Tour of Hamsterley

Our 2nd visit to the Tour of Hamsterley saw a superb win by Matt Edwards & Kim Baker (Escort MkII). Seeded at car 11 they set a first stage time outside of the top ten but after that they set the fastest time on 7 of the remaining 8 stages. They did not have it easy and only took the lead by a few seconds after the 3rd stage. Edwards then blitzed the two Raby Castle tests in the middle of the event. Matthew Robinson & Sam Collis (Escort MkII) were just 12 seconds behind after stage 5 but they did not come out Hamsterley forest as they retired on stage 8 with alternator failure. So it was now up to Nick Elliott & Dave Price to take up the chase, who had set fastest time on the first stage in their Escort MkII.

World Endurance Championship – Silverstone 6hrs

It proved to be a day to remember for Toyota and Porsche but a nightmare for Audi, as the 2014 World Endurance Championship got going at Silverstone. With the three marques split equally across the first 3 rows and only 0.452s apart in qualifying, close racing was expected. Toyota pushed through to an early 1-2 before Audi fought back with Lucas Di Grassi splitting the Toyota’s and then the rain came. Toyota pitted, Audi did not and Porsche split their strategy but it was the no.1 car of Di Grassi that fell foul of the conditions, crashing at Woodcote. Whilst the car returned to the pits under its own power the monocoque was damaged and the car duly retired. The no.14 Porsche lost a front left wheel and after extensive repairs it only managed a few more laps before it was retired.

Somerset Stages Rally

An unusually chilly Exmoor greeted the crews for this years Somerset Stages and they held their fair share of drama too. Out after stage 1 were David Bogie & Kevin Rae (Focus WRC) and on stage 10 championship and rally leaders Paul Bird & Aled Davies (Focus WRC) were forced to retire. This left Steve Perez & Paul Spooner (Focus WRC) in the lead on his BTRDA return but all eyes were on Stephen Petch & Ian Windress (Focus WRC) close behind. On the final stage they were just 4 seconds behind Perez and they duly went 4 seconds faster but they needed 1 more second to take the win. When there is a tie overall then the count back goes to stage 1 where Perez went 5 seconds faster than Petch. Making the long journey South worthwhile Dave Weston Jnr & Kirsty Riddick (Impreza WRC) completed the podium some 28 seconds behind the top two.

Alan Healy Memorial Rally

The 3rd running of the Alan Healy Memorial Rally at Cadwell Park, saw the best and largest entry to date. 2013 winner Dave Turnbull was an early victim crashing has Impreza WRC on the way down through Coppice on stage 2. The inverted car caused a temporary stage stoppage, which saw the rally behind schedule for the rest of the day. John Stone & Carl Williamson (Fabia WRC) were holding the lead until a costly stall on stage 3 saw them slip back to 2nd overall. David & Alice Tinn (Satria 2500S) took the lead and were slowly being reeled in by Stone until the 8th stage when Tinn went faster, to stem the tide.