BISHOP Auckland rally driver Tristan Pye was in action during last Sunday’s TJS Self Drive Alan Healy Memorial Stages Rally at Cadwell Park and came away with a superb second place.

With one of the strongest entries of the season which comprised many of the UK’s top drivers contained within the 90-strong entry, the annual Borders Motor Club event got under way just as a heavy rain shower hit the Lincolnshire venue. However, it proved no problem to Pye and his Channel island co-driver Stewart Merry in the Yokohama-shod JPM Subaru Impreza who set fastest time.

SS2 was suspended following an accident involving top seed David Thompson who rolled his Subaru meaning notional times were awarded to crews and dropped Pye some valuable time but with a series of top ten times, he continued to pressurise the leaders, ending the day with a fine runner-up position, behind the Skoda Fabia WRC of Lancastrian John Stone.

Fellow County Durham crew Pete Gibson and Josh Davison were also on top form and brought their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6 home in tenth overall claiming seventh in class for good measure.

Northallerton pair Graeme Bell and Russ Radford had a good run over the 45 stage miles of the race track and perimeter roads in their Ford RS2500 Mk2 to claim 13th overall and third in class with Barningham driver Paul Alsop, accompanied by brother Chris from Middleton Tyas finishing 23rd overall and fifth in class in their Chrysler Sunbeam.

Northallerton duo Larry Carter and Linda Ashman finished 52nd overall and fifth in class in their Peugeot 206 with Sunderland codriver Phil Chicken guiding Yorkshireman Rob Meynell to 59th overall and fifth in class in their Austin Mini Clubman.

TRACKROD Motor Club’s annual Lookout Stages Rally also took place last Sunday with variable conditions prevailing at Melbourne airfield, near York, where seven of eight regional crews came home with silverware.

Leading the way in a superb sixth place overall was the Guisborough crew of Dave Hornbrook and Nick Coleman in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6 who claimed third in class whilst Northallerton’s Andrew and Brian Smith brought their 2.0 litre Ford Escort home to a class win and 12th overall.

Also claiming a class win despite gearbox problems was the Leeming crew of Joe Cunningham and Dan Kennedy in their Peugeot 106 who finished 13th overall with the VW Polo of Whitby pair Kevin Hullah and Chris Harding ending up 19th overall and third in class.

Three places further back was Saltburn driver Alan Hick and codriver Phil Hewson who missed out on the trophies by finishing sixth in class in their Peugeot 206 but in 24th overall and claiming a class win was Mike Herrington from Thirkleby accompanied by Hartlepool’s Rachel Heel in their 2.1 litre Ford Escort.

Billingham driver Michael Thornton and co-driver Mike Scrimgour from Guisborough finished 27th overall and second in class in their Ford Mexico whereas Normanby’s Rob Burke and co driver Peter Littlefield claimed 36th overall and second in class in their Ford Escort.

THE SG Petch Tour of Hamsterley Rally has received a large entry with a wide range of cars and top drivers for the event which takes place on Saturday, April 26.

The event starts and finishes at the Locomotion National Railway Museum, at Shildon, which will also be the venue for scutineering, from 2pm to 7pm on the Friday. The following day will see cars flagged away from 8.45am and they will return to the museum twice during the day for service halts before the winners will be acclaimed at the ceremonial finish.

The organisers are looking for marshals to help run the event and should contact Chief Marshal Ann Bentley at hamstermarshal@gmail.com.

For those with little or no experience, there will be a training session held at The Three Tuns Inn at Eggleston next Thursday. For more details, contact Joe Hutchinson at Joehutchie@hotmail.co.uk Further details including spectator information can be found at tourofhamsterley.co.uk

NORTHALLERTON motorcycle racer Jonathan Nell was in action at the Three Sisters track at Wigan last weekend with a series of solid results.

Having moved up from the classic class after selling his trusty 350cc Honda, Nell was debuting the Red Rooster Racing Honda CBR600 in the Steel Frame and Pre Injection classes.

With very difficult track conditions due to constant rain showers in between the wind drying the surface, Nell qualified fifth in the Pre Injection class before claiming fifth in the first pre injection race on full wet tyres in wet conditions but in race two, he could only manage seventh as the track dried and the wet tyres deteriorated.

Having qualified seventh in the Steel Frame class, the opening race saw a patchy wet and dry track but the team made a call to go out on a wet front and a dry rear tyre which worked well and resulted in him getting a fourth place finish. However, race two was a gamble with a light shower five minutes before the start but the team made another good call and Nell ran a full dry set up and as the track dried to cross the line in a brilliant second place.