Cheviot Keith Knox Rally

In a sleep starved weekend we saw our 2nd four way title fight decided on the Otterburn Ranges. After a foggy start Damian Cole & Elliott Edmondson (Focus WRC) made a flying start and gained over half a minute on their title rivals. With mixed conditions they continued to build on this and following the retirement of Steve Simpson & Patrick Walsh (Impreza WRC) with a cracked gearbox casing after stage 5, a 4th title looked assured. Paul Bird & Aled Davies (Focus WRC) were struggling after steering issues on the first two loops whilst John Indri & Josh Davison (Darrian T90 GTR) were struggling to keep pace in the slippery conditions.

Mewla Rally

Our 2nd trip to Epynt in August and on the Mewla Peter Lloyd & Carl Sorensen (Impreza WRC) stormed home to a two minute victory. He did not have it easy though as Damian Cole (Focus WRC) and Steve Simpson (Impreza WRC) were not far behind but a dramatic 10th stage saw Cole retire and Simpson limp through the stage. So it was a superb 2nd overall for John Indri & Peter James (Darrian T90 GTR) taking the 2WD victory in the process with Eian Pritchard & Steve McPhee (Focus WRC) a fine third overall.

Tyneside Stages

After a day of mostly sunshine but some sharp showers Damian Cole & James Morgan (Focus WRC) took victory by 2 seconds. The event saw numerous stages ‘cleaned’, so the positions remained close all day but going in to the penultimate stage Steve Simpson & Pat Walsh (Impreza WRC) had been leading by 16 seconds but a broken/lost wheel saw their rally end midway through SS11. Cole had been battling all day and on the final stage John Indri & Peter James (Darrian T90 GTR) almost clawed the gap back taking 5s of the 7s lead. Completing the podium 16s back were Simon Mauger & Brian Cammack (Escort MkII).

ALMC Stages Rally

Another trip to the Emerald Isle and glorious weather for the 2013 ALMC Stages Rally. With Asphalt championship regulars making up most of the top ten it looked like English and Welsh crews would be dominating the overall results. Damien Cole & James Morgan (Focus WRC) led after loop 1 by just 2 seconds from Steve Simpson & Patrick Walsh (Impreza WRC) with Paul Bird & Aled Davies (Focus WRC) a second further back. With the stages repeated Bird took the lead after SS6 by 1 second from Cole with Simpson 5 seconds further back. Then going in to the final stage the gap remained the same between the top two with Simpson slipping back and it took a stellar final stage from Bird to secure a maiden Irish victory by 6 seconds from Cole. Simpson was a further 15 seconds back by the end of the event.

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.

Manx National Rally

The 2013 Manx National started in windy but dry conditions and with just 23 miles on the opening night, the first 8 stages would not see anyone win the rally but they could lose it. Melvyn Evans & Mark Glennerster (Impreza WRC) seized the initiative over the first pair of stages before Damian Cole & Darren Garrod (Focus WRC) took three fastest stage times through the 2 special stages in Ramsey and the following stage out of Ramsey through the Gooseneck. Paul Bird & Aled Davies (Focus WRC) was second overall however as he was 2nd fastest through the first 4 stages and then 3rd fastest on the fifth stage. Evans led Bird by 1.8s with Cole a further 6.1s back in 3rd overall. Trouble then struck Evans through the 2nd Glen Roy stage as Bird snatched the lead with his 1st fastest stage time. Evans went fastest through stage 7 to close the gap to 1 second and that is where the crews finished the opening leg after stage 8 was scrubbed.

Tour of Epynt

In the end it all came down to who was fastest first on the 2013 Tour of Epynt. Steve Simpson & Patrick Walsh (Impreza WRC) almost threw away a 24 second lead they had steadily built up through the opening 3 loops of stages. On the penultimate loop Damien Cole & Craig Drew (Focus WRC) equaled the time of Simpson and then an indiscretion on the final stage almost changed the rally on the final stage. Simpson held on and denied Cole a first ever Tour of Epynt victory. Paul Bird & Aled Davies (Focus WRC) had dramas of their own dropping half a minute mid event but held on to clinch the final podium place.

Mewla Rally

The record books will show another win for Damian Cole & James Morgan (Focus WRC) over Epynt, securing the 3rd straight National Asphalt title for Cole. It looked as though he was not pushed at all but Cole had his issues through the day even if he lost one rival before the start of the event, Steve Simpson, and then the no.1 seeded car of Peter Lloyd & Gwynfor Jones (Impreza WRC) after the 2nd stage and hitting multiple sheep at the stage end. Congratulations to Cole & Morgan and behind him Ashley Field & Bridie Hall (Darrian T90) ended up only just over half a minute back. Completing the podium were Ray Horton & Paul Wakely (Darrian T90 GTR) almost two minutes behind Cole.

Tyneside Stages Rally

Our first foray on this event but by no means our first trip to Otterburn and with a late entry from Melvyn Evans & Aled Davies (Impreza WRC) it promised to be a cracker. After the first stage it looked otherwise as Damian Cole & Craig Drew (Focus WRC) left the road, dropping the best part of a minute but still in the event. John Stone & Janice Moore (Fabia WRC) retired at the first junction so Evans held a convincing lead from Andy Davison & Mike Curry (BMW M3). Davison retired at the start of stage 2 and controversially Evans was excluded after stage 2 for failing noise, by which time Cole had passed all the other crews to now inherit the lead.

ALMC Stages

The conclusion to a mad weekend saw us take in our first event in Ireland, with the ALMC Stages Rally. The event was dominated by Melvyn Evans & Aled Davies (Impreza WRC) who eventually won by almost a minute and a half but the rest of the podium was not decided until the end of the very last stage. Damien Cole & James Morgan (Focus WRC) were in the box seat but a broken fly by wire throttle saw them drop over a minute, slipping back to 4th overall. This allowed James Belton & Mark Glennerster (Imprzea WRC) to take 2nd place with Steve Simpson & Patrick Walsh (Impreza WRC) a fine 3rd overall.