Competition Roundup

If you do an event other than as a competitor, we also want to hear from you! Marshals, mechanics and support crew, this means YOU. Remember, other club members might like to talk to you to get a general feeling for an event. Often non-competitors see more than those in the cars!

Chris Batchelor
did Goodwood but retired with a driveshaft and something else - Sierra Cosworth

Graham Baty
was one of five Southern drivers out at the Abingdon CAR-nival, a weekend of motorsport run by Farnborough and Sutton & Cheam to raise money for charity. In his college-prepared 1300cc Astra with Jeff Smith in the co-driver's seat Graham came 13th in class and 73rd overall

Roger Binyon
was also out at the Abingdon CAR-nival, doing both the sprint and the rally. The sprint was badly hit by appalling weather, with standing water on the track eventually causing the organisers to call it a day in the middle of the afternoon (although the heavy clouds made it feel like late evening). He came 3rd in class on the sprint in his BMW Z3 On the stage rally the next day he did his best to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory - hitting a bucket full of gravel (doing some expensive-looking damage to the Kevlar bonnet) and having a high-speed spin off into the long grass. However, a bad tyre choice was finally his undoing on the showery day giving him a 3rd overall plaque as his birthday present. Next outing is Colerne on the 11th July and then off to some rallycross at Ty Croes (for those who don't know, this is in Anglesey, the bit which used to break off your plastic map of Britain) on 18th July.

John Blaber/Alan Jamieson
have found to their surprise that they are 6th in class and 1st in class respectively on the Mintex after their solitary outing on the Winter Rally. The reshell is proceeding fast, but now John has recklessly bought a six-speed box so the Trackrod looks a hard target to aim for.

Neil Cloughley/Robert Pike
went spectating on Ypres, where I understand their cheery faces and encouragement caused Sue Orchard to drive even harder. Perhaps we could have Southern Spectators Club outings to events which club members are doing? Let me know your views. Meanwhile Neil and Robert have caught the Belgian bug and are hoping to compete on a regional Belgium rally and perhaps also do Jersey in October

Colin Early/Colin Hutchings
did Abingdon, having a spin on SS2 through over-exuberance. A trickily-paced chevron board led them into a 90 right too fast so they went back up the main straight with a cone wedged under the bodywork - the smell of burning and muck raining in causing them some worries. The car was boiling hot inside as usual but they still managed 7th in class and 19th overall. Their next event will probably be the Bombalong stages at Debden in September - an event which is heartily recommended to all club members.

Ian Glenister
did the Kerridge, ending up 15th in class and 75th overall.

Ellya Gold/Ian Harden
did the Dukeries, finding the high standard of organisation on this BTRDA round made an interesting contrast to some of the smaller events they have done up till now. They did their bit for the environment on the event by creating a red squirrel, unfortunately this was done by applying a rally car to a grey one, but still top marks for trying boys. A steady drive (probably encouraged by the fact that they drove the car to the event and so had a certain interest in being able to drive it home) on the very fast stages saw them finish 65th overall and 12th in class. Remembering that Ellya's car is nominally Group A, they are up against some serious opposition, so this is a great result. Ellya reminds me that more information, pictures etc can be found on the team's web site which is regularly updated and is at http://www.come.to/teamspirit.

Dave Jacobs
did Abingdon, going out at the end of the stage with a dropped valve. This gave him plenty of time to look enviously at the reliability of Kerry Young's Escort (see further down the list)...

Tony Jardine
had a new navigator for the Kerridge, the head of sport for the Mirror. They came 6th in class and 21st overall.

Robert Marshall/Jason Waterman
I rang up to ask how Robert and Jason were getting on as we haven't seen them at club recently, and a long-suffering female voice informed me that "they're working on another car, you know". Looks like the project is still underway after several months now, so we encourage them to get a move on and get back out on the circuit.

Sue Orchard/Graham Morris
have written about their exploits in the Belgian Rally Championship elsewhere in the mag. Their most recent outing was to Ypres. Sue tells me of a new innovation which is live video from the stages shown on the podium. This gives extremely useful information when choosing tyres! Not one for our WouldBeGood stages this year I think, but with Southern's record for innovation you never know... I won't spoil their next article by telling you everything about Ypres (besides, there's too much to fit in here) but they did say that out of the 23 stages there were two 35km stages and two 24km stages! Imagine the work just to do the pace notes, let alone the concentration required to drive competitively for that long. For the rest, let me just say that there seemed to be quite a lot of pushing involved and that they finished 4th in class and an impressive 55th overall.

Richard Phillipson/Catherine Phillipson
were out on the Scottish International finding out a lot about the differences between Scottish stages and Welsh ones. Like Richard Worts, they suffered from punctures - actually getting two punctures on the recce (probably a sign of bad preparation - should have used tougher tyres and/or carried spares rather than one of those pestilential space savers). They found to their joy on the event that the car was set up fantastically well, enabling them to really push on down the fast yumpy straights. However, a well-placed rock has been the downfall of many a quick crew and the Phillipsons were no exception, smashing into a rock on a fast right-hander with such force that the wheel broke in two and they shot straight off into a ditch. They are off to Maubeuge on July 11th to get used to driving on tarmac before the Ulster at the end of July.

Mark Shoosmith/Chris Morford
were off to the Plains on May 3rd, I think I may have lost my notes on this one.

Dick Slaughter/Geoff Dearing
did the Manx on May 9th. Dick is my absolute favourite person at the moment, having used the space at the bottom of the points claim form to tell me how they got on. Hint hint to everyone else. They finished 24th overall and 1st in class on this event which was their first outing on the island - an impressive result against some serious (and, dare I say, well-practiced?) local opposition. Dick thought it was "a real cracker of an event - pulling 9500 in fifth in a 30mph limit on the wrong side of the road is pure magic. I couldn't believe just how quick the Escort was on slicks and notes! I'm going back next year!!" They also won the team prize entered under the name of Escort Agency, with Nick Foster in a GpN Cosworth Escort and Robin Bradbury in a MkII Escort.

Nick Starkey
did the Goodwood RallySprint in a Subaru Impreza, coming 15th on the first day and then retiring on the second, so it looks like there's a story there somewhere.

Vanessa Steele/Ian Smallridge
also did Abingdon, coming a very creditable 11th in class and 64th overall. They were heard to remark that the open flat areas around the Abingdon tarmac looked much less frightening than the steep hills and armco of Millbrook.

Simon Thomas
is still building his tarmac-spec Mini - the rolling shell now has a loom in it so Simon can sit inside going "vroom vroom" and turning the lights on and off.

Colin Weeks & Michael Weeks
were out on the BTRDA PCT round at Kidderminster coming 4th in class and 3rd in class respectively. Colin then went to Dorking and came 21st overall and 6th in class. Michael is currently experiencing a different side of motorsport, crewing for Ellya in Team Spirit. For anyone who doesn't know, the Weekses have moved recently to the dizzy depths of Woking. Please update your address books to read: The Cottage, Willowbank, Westfield Common, nr Working, GU22 9NH, telephone 01483 721760

Richard Worts
was out with Graham Cresswell on the Scottish International. Richard writes: "Lying 2nd in the Group A 1600cc class of the Mobil Championship meant we had everything to lose on this double header event. The car had been tested and developed to remove the braking problems which had plagued us on the Pirelli and we were all fit for a good but probably rough event. "The first day's dry stages suited the car well and our recce removed most of the surprises on the stage routes through the forests. Tyre choice proved critical and we lost some time with slightly too soft compounds on the Michelin and Dunlop tyres we used for the long and short stages respectively. Traction was good but the wear rate very high. we ended the day in fifth position in the A6 class, just 6 seconds behind 4th and 30 seconds behind 3rd. We were ready for a charge the following day. "Saturday dawned wet and misty and the soft tyre choice looked good for the weather ahead of us. Unfortunately the International rally was running being two other events which would ensure a rough passage through the stages that day. The first stage set the standard which would follow and we had our first puncture around 3 miles from the 16 mile stage finish. When we crossed the finish line the rear wheel no longer held a tyre and the rim had been battered for the last mile along the rough rocky track. The service halt identified that one other tyre had also been damaged by the Scottish razor sharp rocks strewn in our path. "This process was repeated throughout the day causing us lost time as we managed to keep the damaged car under control driving to the end of the stage rather than wasting 3 minutes changing the tyre on stage. "At one point we jumped over another car which had fallen into a ditch just over a crest, this was quite an unnerving sight as we were airborne when we realised he was there!! The roughness of the stages caused damage to the exhaust system nearly flattening it in places also causing a loss of power. "Despite this we survived to finish 29th overall and 4th in class. We scored enough points to maintain our second position in the Rally Championship and won £150 towards the Ulster Rally in August. Richard was also out at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and has promised me a report on that for next month. He came 12th on the first day and 10th on the second, ending up 11th overall.