Carlisle Stages

The inaugural Carlisle Stages saw a hard fought victory for Martin McCormack & Phil Clarke (Escort MkII) in variable weather conditions. Fastest on all six stages looked dominant but in truth the margin on each stage was just a few seconds over Nick Elliott & Dave Price (Escort MkII). Jason Pritchard & Dale Furniss (Escort MkII) completed the podium, taking the FIA class victory in the process. In category 2 Richard Hill & Dave Robson (Escort MkI) by several minutes as their main challengers fell by the wayside. Ian Beveridge & Paul Price (Volvo PV544) were comfortable winners in category 1.

Wheels

Another glorious night in the heart of Warwickshire for the annual Coventry & Warwicks Motor Club summer gathering, Wheels. There was a wide array of cars, some dubious in terms of their classic quality, but the ones that appealed to us were the 60’s and 70’s cars and the American muscle cars on display. The chopped Hudson was simply sublime, the chrome AC Shelby Cobra 427 gorgeous and the whole host of Mustangs a pure pleasure to look at. Once again a great night out down the Blue Lias with a few beers too.

Severn Valley Rally

The 40th anniversary of the Severn Valley saw blustery and wet conditions hit the stages in Crychan and Cefn. With the Historics the main focus it was Ryan Barrett & Barry Ferris (Escort MkII) who duly took victory by almost half a minute. 2nd place went to the category 2 winners Richard Hill & Pat Cooper (Escort MkI) who were just over 3 seconds ahead of Terry Brown & Tomos Whittle (Escort MkII). The Historic Challenge saw Gwilym Roberts & Paul Price (Lotus Cortina) take the honours. In the modern event Connor McCloskey & Francis Regan (Impreza WRC) were made to work on their way to a 14 second victory over Sebastian Ling & Aled Rees (Evo IX). Alex Allingham & Chris Williams (Impreza) completed the modern podium.

Dukeries Rally

After a mad dash back home we made it back in time for the Dukeries rally which we only missed in 2012 due to a clash with the Severn Valley. With a smaller than normal entry and championship leader Connor McCloskey absent, it was imperative that the rest of the title protagonists made their mark. Charlie Payne & Paul Spooner (Focus WRC) were fastest through the first 4 stages before an almost very costly half spin at our corner on stage 5, saw them lose half of the advantage they had built up. David Wright & Michael Wilkinson (Evo IX) took the stage and moved into 2nd place ahead of Stephen Petch & Ian Windress (Focus WRC) in the process. Petch, through the afternoon, swapped fastest stage times with Payne as Wright faded away nursing the car home to 12th overall. Ultimately Payne had enough in hand to win by 17 seconds from Petch. Kevin Rowledge & Andrew Bargery (Impreza WRC) were over a minute further back in 3rd overall.

Critérium du Dauphiné

We made our first visit to the continent for a cycling stage race as we took in the Critérium du Dauphiné, in the majestic French Alps. We may have only seen 3 of the 8 stages but it gave us a flavour for what this event is all about. Our first stage was the Individual Time Trial which was won by the Time Trial World Champion Tony Martin (Omega Pharma – Quickstep) who beat the next fastest rider by 47 seconds over the 32km course. In 2nd place was Dennis Rohan (Garmin – Sharp) who took the yellow jersey with Chris Froome (Sky Procycling) 3rd. This proved to be just a taster though as the mountain finish saw the Sky Procycling team lay down the pace and control allowing Froome to take the stage win and the yellow jersey which he kept until the end of the race.

Jim Clark Reivers Rally

With a tight schedule to get to France we didn’t get much chance to enjoy the Jim Clark Reivers Rally but what we saw on the Bothwell stages was more than enough. Through those two stages Euan Thorburn & Paul Beaton (Focus WRC) were fastest on one stage with David Bogie & Kevin Rae (Focus WRC) fastest on the other. Thorburn led and with fastest time on the next two stages to Bogie’s 1, he held a small lead. More fastest stage times saw this extended out to a 20 second lead ahead of the final stage before disaster struck. Thorburn had issues and dropped half a minute as Bogie set his 3rd fastest stage of the event to take victory by 10 seconds. Barry Groundwater & Neil Shanks (Evo VIII) were third almost 2 minutes back with Steve Bannister & Louise Sutherland (Escort MkII) the top 2WD crew.

Jim Clark Rally

With a bumper field and a largely pleasant weather forecast the lanes of the Scottish Borders were set to be buzzing to the sound of rally cars. In the BRC the event was once again dominated by the Citroen DS3 R3T’s. On his less favoured surface Jukka Korhonen & Marko Salminen took an overnight lead with 5 fastest stage times from 6 stages. 2nd were Alastair Fisher & Gordon Noble with Tom Cave & Ieuan Thomas just 3rd. On the opening stage of Saturday Korhonen almost blew all of his lead with an early spin on Swinton. With the lead now slashed and Cave charging hard from 3rd place followed by Osian Pryce & Dale Furniss from an overnight 4th place, the rally became a 4 way battle. Cave set a string of fastest stage times with Pryce fastest on all the others bar one for Korhonen. With just one stage to go Korhonen’s lead was just 0.1 s over Cave, whilst Pryce was a comfortable 3rd having passed Fisher. Korhonen had the bit between his teeth and held back the Welsh charge to set fastest stage time and win by 2 seconds from Cave.