Rockingham Stages

After 15 years the Rockingham Stages was the last event to be held at the Northamptonshire circuit, before it closes at the end of the year. Having attended most of those it was a sad final visit. Paul King & Alicia Miles (Escort MkII) took victory on an event that has served him well, but he was pushed hard by Darryl Morris & Mark Regan (Escort MkII) who finished just 13 seconds behind, after 12 stages. Completing the all Escort MkII podium were Steve & Jack Tilburn.

Rockingham Stages

The 2017 Rockingham Stages saw a maiden overall victory for William Hill & Richard Crozier, first time out in their Fiesta R5. It was a fantastic result underlined by fastest times on all 6 stages run, giving a victory margin of 40 seconds. The rally should have run in to Sunday but heavy snowfall and ice caused the cancellation of day 2. Darryl Morris & Steve Gully (Escort MkII) took 2nd place with the podium being completed by Stephen Beck & Paul Brown (Escort MkII) a further 34 seconds behind.

Rockingham Stages

Dry but cold conditions were once again present at Rockingham as almost 90 crews took the start. Rhys Yates & Tom Woodburn (Fiesta R5) were utterly dominant and took victory by almost 3 minutes. Of the 11 stages run they were fastest on all but one and despite a scare on stage 5 with leaking fluid, they didn’t look troubled at all. After the opening day Paul King & Alicia Miles (Escort MkII) held a 3 second advantage over Paul Swift & Patrick Walsh (Escort MkII) but through the Sunday stages they were both overhauled by Bruce Edwards & Jim Smith (Darrian T9 GTR) and Alan Kirkaldy & Cameron Fair (Escort MkII).

Rockingham Stages

A very windy day at Rockingham closed out our season once again, (well pre-Christmas anyway). Ashley Field & Ryan Vickers (Darrian T90 GTR+) looked all set for a good lead overnight until a wrong slot on the final stage saw them get a stage maximum. So it was Rhys Yates & Tom Woodburn (Fiesta R5) who led Dave Tinn & Giles Dykes (Satria Neo) by 10 seconds, but with Yates only testing and not continuing on Sunday it was Tinn who was in command. Tinn had over a minutes lead on Peter Jackson & Stephen Hartley (Escort MkII) which he held to take victory. Behind Jackson in 2nd overall, James Sharrock & Stuart Faulds (Escort MkII) took 3rd place overall.

Rockingham Stages

Another year almost chalked off as our end of season foray to Rockingham saw a capacity field for the first time in 5 years. There was quality too with the top 4 all recent winners on circuit based rallies. In the end it was David Tinn & Marc Fowler (Satria Neo) who won by over two and a half minutes. They set a total of 7 fastest or joint fastest stage times across the 12 stages and were never out of the top 5 stage times for the entire rally. Josh Payton & Marcus Mizen (Escort MkII) were best of the rest overnight but retired early on day 2, after dropping to a minute behind Tinn.

Rockingham Stages

We may have missed a few but it doesn’t feel like the Rockingham Stages were only running for the 10th time. After a few years of low entry figures it was good to see the trend heading upwards again and even if we only saw the 1st day of action we still saw plenty to keep us happy. In terms of results Paul King & Fiona Scarrett (Escort MkII) backed up their 2013 success with another, taking the rally by 49 seconds and no deer incidents this year. Steve & Michael O’Leary (Darrian T90) were a fine second after battling all event long with Andy Corner & Ade Camp in their sideways and often tripoding Peugeot 205.

Rockingham Stages

Much like in 2011 we visited the 2012 Rockingham Stages for just one day. The entry was down once more, sadly, but with the superb layout there was always something to watch, in fact often you do not know where to look. The opening day saw Paul King & Alicia Miles (Escort MkII) set the pace for the first 5 stages until disaster struck. They hit a deer at the start of the 6th stage, the final one of Saturday and saw their lead disappear as Richard Edwards & Andy Hollingham (Escort MkII) took over at the top. They took the place back on the first stage of Sunday and then continued to build their lead through the rest of the event. King eventually won by 41 seconds with Edwards a comfortable 2nd.

Cook’s The Italian Job

Louise is on a massive push to make the next round and with only a week to go there is half the budget still to find for the penultimate round of the World Rally Championship.

Louise, who resorted to selling her trophies to help make Rally New Zealand, is trying different techniques with a massive position on the car up for auction and a once in a lifetime chance to take the silly seat for the Rockingham Stages Rally, see above.