (4m 07s, 3m 57s) from Paterson (4m 16s, 4m 03s) by the narrowest of margins. Dickson too must have thought he was in for shout and a share of the champagne as his final two runs were mighty impressive (4m 09s, 4m 02s) in a car that looked about as happy over the bumps as a hedgehog in a balloon factory. There was more upset too, this time for young Gareth White. He just clipped a tyre marker at full chat, but the impact was enough to bend the bottom arm which resulted in the driveshaft pulling out. Heartbreaking, after a pretty rapid run all day and a really hard fight with Taylor (4m 15s, 4m 18s) who ended up winning the top 2WD place after a fierce run. James Robertson (4m 24s, 4m 22s) also clinched his best result of the season too from event sponsor Duncan and Gill Wardrop (4m 26s, 4m 24s). It was only Gill’s second run in hubby’s car, having done Hallburn last year, but it doesn’t look as if she’ll make it any more regular than that! The Classes There were no finishers in Class 1 when Graham Gaskell broke a driveshaft in the Peugeot, Greg Pollock blew the Escort’s engine, George Knox had a rear wheel come off the Mini and Sam Steel’s wee Ka came in on the end of a rope after 4 stages. Peter Taylor won Class 2 by 21 seconds from James Robertson with Iain Haining taking third in class after fixing a leaking camshaft seal in the morning and puncturing a tyre on the last run of the day. Callum Atkinson managed to hang on to fourth despite almost losing a rear wheel on the last stage when the Peugeot stepped out and caught a stout metal gatepost. Alex Curran was fifth despite the lack of first gear for most of the day, but at least it didn’t get any worse, although 2nd gear was looking, and sounding, a bit dodgy too by the finish. Sarah Hunter was sixth and Paul Whyte’s Peugeot ended its day on the third test after damaging its radiator on the second and Tam Haining’s Peugeot broke an engine mounting. Peter Stewart won Class 3 despite overshooting his braking on the first stage and whacking a banking and Martin Elsdon was second after a day plagued with electrical gremlins. Andy Gibson was third in class first time out in his MkII which has taken 4 years to build and David Michinson was fourth – and final finisher! Wullie Keaning burst his oil cooler and Colin Maxwell broke his gear linkage while the Kenneth and Janet McRae Peugeot 309 finished the second stage with all hands pushing it through the service area. Results: Class Winners: **** |