Tag Archives: Ford Focus

Thorburn Triumphant in the Lakes

March 10, 2015 paulcommons1983 Leave a comment

Euan Thorburn and Richard Cooke put in a sensational afternoon drive on the Lake District based Malcolm Wilson Rally to convert a 15 second deficit into a 46 second winning margin.

A 2.30am alarm was required for the long journey up to the Cumbria for round 2 of the BTRDA rally series. The 40th anniversary running of the Malcolm Wilson Rally would see 118 cars leave the M-Sport based start to attempt 8 stages, covering 44 competitive miles, within the Whinlatter, Grizedale and Greystoke forests.

High winds and occasional showers greeted our mammoth climb to junction 7 of Comb for stage 2 and it was Paul Bird and Aled Davies who made the most of the tricky morning conditions; opening up a 5 second lead over Thorburn and Cooke on completion of the undulating Whinlatter forest tests.

Bird then continued his excellent start to the event, making full use of his local knowledge to register fastest time in both Thornsgill and Greystoke to complete a clean sweep of morning stage victories. Thorburn was however able to keep the Cumbrian man in sight, and by the time the cars reached the first Penrith service halt the reigning Scottish champion was just 15 seconds adrift with more than half of the rally remaining.

Thorburn was using Paul Benn’s 02 Focus WRC for this event and maybe the Scotsman just needed the morning to re-acclimatise with this particular car, having used a similar model to claim the 2013 BTRDA and 2014 Scottish titles. This seemed to be the case as an excellent drive through Grizedale North saw him take stage victory by 15 seconds before going better still in Grizedale South and registering a time that was a whopping 29 seconds quicker than anyone else to now lead the event by the same margin from Bird and Davies.

Stephen Petch and Ian Windress meanwhile had found a good rhythm in their Fiesta R5+ and joint second fastest time in stage 6 promoted them 3 places up the overall standings to 4th overall; now just 11 seconds behind the very rapid B13 Subaru of Jim McNeil and Tony Bassett. Conversely, David Weston’s strong morning display, which had seen the WRC Subaru lying in third place overall, unravelled with a puncture in stage 5. He and Kirsty Riddick however remained just 12 seconds behind the final step of the podium in fifth following the completion of the Grizedale loop of stages

While Bird’s victory hopes had faded, second appeared to be safe having secured a mammoth 1 minute and 17 seconds gap to third with just 8.5 miles left to run. The fight for the final step of the podium however was most definitely on; now between Petch and Weston following the unfortunate retirement of Jim McNeil’s Subaru with an electrical gremlin.

Heading into the wet final stage, the WD40 backed Ford held a slender 2 second lead. But try as they might, Petch and Windress could not quite match the 7 minute 30 second marker laid down by the Subaru of Weston and Riddick; eventually missing out on third place by a mere 4 seconds. Weston on the other hand will have been pleased with third as even without the puncture, the top two would have been difficult to catch.

Upfront, Thorburn continued his total afternoon domination by claiming another impressive stage victory with a time that was 17 seconds faster than Bird to end the rally with a winning margin of 46 seconds. His time in the wet afternoon running of Greystoke was a whole 21 seconds quicker than the morning test! This had been some drive by the Berwickshire man.

There was little that Bird could do to defend his lead with Thorburn in this sort of form and so his search for a fifth Malcolm Wilson Rally victory will have to wait another year. However the Cumbrian will be consoled by the fact that he has a healthy BTRDA championship lead after adding 28 points to the 30 earned from his Wyedean Rally victory.

CLASS B13

Luke Francis and Jim McNeil locked horns early on in the battle for B13 honours; Francis setting third quickest time overall in Revellin Moss, only for McNeil to go quicker in Comb and then Greystoke to take an 8 second class lead into the first Penrith service, with the Mitsubishi of Wayne Sisson and Fiesta of Andrew Gallagher lying 12 and 16 seconds further back respectively in 3rd and 4th position in class.

McNeil then dominated the two Grizedale stages setting 3rd and 5th fastest times overall to take a commanding 42 class lead into the final 2 stages. Meanwhile, Andrew Gallagher, with Jane Nicol on the notes, had managed to haul in Francis and was now six seconds in front of the Welshman; a battle that would prove key given the demise of McNeil before the start of stage 7.

Indeed, Francis may have been able to cut the gap to just 2 seconds heading into the Greystoke finale, but 5th fastest time overall for Gallagher would ensure that he and Nicol would head back North of the border with class victory and a fine 5th place overall.

In fact a slow time for Francis on the final test cost him second in class too; Wayne Sisson and Neil Shanks putting in a strong final stage performance to take the runner up spot in B13 with 6th place overall.

CLASS N4

Russ Thompson and Thomas Naughton were again the front runners in the top production class; the pair each taking 2 class stage wins on the morning stages, but with Naughton and Andi Mort holding a 9 second margin over Thompson and Andy Murphy at the first Penrith service.

As in other classes though it was the Grizedale tests that proved decisive; Thompson coming out on top and taking a 17 second lead into the final 2 stages. While Naughton was quicker in both, the gap was just too big to close, leaving the Clitheroe man to wrap up his second BTRDA class win of the season with 7th position overall.

CLASS H3

Matthew Robinson, with Kim Baker on the notes this time, put in yet another stellar performance to claim both the Historic and Silver Star honours on the Cumbrian event. The Escort crew were kept on their toes early on by the evergreen Steve Bannister. The infamous red striped MK2 however suffered from a puncture in Grizedale North, causing them to take a stage maximum as a result and ending any hopes of class victory. That aside the Ripon man would have taken some beating; finishing the day in 10th position overall to take Silver Star honours by 1 minute 28 seconds and H3 by a massive 2 minutes 55!

CLASS B11

You would not have believed Boyd Kershaw had been away from the sport for 2 years after he and co-driver Mark Fisher opened up a 29 second class lead after the first four stages. In fact the Escort crew went on to set fastest time in class on all eight stages to take a comfortable 1 minute and 14 second victory over the front wheel drive Astra of Stuart Egglestone and Brian Hodgson; ending the day as second 2 wheel drive crew home in 14th position overall.

1400

The much anticipated pre-event duel between Yorkshire rivals Mat Smith and David Bennett unfortunately ended on the morning loop of stages. Bennett, with Alistair McNeil alongside, had been lying 16th overall with a 10 second class lead before incurring event ending damage in the short Thornsgill stage. This left Smith and Giles Dykes to take a comfortable 1 minute and 15 second class victory in their newly liveried Proton; but more impressively ending the day as third 2 wheel drive crew home, claiming 15th position overall in the process.

Meanwhile victory in the 1400C class was again claimed by Keith and Mairi Riddick in their MG ZR, giving them a large championship class lead at this early stage of the season.

CLASS B10

Class B10 was settled sensationally on a tie break after both Greg McKnight and Barry Lindsay registered the same overall time after 44 competitive stage miles. In a fantastic battle that saw the class lead change 4 times throughout the day, Greg and Chris McKnight finally ended the day as class winners courtesy of their quicker stage 1 time.

CLASS H2

Andy Kelly and Roger Herron came out on top of the all Escort affair that was class H2. David Dobson had however been leading the class in his MK2 before an off in Grizedale South ended his hopes of victory. Instead Andy Kelly picked up his pace as the day went on to take class honours by 47 seconds with 36th position overall.

CLASS N3

Tony Simpson and Ian Bevan were guaranteed class victory with an event finish by virtue of being the only car entered in N3. However a solid performance by the Fiesta crew was rewarded with 43rd overall.

CLASS H1

Barry Jordan and James Gratton-Smith were holding a near 4 minute class lead when the only other H1 crew in the event, the Escort of David Thirlwell and Graham Reader, retired in Grizedale South. Jordan and Gratton-Smith however beat several more powerful cars on their way to an excellent 44th overall.

RALLY FIRST

Mick Quinn and Neill Cameron in their Nissan Micra got the better of Phil and Chris Spilsted’s similar machine to take RF1.0 class victory with 80th overall.

Nick Carr and Joe Sturdy claimed RF1.4 victory with a winning margin of 2 minutes and 33 seconds to finish the day in a very respectable 55th position overall.

While James West and Steve Eggington put in a strong performance to claim RF1.6 honours by over 3 minutes with 49th position overall in their VW Polo.

RESULTS

FULL RESULTS

IN SUMMARY

To be honest I didn’t think anyone would have the beating of Paul Bird in his own back yard but Thorburn’s afternoon charge was simply breathtaking and hopefully he will be making a few more appearances south of the border in 2015; a major highlight from a great day following yet another well run BTRDA event.

We just about made it to three stages, having almost been turned away from Greystoke due to the car parks being jam packed. I am not sure I have ever seen so many people in there and for the first time ever I actually enjoyed the stage. A significant amount of tree felling and surface changes since our last visit has completely transformed the viewing. Clearly charging a mere £5 for parking works and is most definitely the right way to get spectators to park where you want them to.

After a full days action it was gone Midnight before I arrived back in Birmingham; the 21.5 hour day probably the longest period of time I have gone without sleep since last years Le Mans. Was it worth it? Absolutely!

The next rally for me is most likely to be the Pirelli in late April although I may yet be tempted by Rally North Wales …

For standard prints at very reasonable prices please follow the link to my Photobox page: PRINTS

For JPEGS or any other enquiries please get in touch via paul.commons@yahoo.co.uk

All images © Paul Commons (Paul Commons Motorsport Photography)

Uncategorized

Bird Storms to 40th Anniversary Wyedean Win

February 16, 2015 paulcommons1983 Leave a comment

Paul Bird and Aled Davies put in a dominant Wyedean Forest Rally performance; winning five of the eight stages to claim victory on the opening round of the BTRDA rally championship season.

A huge entry had been assembled for the 40th anniversary Wyedean Forest Rally including 4 previous winners. However with both the 2013 and 2014 victors missing from the list it was last years BTRDA championship runner up Paul Bird, together with title winning Co-driver Aled Davies, who lead the crews away from the Chepstow rally base. The organisers had done a great job in finding an 8 stage, 43 mile competitive route with zero double usage.

Speech House and Serridge were our destinations for the day; leaving extra time for the journey turned out to be a wise decision as the car parks filled quickly. The early start also allowing time to reach the very entertaining open 90 left at junction 16 of stage 2.

While a ‘suspect’ time for Charlie Payne saw the previous winner take an 11 second margin into stage 2, it was Paul Bird who emerged from Speech House with a 15 second overall lead; the Cumbrian registering a time on the longest stage of the event that was 12 and 22 seconds faster than the chasing WRC imprezas of David Weston and Hugh Hunter respectively.

The Focus WRC pilot continued his early domination with another fastest time in stage 3 before David Weston, with Kirsty Riddick on the notes, was able to match him in Chepstow Park, pegging the lead at 21 seconds as the crews arrived at the halfway service halt. The Scotsman’s time also quick enough to leapfrog Charlie Payne into second position overall.

The trends of the morning appeared to be carrying on after lunch as Bird and Davies were quickest again in the short Yorkley stage. However, unlike earlier in the day, Weston struck back straight away and claimed his first outright stage victory with a good run through Sallowvallets.

Hugh Hunter and Andy Marchbank meanwhile, in their Melvyn Evans Motorsport S11, were gradually re-acclimatising to the gravel; their increased speed as the day went on rewarded with fastest time on stage 7 by a full 6 seconds. In fact they were 19 seconds quicker than Payne and Williamson in the Focus engined Fiesta which moved them up to 3rd overall, just 41 seconds off the overall lead.

After 2 stages without victory normality was then restored as Bird took the rally win in style by registering his 5th fastest time of the day on the Mailscot finale. The winning margin ending up at 34 seconds after Weston lost 12 seconds in Serridge and a further 1 in Mailscot. The Subaru man was however still quick enough to maintain second overall from the slightly older specification machine of Hunter and Marchbank.

Charlie Payne and Carl Williamson were the second Blue Oval crew home in 4th. The Yorkshireman had started well but gradually slipped back as the day progressed, ending the event 1 minute and 6 seconds behind the eventual winners.

Nik Elsmore and Matt Edwards had a great run to claim B13 victory in the Matt’s ME Rallysport Evo. The previous event winner was never outside the top ten in terms of stage times and claimed a mammoth 2 minute and 29 second class victory; moving ahead of Damian Cole and Jack Morton on stage 6 to end the day in a fantastic fifth overall.

The immense group N battle of 2014 continued across the first 4 stages of the day with Russ Thompson and Andy Murphy trading times with the similar Evo 9 of Thomas Naughton and Andi Mort. However a damaged crank sensor in Yorkley ended the latter crews day, leaving Thompson and and Murphy to claim a 45 second class victory over Pat Naylor and Ian Lawrence.

Nick Elliott and Dave Price were in top form on their local event to take an incredible 12th overall, beating 4 WRC cars in the process! The Cheltenham duo claimed both the Historic and Silver Star victories whilst even more impressively setting the 9th quickest time overall on stage 1!

Just as impressive were David Bennett and Alistair McNeil in their 1400 Corsa. After a difficult 2014, the Yorkshire crew started the year in the best possible manner; registering category victory and ending the day in an excellent 18th overall. Ian Evans and Justin Brooks had been keeping them on their toes until Bennett went 12th fastest overall in both Serridge and Mailscot to claim top spot by a whopping 58 seconds.

19th overall represented a great return to the event for 3 time overall winner Graham Elsmore. Together with Stuart Harrold on the notes they ensured that the Elsmore family would need plenty of room in the trophy cabinet after claiming class B11 victory in their Rob Smith Rallying prepared MK2 Escort.

Fellow local crew, Mark Griffiths and Will Rogers, were actually quicker on 5 of the 8 stages, however slow times in Speech House and Chepstow Park cost them a shot at class victory but still came home in a more than respectable 24th position overall.

While Elliott took overall Historic and H4 victory, further back, Jeremy Easson and Mike Reynolds claimed H2 with a brilliant 27th position and Peter Lewis took class H1 in his Mini. The 240Z of Easson and Reynolds seems to be getting quicker and quicker with this result representing a great follow up to their 7th overall on last years RAC.

H3 meanwhile turned into a good battle between the Ford Escorts of David Dobson and David Lloyd Roberts and the RX-7 of Jake Scannell with just 4 seconds separating Scannell and Dobson at the half way point. However the unique sounding Mazda was able to ease away over the afternoon stages to take class victory with 42nd position overall.

Elsewhere, B10 was a good old front wheel drive vs rear wheel drive battle with the Ford Escort of Robert Smith and Frankie Hillman leading the Peugeot 205 of Thomas Lloyd and Sherryn Roberts at the halfway mark following quick times in Trelleck Common and Chepstow Park. However Lloyd and Roberts dominated the afternoon leg to take class victory by 24 seconds with 48th position overall.

N3 was not a well represented class on the Wyedean but Geno Cook and Daniel Robinson put in a solid performance to claim class victory with 53rd overall.

Tim Phelps and Elwyn Manuel were the first B12 crew home in 55th position aboard their MK2 Escort, while Keith and Mairi Riddick claimed 1400C victory with 56th.

And finally the 3 Rally First categories were claimed by Mick Quinn and Neill Carman, Morgan Handford and Richard Davies and Mick Smith and Calvin Houldsworth.

I have to say that this was probably the most enjoyable Wyedean Rally of recent years with committed crews throughout the running order, reasonable weather and for once good choice of locations. Masses of fans flocked to this 40th anniversary event, in fact I have never seen so many people lining the stages of a national rally, which given some of the places onlookers were stood could be seen as both a positive and a negative! And although the overall fight for victory was not as close as we have become accustomed to in recent years, the driving talent on display made this celebration event a more than worthy spectacle.

Next up is the Malcolm Wilson Rally in early March where Cumbrian, Paul Bird, will be looking to increase his Gold Star championship lead. The 2014 winner will be a clear favourite for the win and the other crews will need to be on top form to beat the Focus pilot in his own back yard. If the Malcolm Wilson and the remaining 2015 BTRDA championship events can attract an entry somewhere near the quality of the Wyedean then we are in for one hell of a national rallying year!

RESULTS

Full Results

For digital images, professional prints or any other requirements please email me at paul.commons@yahoo.co.uk.

Uncategorized

Harry Flatters Hat Trick for King Cole of Epynt

July 30, 2014 paulcommons1983 Leave a comment

Damian Cole, co-driven by Jack Morton, claimed a hard fought victory on the 2014 Harry Flatters Rally; a perfect warm-up for next weekends Tyneside Stages. Meanwhile top spot in the Historic Rally, round 4 of the BHRC, went the way of fellow Ford crew, Tomas Davies and Mark Crisp in their formidable MK2 Escort.

Just two weeks after the Nicky Grist Stages we were back on Epynt for the Harry Flatters Rally, this time on the tricky tarmac military roads which wind their way across the undulating Mid Wales landscape. Historically one for the specialist, a dry Epynt provides the opportunity for a committed 2WD driver to take it to the best of the WRC crews.

Following the cancellation of Rally North Wales, the Harry Flatters Rally represented the halfway point in the Mintex MSA British Historic Rally Championship and heading into the event David Stokes and Dessie Nutt were tied at the top of the points table with Stanley Orr close behind in third. It was therefore all to play for; with the chance for other drivers to throw their names into the mix with this being the first sealed surface round of the year.

From a photographer’s point of view, the stage layout made it quite tricky to find the desired locations, with Centre road, Piccadilly and the “Hut Jump” all off the schedule. Understandably, given the tragic events which occurred on the Jim Clark, “Barton’s” was one of the few aggressive jumps used and it was here that we headed for the morning stages; followed, after lunch, by a trip to “The Steps”, the 2011 Harry Flatters being the last time I actually saw this section of stage ran downhill.

MODERN RALLY

I am not sure whether the stage layouts contributed to the top two crews beating the bogey time on 7 out of the 13 stages but it did make for a close battle; if not slightly frustrating given that only 6 of the stages turned out to be truly competitive. Damian Cole and Jack Morton were quickest out of the blocks, duly leaping into a 4 second lead over the very short stage 1. Unbeknown at the time to 2013 winners Mark Straker and Neil Harrison, this would in fact be a costly margin of time to lose.

Cole and Morton would only take one other stage victory throughout the day and although Straker was able to match this tally of wins it wasn’t enough to claw back the total deficit, leaving Cole to take his third Harry Flatters victory following his successes in 2010 and 2012. This was in fact his second victory on Epynt this year after taking top spot on the Tour in March and the Hereford driver will be looking to carry this form into round 5 of the MSA National Asphalt Rally Championship on Otterburn next weekend.

Few other crews had trouble with the bogey times which allowed Melvyn Evans and David Gamblin in Mark Worley’s very smart Fiesta R5+ to come home third with top class 6 runners Bob Fowden and Ashley Trimble (pictured) taking 4th. The top five being rounded out by the WRC Impreza of Tim Wilson and Elgan Davies. Osian Pryce and Dale Furniss had been going very well and matching the pace of Melvyn Evans in their Citroen DS3 before unfortunately retiring after the first loop of stages.

With 7th overall Richard Merryman and Kath Curzon claimed class 3 honours in their Darrian T90 which, along with Straker’s class 5 victory, meant that the the small Welsh manufacturer had taken top spot in both of the major Ford Escort MK2 categories; a feat which does not occur all that often!

With 11th overall, the Mitsubishi Evo 9 crew of Rob Tout and Dan Holley put in a solid performance to take victory in class 8 while Darren and Sue Underwood took class 2 honours with 20th overall in their Vauxhall Nova.

Another Darrian in the hands of David Morgan and Richard Suter (pictured) was first home in class 1 while Ford restored some pride with top spots in class 7 and 4. Andrew Davies and Ian Taylor and David Comley and Allin James being the respective crews in each category.

HISTORIC RALLY

It was the longer stages where, non BHRC championship registered crew, Tomas Davies and Mark Crisp were able to take the most time out of their opposition; eventually establishing a winning margin of 1 minute 18 seconds over David Stokes and Guy Weaver in the Class C5 MK1. The competitive C5 class was responsible for 3 of the top 5 positions with Stanley Orr and Brian Cairns finishing 4th and rally legend Jimmy McRae, co-driven by Pauline Gullick, claiming 5th spot in the Vauxhall Firenza.

Ian Jones and Iestyn Williams would be the first registered Category D car home in 6th place overall; some three minutes clear of Shawn Rayner and Declan Dear in their similar MK2. Kevin Davies and Dale Bowen had looked like potential winners of class D and were challenging Tomas Davies and Mark Crisp for top spot before retiring after stage 8. Top seeds, Jason Pritchard and Phil Clarke meanwhile were surprisingly off the pace all day before eventually retiring after stage 12.

Category B proved to be very close early on as Bob Gibbons, Dessie Nutt and Rikki Proffitt all shared fastest category times over the first 6 stages. It was therefore a massive disappointment that the Cortina of Bob and Dale Gibbons and Porsche of Rikki proffitt and Phil Harrison would not make it past the halfway point of the event. This allowed Dessie Nutt, co-driven by Geraldine McBride to take it a little easier over the second half of the rally but still take category honours by nearly 4 minutes.

With both Dessie Nutt and David Stokes taking maximum Category points they remain tied at the top of the championship table as the crews head to Ulster for round 5 of what is now a 7 round championship following the cancellation of Rallye Dorset. This battle may well be settled on the final round in Scotland as neither Nutt or Stokes look like dropping points any time in the near future!

For full results please see the Rally Roots website.

Standard prints available HERE.

For digital images, professional prints or any other requirements please email me at paul.commons@yahoo.co.uk.

Euan Thorburn and Richard Cooke put in a sensational afternoon drive on the Lake District based Malcolm Wilson Rally to convert a 15 second deficit into a 46 second winning margin.

CLASS B13

CLASS N4

CLASS H3

CLASS B11

1400

CLASS B10

CLASS H2

CLASS N3

CLASS H1

RALLY FIRST

RESULTS

IN SUMMARY

Paul Bird and Aled Davies put in a dominant Wyedean Forest Rally performance; winning five of the eight stages to claim victory on the opening round of the BTRDA rally championship season.

RESULTS

MODERN RALLY

HISTORIC RALLY

Motorsport Reporting & Photography