MCR Northumberland Borders Rally 2011

[cookie1071]

You certainly will be but with there should be plenty of photo opportunities at the controls you've been given.

Good luck to everyone for tonight!

Niall.

[cookie1071]

Outline results from the Breakfast bar at the Twice Brewed:-

Borders Rally
1st Expert - Pete Tyson Neil Harrison Morris Cooper S FEO 823F 0F 3m
1st Newcomer - Paul Gray Marcus Pomfret BL Mini DPM 140K 3F 19m

Tynedale Rally
1st Novice - Eileen Horsfall Neal Horsfall BL Mini 1275 GT NUD 774T 0F 6m

-----

Spirit of the Event Award (& for services to orangeness ) - Steve Entwhistle Bob Hargreaves Austin Seven GJM 795

A massive thanks to all involved, especially the marshals and support crews from the local motor clubs.

Niall.

[SMOKE GREY]

A big thankyou to marshals and organizers of last night, excellent event again, me and Bob defo do it again. Little orangebox went well for first time out, knew we would'nt win with Tyco out, 997 70bhp no match for 1380cc of MED power. Well done to Tyco and Neil though, and Paul and Marcus, a trio of lancashire award winners

[mk1rally]

Yes, a big thankyou to all involved.

Brilliant event, well organised, friendly and great venue's (roads and pub!)...so when is next years entry list open??

[SMOKE GREY]

Any pics from saturday night? Surfblue 63?

[Pete]

There were certainly a few 'flashers' along the route so there should be some snaps Steve and we did see some nice ones in the pub before we left (couple of good uns of the the Orange Box).

Well my first ever rally started quite well despite me and Dave's cars both being in dry dock we managed to borrow an early (and very quick) GT at the last minute from Jim Brindle at R.A.C.E who's an absolute diamond. We got up to the 'Twice Brewed' in good time on Saturday, checked in, off to scrutineering in Hexham where a loose brake wire connection was the only faff, signed on and then I made my first big mistake...a big greesy slap up late lunch in Tesco's caff (where we signed on). Oh dear. Yes, you know what's coming...

Spent some time plotting whilst Dave stuck the numbers on and bought a floor mat from the store to combat a slippy footwell and then off to the start at 7.14pm. Sorted my lighting out whilst we waited in line and off we whined (the gearbox not me) (well not yet anyway) into the darkness. By the way Steve your car looked great on the start line fully lit up, inside and out, reminded me of an old cover of Motor..



Anyway off we went picking up all the route check boards through the first few sections, observing the many quiet zones and clocking on a bit to make our times at the controls which we did by and large only dropping a few minutes by about a third distance. We then went through a very twisty section with some big drops toward a ford and that was it....my lunch suddenly decided it was time to park itself all over the byways of Northumberland. Don't really need to expand anymore but for the last half of the rally (well over an hour) and at regular intervals we screetched to a halt, the passenger door was flung open and ... sorry Dave ! Needless to say I was feeling 'a little distracted' to the point that at one TC we passed the marshal twice cos I discovered I can't count and blow chunks at the same time ! So we dropped a few more minutes, and then we stalled the car when slamming on the brakes at an RC cos the board was facing the hedge (naughty naughty Niall..), the car wouldn't restart off the key, starter was turning very slowly so out I jumped and push started...backward, facing a fast bend ..and oncoming cars !
Off we roared, met a roadworks on route on a red light dropping us another two minutes then another stall and push start, then we met a marshal who said he had a nice surprise for us at the end ( ), didn't know what that was all about (the strippers had arrived at the pub ?) then we met a car coming the opposite way on a narrow lane which meant another stop as we couldn't pass (and it was a bloody marshal's car ! ) we then stopped for Dave to pick up an RC board which had 'fallen over' and floored it through the last couple of sections to the end thinking we were probably not going to make the time limit but we did, by a bigger margin than we thought so all things considered for a pair of balloons it was an absolute triumph !

The only time we got lost was trying to find the pub at the end but eventually made it feeling asbsolutely bolloxed but interested to hear what surprise was in store for us. It turned out to be one of the big Cibbies off the front of the car which had jumped ship early in the rally and been picked up by a marshal, albeit a little worse for wear !

All in all a great event, well organised (thanks to Niall and his team, especially the marshals who all turned up and spent their Saturday night making this happen) and I'd recommend it to anyone who hasn't had a go before , perfectly do-able in a virtually standard road car and here's to the next time.

[SMOKE GREY]

There were certainly a few 'flashers' along the route so there should be some snaps Steve and we did see some nice ones in the pub before we left (couple of good uns of the the Orange Box).

Well my first ever rally started quite well despite me and Dave's cars both being in dry dock we managed to borrow an early (and very quick) GT at the last minute from Jim Brindle at R.A.C.E who's an absolute diamond. We got up to the 'Twice Brewed' in good time on Saturday, checked in, off to scrutineering in Hexham where a loose brake wire connection was the only faff, signed on and then I made my first big mistake...a big greesy slap up late lunch in Tesco's caff (where we signed on). Oh dear. Yes, you know what's coming...

Spent some time plotting whilst Dave stuck the numbers on and bought a floor mat from the store to combat a slippy footwell and then off to the start at 7.14pm. Sorted my lighting out whilst we waited in line and off we whined (the gearbox not me) (well not yet anyway) into the darkness. By the way Steve your car looked great on the start line fully lit up, inside and out, reminded me of an old cover of Motor..



Anyway off we went picking up all the route check boards through the first few sections, observing the many quiet zones and clocking on a bit to make our times at the controls which we did by and large only dropping a few minutes by about a third distance. We then went through a very twisty section with some big drops toward a ford and that was it....my lunch suddenly decided it was time to park itself all over the byways of Northumberland. Don't really need to expand anymore but for the last half of the rally (well over an hour) and at regular intervals we screetched to a halt, the passenger door was flung open and ... sorry Dave ! Needless to say I was feeling 'a little distracted' to the point that at one TC we passed the marshal twice cos I discovered I can't count and blow chunks at the same time ! So we dropped a few more minutes, and then we stalled the car when slamming on the brakes at an RC cos the board was facing the hedge (naught naught Niall), couldn't restart off the key so out I jumped and pushed...backward, facing a fast bend and oncoming cars !
Off we roared, met a roadworks on route on a red light dropping us another two minutes then another stall and push start, then we met a marshal who said he had a nice surprise for us at the end ( ), didn't know what that was all about then we met a car coming the opposite way on a narrow lane which meant another stop as we couldn't pass (and it was a bloody marshal's car ! ) we then stopped for Dave to pick up an RC board which had 'fallen over' and floored it through the last couple of sections to the end thinking we were probably not going to make the time limit but we did, by a bigger margin than we thought so all things considered for a pair of balloons it was an absolute triumph !

The only time we got lost was trying to find the pub at the end but eventually made it feeling asbsolutely bolloxed but interested to hear what surprise was in store for us. It turned out to be one of the big Cibbies off the front of the car which had jumped ship early in the rally and been picked up by a marshal, albeit a little worse for wear !

All in all a great event, well organised (thanks to Niall and his team, especially the marshals who all turned up and spent their Saturday night making this happen) and I'd recommend it to anyone who hasn't had a go before , perfectly do-able in a virtually standard road car and here's to the next time.

bloody hell pete, sounds like you had a good time for a 'racer' Seriously though it was good to see you and Dave enjoying yourselves.

[Pete]

Who said I enjoyed it ?!

[cookie1071]

Thanks for the positive feedback guys , full results for the 2 events are:-

Northumberland Borders Clubmans for Experts & Newcomers

Car Crew Details Fails Time O/A Class
Car 1 Steve Entwhistle / Bob Hargreaves (E) 1 13 2 2
Car 2 Pete Tyson / Neil Harrison (E) 0 3 1 1 Overall Winner
Car 3 Paul Metcalfe / Stuart Wright (E) 2 31 3 3
Car 4 Paul Gray / Marcus Pomfret (N) 3 19 4 1 1st Newcomer
Car 5 Barry Bradley / Stewart Lawrence (N) 3 25 5 2
Car 6 Stephen Reynolds / Stuart Lamb (N) DNS DNS
Car 7 Phillip Brent / Graham Robinson (N) 5 30 7 4
Car 8 Alan Forster / Phil Bateman (N) 4 30 6 3
Car 9 Sally Ann Hewitt / Mark Lewis (N) 17 44 8 5


Tynedale Novice Rally

Car Crew Details Fails Time Place
Car 10 Jim Drake / Beth Drake 1 15 5
Car 11 Sam Rawcliffe / Simon Rawcliffe 1 14 4
Car 12 James McAthey / Maxine Bradley 1 2 2
Car 13 Chloe Browning / David Fletcher 2 9 7
Car 14 David Archer / Peter Flanagan 3 24 9
Car 15 Peter Harrison / Neil Grey 3 9 8
Car 16 Eileen Horsfall / Neal Horsfall 0 6 1 - Winner Novice Event
Car 17 Peter Hayes / Elizabeth Hayes 5 31 10
Car 18 Chris Morrison / Josh Broughton 2 5 6
Car 19 Keith Proudfoot / Richard Jewers 1 9 3

Re pics., I think Stuart Watson got some shots from his marshalling positions near Ninebanks (TC10) and on the Vallum (PC10) and Stephen Reynolds used a camera belonging to Car 13 to good effect on the Ouston loop (PC3). I'm also waiting to hear from a couple of guys taking pics for us on the climb out of the Acton burn (just after TC6) and on the Vallum (TC20).

Cheers for now.

Niall.

[cookie1071]

Just emailed out a results breakdown to each of the crews and uploaded a section-by-section summary to the website here:

http://www.northumberlandbordersrally.c ... trants.htm

With all that's been going on, i havent had a chance to look at the results in any detail but they make interesting reading. Main droppers were, as we'd hoped , the Steel (TC13-14) and the Vallum (TC20-21). In fact, only Cars 12 (McAthey/Bradley) & 17 (Hayes/Hayes) cleaned the former section while only Car 2 (Tyson/Harrison) had a clean sheet for the latter. Other sections that saw time was lost by most were the little loop betwen Catton and Allendale (TC2-3) that had no less than three NAMs on it (sorry guys! ) and Sinderhope (TC5-TC6) where crews had to negotiate a series of tight bends, a ford and a PC . In terms of missed route checks, there was no obvious pattern for the Experts and Newcomers but most of the Novices failed to see an RC between Bearsbridge and Cart Bog (TC11-TC12). I'll have to check the Time Cards but presumbly this was the one in the yellow that loops off the main road near High Staward

Anyway, have a gander.
Niall.

[surfblue63]

Any pics from saturday night? Surfblue 63?

What with Marshalling duties I didn't get much time for pictures.

Got a nice one of the moon rising over the hill at TC10...



...and this fuzzy black and white shot of some old Mini just after PC10




Glad all the competitors enjoyed them selves, and weel done Niall on another successful rally.

[cookie1071]

Date for your diaries:

http://www.northumberlandbordersrally.c ... dscape.pdf