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News Paper Report

It was a up and down week last week for West Cumbria Motorsport Club.  The Stan Palmer sponsored Greystoke Stages Rally which was going to be held this Sunday was unfortunately cancelled due to lack of entries.  The committee held a meeting last Wednesday and decided that the event was to be cancelled if the event got no more entries by last weekend.  The current climate is surely to blame as this is not the first event to not run this year as many other major events fail to get the support they need as people turn to less expensive forms of motosport, but the committee have vowed that they will not be beaten and will run the event next year.
On the up side the club did hold an event last week in the form of a Autosolo at the White Heather Pub at Kirkbride Airfield.  This was the venue for the first round of the P&R Benn sponsored Clubs Autosolo Challenge and with us changing venues to the White Heather it was always going to be a gamble, but it did pay off as we had 20 entries for this round.  An Autosolo is fairly new to Cumbria and West Cumbria Motorsport Club first brought this form of cheap motorsport up here Three years ago and it is always been well supported as you can do this form of motorsport in your own family car, it consists of driving your car around a marked out course with cones only using forward gears and no handbrake.
The day got off fairly dry at Kirkbride but was soon to change as the rain came in and basically stayed all day, but this makes this type of event more interesting as grip becomes an issue.  Test 1  got underway with David Clayton making his mark and winning the first set of 3 test, but Willie Jarman was not far behind him, in fact the top 10 was only parted by a mere 8 seconds, showing how close and competitive this form of motorsport can be, the ladies were not being left out either and they were having a good battle as well, Angela Jones won the first set of tests from Eileen(smiller)Horsfall but again by only 1 second.
The next set of Three runs were again won by Clayton with the chasing pack closely on his tail, in fact Clayton was quickest on all Nine tests on the day to come away as overall winner but again not by a massive margin, 6 seconds was all that separated him from Jarman, with Breen coming in 5 seconds behind him.  The ladies class could not have been any closer with Smiler and Jones actually putting up identical times after 9 test's, but the rules of this sport dictates that Jones was deemed the winner as she won the first set of Three test's.  Round Two of the P&R Benn sponsored Autosolo Challenge will be again held at The White Heather Pub on the 12th September making up part of the club's Motorsport weekend. If you want to know more about this form of motorsport or anything else the club runs please visit their web site at www.wcmcrallying.co.uk were most if not all of your questions could be answered.
                                                                                                                                             Cheer's,  Ryan

 

 

Club Mag Report

After missing the second round of the Ecosse 205 challenge at the Granite city rally, The pairing of David Crozier and Alison Crozier were out to make an impression at the 65 th RSAC Scottish Rally, based in Dumfries 12 months after Alison’s first competitive outing on the same event.

The day set off well for the team, setting 67 th overall time through the 7.95 mile first test, 4 seconds from the leading 205 and 9 th fastest class time, while suffering some dust in the stage from the previous car. This pace continued through the short spectator second stage.

In stage 3, the pair set a second fastest time for a 205, behind a flying Graeme Smith who was running 4 th at the time, moving the Crozier’s into the lead of the category by 4 seconds.

The highlight of the day was setting the fastest 205 time through stage 4, covering the 5.99 miles in 7.25 minutes, 2 seconds ahead of the next 205 competitor, boosting their lead to just under 8 seconds. At this point the pair were sitting 53 rd O/A of 75 cars and 7 th in the upto 1600cc, 8-valve class.

With 2 stages left to go, hopes were high in the CROSPORT team of a great result, however in the last stage roughly 2 miles into the 12.9 mile test, something seized within the steering system and caused the car to spin. After correcting from this David drove the remaining 10 miles with only quarter steering lock each way from centre which David explains, “the open bits of road where ok, but the tighter corners where a nightmare, bad enough getting around the corner, but having to fight to get it to run straight was hard work.”

The team amazingly only lost around 2 minutes with the problem, however in the highly competitive 205 class it was enough to move them down to 5 th in that category and 9 th in class at the finish held in Dumfries town centre.

David added:

“We had some high expectations for today, however this morning was phenomenal and the last stage just resulted in disappointment for the overall results but also for the team. We’d worked hard in preparing for this event and had done a lot of changes over the last month. I’ve had an exceptional car today, and it still has untapped potential even now, however we’ve shown we can be up there with the front runners and even set the pace and now to go and build on that”

 

 

FIRST TIME OUT IN 4 WHEEL DRIVE

 Richard Barnard returned to the Abingdon CAR-nival Stages Rally, after a 12 month lay-off, on the 13 th June but this year in his newly acquired Subaru Impreza WRX. The clubmans specification car, built by RDR Motorsport in Yorkshire, had been shaken down at a test day at Blyton just a couple of weeks prior to the rally but his was Richard's first competitive drive of the car. Seeded at number 43 out of a full entry of 100 cars and co-driven by his father, Andy, the aim of the day was to finish and better their seeding position on this first outing.

Stages 1 and 2 on the airfield venue were both 10.9 miles long and featured a mix of very fast sections with some more twisty parts around the 'complex' and the old control tower. On Stage 1 Richard set a time of 15 minutes dead and then on the second run of this test knocked 28 seconds off his first time stopping the clock at 14 minutes 32 seconds, obviously starting to acclimatise to the car and 4 wheel drive. A soft brake pedal at the end of Stage 2 was rectified by the service crew with the brakes being bled and refilled with new fluid.

Stages 3 and 4 were slightly longer at 11.1 miles each and saw the first introduction of a couple of short sections over the grass, very interesting on slicks! Now starting to feel more confident in the Subaru Richard clocked 14 minutes 18 seconds on Stage 3 and improved to 13 mins 54 secs on Stage 4. The first mark was put on the rally car when a chicane pallet was clipped on Stage 4 and the car entered service with the clutch pedal going to the floor. This was easily sorted out in the service area and the car was ready for the afternoon stages with the intention being to have a real go at them with Richard now understanding more about the driving style needed in four wheel drive.

Stages 5 and 6, reverses of 3 and 4 at 11.1 miles long were done in 14 min 3 secs and 13 min 47 seconds respectively but on entering the final service of the day a rather serious scraping sound was coming from the rear of the Impreza. On inspection it was discovered that the rear pads were down to the metal but thankfully a complete set of second hand hubs had been taken to the event along with the calipers and including a set of old standard pads. These were quickly fitted into the calipers and the crew set off for the final 2 stages each 8 miles long. A good time of 11.08 on Stage 7 was bettered on the final stage of the day by 2 seconds, at 11.06.

So the first event in a four wheel drive car was successfully completed by Richard and all the team were delighted with a final position of 30 th overall and 5 th in Class. Thanks goes to RDR Motorsport who built the car and serviced on the event along with Tony Grisedale. Their attention to detail, professionalism and calmness ensured the car always went out ready to have a confident go at the stages. Next event, subject to getting an entry, will be the Mull Rally in October when Richard is home from his work abroad again.