Round 3 – Sunday 10th June 2007.
After the rain of round 2 one thing we could be sure of was a dry day’s action.
Sixteen drivers signed on for round 3 and all listened intently as Baz explained the stages. Again he had come up with some challenging combinations and further proved just how versatile the track layout is.
Stages 1 and 4 included sections of the track run both clockwise and anti clockwise. Each driver would complete one lap and everyone seemed to be spending a bit longer than usual studying the stage diagrams. Any driver taking the wrong route would incur a maximum stage time of 5 minutes.
Stage 1 saw three drivers take a maximum and Stage 2 claimed another two victims. Craig Schofield finished stage 1 as he meant to go on, winning the stage by 2 seconds from Darren but the top 4 drivers in Class B were only separated by 4 seconds.
Roy Gravestock was on the class A pace from the start but had Alex Cannon right on his heels Roy beating Alex by under a second on stage 1 and Alex taking the same amount of time out of Roy on Stage 2. On stage 3 Roy pipped Alex by just under a second and the battle of youth against experience was on. After lunch Roy came out fighting and took 5.5 seconds from Alex. Roy just managed to keep his nose in front on the last two stages and eventually beat Alex by 10.5 seconds. It was great to see two drivers at completely stages in their rallying careers, in totally different cars battling so hard.
Congratulations to Roy on another class win, that’s 3 out of 3, but also very well done to Alex for putting up such a fight. Roy was the first to admit that it had been a hard fight. Behind these two Andrew Juric was out in the Sirion and quickly getting used to the modifications Baz had carried out on the rear beam, setting fastest time in Class A on Stage 3. Andrew eventually finished third in class a good solid result and something to build on now the Sirion appears to be able to keep all of its wheels on. Pedro Morris again set some very quick times but was one of the drivers who fell victim to a maximum time and finished 4th in class. Andrew Springett finished 5th in class and Polly 6th in class, both in RPM run Skodas.
In class B Jim Hedgecock, Craig and Darren in the Escorts continued to swap seconds, but Mike Bishop in the Peugeot 205 GTI was setting some stunning times and quietly moving up the leader board. Also Sam Schofield sharing his dads MkI was getting quicker beating his dad, Darren and Jim on stage 3. Stage 5 saw Darren Knights retire with and electrical fault and it was left to Craig and Mike to fight it out for top honours. With some very determined and flamboyant driving on the last two stages Craig emerged the winner beating Mike by just over 4 seconds. Jim came home 3rd a further 10 seconds down, Sam was 4th and Hazel 5th.
Alex Cannon was top junior with Polly finishing 2nd.
Other retirements were Ben and Richie Buckley in the Fiesta, Tom Cannon in the Mini and Steve Shields in the kit car.
The whole event went like clockwork and once all the broken cars were collected up everyone retired to the new club house for the final results and a beer.
It was a very good days sport and the competition and quality of driving all round is improving greatly.
One problem we did have was the lack of marshals. We do, like all clubs, rely on our marshals and can I ask again that you spread the word and try to recruit some new members who are happy to marshal. We are looking at ways to make this vital task more attractive to volunteers.
Look forward to seeing you all on July 8th.
Darren Knights
Club Chairman.
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