Thunderbird 4 to the Rescue

News back from the Home to Prague run with Colin Burgess & Mark Carter is that they came 2nd overall and won best themed vehicle which was a mock up of Thunderbird 4 from the famous TV series. Well done to the lads and a great conversion of a £150 Renault Van.

Gold Cup Display

Just a quick thank you to all the people who participated in the Warrington Motor Club display over the bank holiday weekend at the Oulton Park Gold Cup event. Caz managed to arrange 9 & 11 cars to turn up on the respective days.

Enville Stages Rally Report

The 2010 event up at Anglesey Curcuit on the 20th ran like the preverbial swiss watch. All eleven stages ran in glorious Summer weather despite a stage stoppage due to an accident which a car rolled over. Marshalling wise the event was a bit thin but the guys & galls that were there made it an  event to remember. The formula juniors were extremely pleased with the event mainly due to the fact the club, in collaboration with the MSA, agreed they could run the full stages for the very first time. This appeared to by very successful and was overseen by MSA steward and ex rally co-driver,  Phil Short. The event was won after a very close battle by Mark Jones & Cristopher Brierly in a BMW M3.

On the competitor front, many WDMC crews turned out to support their own club and bolster  competitor numbers. Top of the club standings in 6th place and 3rd in class was Malcolm Boyd & Dave Thomas in his 2.0 litre Sunbeam. 11st overall & 7th in class was Tony King co-driving for Keith Dowthwaite in the Mk.2 Escort. In 14th overall,  the only finisher in class A was Alistair & David Oram at the venue for the first time in their Vauxhall Nova. In 17th overall & 4th in class were Paul Kay & John Boggs in the Toyota MR2 after some clutch worries before the event all went well for them. In 27th overall and 5th in class were Phil & Katy Sargeant in the 1.0 litre Micra. In 40th overall & 11th in class were Phil Tate & Kristopher Pirie in their Nissan Micra. This was Phil's first event so well done on the finish.

First DNF went to yours truly & Phil Jennings Driving the Talbot Sunbeam. The diff destroyed on SS1 put us on the trailer and heading home. Richard Bromley & Mark De Spong retired the Darrian 1600 after a stone pulled the belt off the engine. Steve Quigley after an impressive start retired after various geabox problems. Stuart Deeley & Alistair Dodd retired after SS5 with broken suspension. This after a retirement on the Rally of the Midlands when the water pump broke.

News From the weekend

On the Dukeries Rally the event was sadly overshadowed by the death of competitor Martyn Lewis in the 1400 category. Results for the Warrington crews saw Malcolm Hague & Dave Read finish 2nd in the 1.4L category with the Mazda 2 and 58th overall. Justin Lawson & Paul Hargreaves retired their Vauxhall nova with gearbox problems after SS4.

On the Keith Frecker Memorial Stages at Weeton Tony King scored maximum class points in the WDMC championship and 4th overall with Keith Dowthwaite in the Mk.2 Escort. 

TT News

News from the Isle of Man is good. Ian Mackman racing newly built privately entered Suzuki motorbikes after his departure from PRF scored some more impresssive results on one of the toughest courses in the world.

On the 600cc bike he claimed a bronze replica award in the supersport race with 26th overall. In the main race of the TT week, theSenior TT he was even better with 13th overall on his 1000cc bike and another bronze replica award. Well done once again to Ian, Jo, Ann, and all the team which made it happen.

WDMC Championship News

Stuart Deeley has grabbed some more valuable championship points as the sole contender on the last round, the Clwyddian Cars Stages near Trawsfynydd. He managed 7th overall and 3rd in class in the Europa despite the drive shafts continuing to come loose throughout the day. The next round is at Weeton on the 13th June.

BTRDA NEWS

Last weekend (15-5-2010) saw the Plains Rally running through some classic Welsh forests. Again, Warrington crews were in the class awards. Justin Lawson & Paul Hargreaves scored a 2nd in the 1.4S class & 35th overall with their Vauxhall Nova. in 74th place and once again 2nd in class 1.4L were Malcolm Hague & Dave Read with the Rallyschool.co.uk Mazda 2. Back out again in a borrowed Peugeot 205 was Paul Edwards with Peter Weston finishing 90th overall and 13th in class B10.

All Class Honours go to WDMC Members

Round 5 of the WDMC Rally Championships took place back at Three sisters for the Wigan Motor Club Adgespeed Stages rally. An amazing string of results came from Warrington motor Club members. Warrington Club members took ALL top class positions in this event. An amazing acheivement.

Firstly a fifth event win and back to back wins came for Stuart Deeley and Alistair Dodd in the Duratec powered Europa after Anglesey the previous week. An exceptional result probably not been matched for some time.

Steve Quigley & Mike Spiers took 3rd overall & 1st in class 4 in their Renault Clio which now shows the car and crew have event winning potential. This despite having to run a full fuel tank to prevent starvation problems. Just behind overall and in class 2 was Tony King co-driving for Keith Dowthwaite in the Mk.2 Escort. Ste Landen co-driving for Geoff McQuilling in the Honda Civic finished 6th overall and took class 3 honours. Richard Bromley & Mark de Spong in the Darrian finished 10th overall and 2nd in class 3. Alistair and David Oram won class 2 once again in their Vauxhall Nova finishing 14th overall. Phil & George Jennings missed out on a 3rd in class 3 by a timing error but finished 4th in  class and 21st overall in their Talbot Sunbeam. Phil & Katy Sergeant acheived their first class 1 win and 30th overall in their Nissan Micra. A sure sign this crew is now on the F1000 pace. Sadly another retirement befell Paul Kay & John Boggs in the Toyota MR2 with a suspected diff or CV problem.

Another Winning Weekend

Round 4 of the WDMC rally championship, The Lee Holland Stages at Ty Croes was well contested with club members and the results were excellent once again. Stuart Deeley & Alistair Dodd in the Europa scored another outright rally win at the circuit. In 6th overall and another class win was Richard Bromley & Mark De Spong in the Darrian winning class B. Just behind in 8th place and 2nd in class C was Wes Jacklin with Gareth Edwards in the long awaited Lotus Exige, a great result for the cars first outing. in 16th overall & 5th in class B was John Boggs back in the drivers seat with Paul Kay navigating in the Toyota MR2. Sadly another retirement befell Steve Quigley this time with Mike Spiers when they had driveshaft problems after  SS1.

Down at the other end of the country Malcolm Hague & Dave Read were out on the Someset Stages Rally in the development of the Rallyschool Mazda 2. They had another solid result with 54th overall and 2nd in class 1.4L. They should of had a class win in the bag but a broken engine mounting meant they had to go slowly through a couple of the early stages. This was repaired but it failed again whilst leading class on the final stage. This time several components were damaged including breaking the brake master cylinder which caused brake failure and another slow drive for the finish. The margin at the end was just 6 seconds.

MIRA MISERY

A number of Warrington cars went down to the Mira test track for the Horiba De Isis Stages Rally on the 17th April. Another good result came from Alistair & Dave David Oram in the Class A Vauxhall Nova Finishing 39th overall and 2nd in class. They had an overshoot on SS1 stalling the car which then failed to restart for several minutes. Stuart Deeley & Alistar Dodd in the Europa had oil pressure issues whilst running 2nd and had to retire after SS6. Steve Quigley & Kris Pirie in the Renault Clio retired after SS2 when the alternator lead came off causing the electric fuel pump to stop working They were inside the top ten after SS1 so the car is looking very quick.

MSA LAUNCHES IT'S MANIFESTO FOR MOTORSPORT - PLEASE READ ON!

In a surprise move by the MSA, they have lauched a manifesto for motorsport which makes good reading. the main feature to this is this statement

 The MSA is now calling on its 50,000 members to sign an online petition to support the call for Closed Road events on mainland Britain without the need to resort to an Act of Parliament to suspend the Road Traffic Act at www.petition.co.uk/MSA. 

  So, go to the petition if you think this is a good idea and sign up. It takes a couple of minutes. Check out the MSA manifesto at www.msauk.org/manifesto. Hopefully, this is a step in the right direction.

 Historic Rally News

Mike Daly & Julian Broadhurst were out competing on the Ilkley Jubilee Classic Historic Rally on the 11th April finishing 24th overall and 4th in class C2 with their Valden Plas 1300. Well done to them.

Rally Win for Tony & Emma Hewitt

Great news for one of our regular club crews from further affield. Tony & Emma Hewitt in their Mitsubishi Lancer had an outright win at the Malcolm Watson Spring Rally Stages at Sculthorpe Airfield (near Fakenham). A big well done to them on their first overall win

Ian Mackman Back on 2 Wheels, and Winning!

 Ian travelled back to Anglesey in the middle of March after a couple of small bike tests to compete at the Ty Croes Race Circuit, the scene of his serious crash last year which left him hospitalised. And the great news is that Ian is back on form had had several podium placings including a 1st place.

Backed by last years team, PRF Racing, Ian will be out at the Brands Hatch Short Circuit this Easter weekend competing in the British superstock race as part of the BSB meeting. Good luck to Ian, Ann & Jo over the weekend.

A tough Day at Weeton

The SMC Stages, the 3rd round of the WDMC Championships took place on the 28th at Weeton Barracks. Several crews were out competing on the tricky conditions left behind fromn the previous weeks wet weather. Top Warrington Crew were Keith Dowthwaite & Tony King back in the blue Mk.2 Escort finishing 12th overall and 3rd in class 'C'. Just behind was Steve Landen navigating for Geoff McQuilling in the Honda Civic with 13th overall and 2nd in class 'B'. Phil & George Jennings in the Talbot Sunbeam had a day of niggling problems but finished 21st overall and 4th in class. Stuart Deeley retired the Lotus Europa on SS10 after sliding off the road on some fluid left behind by another car.

Melbourne Bound

Championships Registration

I have attached a PDF file of the SD34 championship registration form that Ann has asked me to be made available to you. It is right at the bottom of this page. The ANWCC Championship regs and entry form can be found here www.anwcc.org

Busy Rally Weekend

Last weekend saw two stage rallies and a road rally taking place in the North West. On Saturday was the Grizedale Stages Rally in Cumbria with the cold still biting in the mountains the conditions were pretty treacherous. Overcoming the ice & mud were three Warrington members. Malcolm Hague & Dave Read in the Rallyschool.co.uk Mazda 2 finished an excellent 1st 1.4L class car and 37th overall. Danny Swainbank navigating for Alex Laffey in the Fiesta ST finished 8th in class N3 and 49th overall. A good result after the retirement on the NW Stages.

On the Sunday saw round 2 of the WDMC Rally championship, the Roskirk Stages Rally at Three Sisters Circuit near Ashton-in-Makerfield. Quite a lot of WDMC crews were out with some excellent results once again. 4 crews in the top 10 finishers. Stuart Deeley & Alistair Dodd in the Europa ran very close to Peter Jackson all day but had to settle for 2nd overall & 2nd in class 5 just 5 seconds behind the rally winner. Richard Bromley & Mark De Spong with their Darrian continue their improving form finishing 6th overall & 2nd in class 3 despite a SS4 scare when there was contact with another car. Steve Landen navigation for Geof McQuilling in the Honda Civic came home 8th overall & 3rd in class 3. Alistair & Dave Oram had another solid result with 10th overall & 1st in class 2 in their reliable Vauxhall Nova. Keith Dowthwaite & Tony King were out in a different Mk.2 to ttheir regular car finishing 15th overall & 8th in class 5. Phil & Katy Sargeant in their Nissan Micra finished 39th overall & 13th in class 1.

 North West Stages Rally

The 2010 event went very smoothly with Warrington Motor Club running a very slick Fleetwood Prom stage throughout Saturday. All 28 stages were completed in what was a very testing day for all the crews involved with less than half of the 100 crews completing the event. Notable WDMC members competing were Tony King co-driving for Keith Dowthwaite finishing 17th overall and 3rd in class in the Mk.2 Escort. Phil & George Jennings had a catalogue of problems throughout the weekend in the Sunbeam but managed to complete the event 40th overall and 8th in class. Phil Sargeant & Kris Pirie in the Micra finished 47th overall and 8th in class despite being amalgamated with the larger 1400cc cars. Paul Kay and Steve Landen were going well in their revamped Toyota MR2 but a persistent water leak lost them much time  during Saturday afternoon eventually putting them OTL. Danny Swainbank in the Fiesta retired with mechanical problems on Saturday morning. Steve Noble sadly had a bad crash at Lytham resulting in a severly bent Clio and retirement.

 Rallying at Croft

James Dolan was out at croft in his Mitsubishi Lancer for the Christmas Stages rally. They were going great guns in the morning and after starting car 52 we were 12 overall after 4 stages and set 7th fastest time on SS3. Sadly, an engine fire put them out of the event on SS5. Better luck next time James.

Healthy Entry for NW Stages / Accomodation Alert

The North West Stages Rally entry is filling up nicely and a list of entries is now on the website www.nwstages.co.uk . But if you want to stay at Rally HQ, The Norbreck Castle hotel you have to be quick as it's nearly full. Get accomodation info from the above website.

2010

What's On! 

Last weekend saw activity on both gravel & tarmac for WDMC members

On the Grizedale Stages Rally (5/12/09) the wet conditions of the lake district did not dampen the efforts of two Warrington groups out and about. Mike Axford & Dave Thomason in their RWD Fiesta came home a respectable 29th overall and 2nd in class B10 whilst Danny Swainbank was continuing his navigational duties for Alex Laffey in the R3 class Fiesta ST finishing 45th overall and 2nd in class.

At Rockingham over the weekend  there was the annual tarmac blast around the fabulous venue near Corby. WDMC champion Tony King finished 25th overall with regular driver Keith Dowthwaite in the 2 litre Escort. Richard Bromley & Mark De Spong were out in the 1600cc Darrian finishing 36th overall after a stage 1 clutch failure ruined their chances of a class result. Despite this they will be out again on selected events in 2010 so watch this space for results out of the ever improving car and crew.

 SD34 CHAMPIONSHIP REGISTRATION (9kb)