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20th February - Riponian Stages Rally
Well Team PG finally get out to our first event of 2011 and we are out on junction 6 of College Moor on the Riponian. Lots of activity cars rolling, cars going missing, cars precariously balanced, cars down embankments; but that was all on the radio, we had nothing to do all day, but the rain held off - so I got the camera out for the second run through - see gallery for photos also see the full, un-edited shoot on the RubeculaMedia page
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3rd February - Lookout Stages
Warm and sunny day, which for early April it was a real cracker with just a few spots of the wet stuff mid afternoon. Not a large field only 47 entries but what was lacking in quantity was certainly compensated for by quality.
An uneventful day on our junction, a bit of bale and tyre nudging to rectify, but when, on a double loop, you have cars hurtling towards you every 15 seconds we had either to work fast or wait until one or two cars went through at once indicating a few extra seconds would be available.
The event was won by James Sparrow and Philip Pickard in their East Yorkshire Motorsport Subaru Imprezza one and a half minutes ahead of Alan and George Kirby also in an Imprezza, with the trusty Escort Mark 2 of Nige Keen and Kevin Franks coming in third a couple of minutes later - not bad for forty year old technology!
Other notables were Andrew Fawcet and Philip Dolan in the red Vauxhall Nova which was really flying as was Woodys Green Corsa - I would love to see those two in a drag race!
Our favourite all Lady team of Lorraine, Karen and Eful ( the mark 1 Escort) had a really good day, Lorraine says they will do even better when they get a new engine
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15th May - John Overend Memorial Rally
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Run on Melbourne Airfield, several of the team attended, some were on holiday and I was going away myself the following day so did not attend
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31st July - Tyneside Stages Rally
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0430 start, 120 mile drive, signing on for 0715 at Otterburn Camp & Ranges. We were on post 11 with Tyne 26 radio and were passed on SS1, SS2, SS5, SS6 and SS9.
With fantastic views of the Cheviot Hills, the day was largely overcast with a few spots of rain. Not that this could dampen our spirits, David and I were joined by Paul Simpson a work colleague of Davids.
There were 88 runners and riders but with a quite high attrition rate when SS9 was cancelled there was only 55 cars sill running, the virtual prize for the best paint job went to the RAF Subaru, car 60. Photos can be seen here
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10th September - Lincoln Green Stages
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On the road at 05:45 for the 65 mile drive to Blyton Park Driving Centre just North of Gainsborough in Lincolnshire. New Venue - New Event: The Lincoln Green Stages (single venue) rally organised by Lindholme Motor Sports Club. Only 42 runners but it was such a good event, at this well appointed new venue (real flushing toilets - ahhh what luxury!), I am sure that it will be better attended next year.The man from the Met had promised us a day of rain but this did not dampen our spirits nor did it dampen the track as we only had a few spots, the weather was windy though but it was shirt sleeve warm.
The rallying was fast and furious and Chris Platt was gifted a win in his Vauxhall Tigra when leader Nigel Mummery, in his Ford Focus WRC, missed a lap and was given a stage max!
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24th September - Rally Yorkshire
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Back to the woods and the Trackrod International Rally Yorkshire, we chose to join John Newlove and the North Humbersiders on Langdale, run as SS6 & SS9 (Internationals only) and a tad short of 12 miles. Our 4 marshals joined Humber 9 on double junction 11/14 along with Deputy stage commander Gareth.
Another shirt sleeve day right up to about 4:30, so we were all happy although no real action on our junction save having to reset a bale once, otherwise it was releasing the rescue crews into stage a couple of times as we also had Doctor, paramedics, rescue and recovery all with us on the mid-point of the stage. We had a good number of speccies come to see us and they were a jovial bunch (must be due to the Sun), so there was plenty of banter flying about.
Talking of flying all the drivers were going for it, in particular Steve Banner, Stefan Stouf, David Bogie, Jonny Greer and Elfyn Evans. All in all a really good days motorsport.
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6th November - MEM Malton Forest Rally
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November again, usually a busy month and as always it starts with the Malton Forest Rally sponsored by Mellors Elliott Motorsport who have been associated with Malton Motor Club for some 14 years. Unfortunately Ben Mellors was not in attendance this year as he was in China contesting that leg of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship.
The weather was kind (sunny with clear skies) but still required a fleece and a coat, a two coater as we say in Yorkshire, Team PG turned out 5 marshals and covered junctions 10a and 10b on Langdale and had almost nothing to do all day, save one car who had transmission failure twixt 10 and 10a.
We saw the navigator walking towards us to report in and David went to advise him that the nearest radio was in the opposite direction. David then went to 10 to report it to the radio marshals and then reported back to the crew that recovery would be made at the end of the stage, the driver was appreciative and after thanking David said that it was good for the crews to know that the marshals cared -
Thanks Philip, I am sure that Team PG speaks for all marshals when we say It IS nice to be appreciated and a toot on the horn on the last run through the stage really helps minimise our feeling of remoteness from the competitors.
Overall winners were Charlie Payne and Craig Thorley in the Focus WRC (formerly Henning Solbergs) some 58 seconds ahead of Ryan Champion and Jemma Bellingham in the ex Didier Auriol 555 Subaru Imprezza. The Historics was won by Tim Mason and Graham Wild in the Porche 911 by 6 seconds over Tim Pearcy and Neil Shanks in the Escort RS1800. 62 cars started the event and 49 finished
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3rd December - Roger Albert Clark and Kall Kwik Rallies
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Re-creating the heady days of the RAC Rallies of the 70's and 80's and named after one of the best known exponents of the rally drivers art - The Roger Albert Clark Rally has, in eight years, become the biggest rally of the year that is NOT a part of any major championship! Therein lies its appeal, every competitor is, of course, competitive but without the external pressures that championships provide! - the event is to the most part pure fun.
Run over 4 days the combined championships of the Roger Albert Clark Rally are The Roger Albert Clark Historic Rally, The Roger Albert Clark Open Championship, The DeLacy Night Rally, The Kall Kwik, Bradford Rally, Clubmans Rally and the Kershope Challenge.
Traditionally we turn out on Langdale on the Saturday, for the RAC and the Kall Kwik Rally, on the road at 0515 for a 0645 signing-on, we were on the High Langdale crossroads again (as we were on the Trackrod). The day was dry but cold with clear blue skies until noon but it was rather uneventful, the only bit of hard work we had to do was when one car rounded the corner and suffered a steering linkage failure pulling up 50 yards from the blind corner.
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