Tyre trouble scuppers Bedale pair’s chances (From Darlington and Stockton Times)

Tyre trouble scuppers Bedale pair’s chances

11:05am Friday 3rd July 2009

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LAST weekend saw the Tyneside Stages rally running over the famous Otterburn military ranges in Northumberland, and the 50 crews who entered included a number of local competitors who were contesting the 70 miles of demanding stages.

Tommi Graham and Mike Bailey, from Bedale, had been having a good run until a new set of tyres that were fitted became faulty, causing them to slow down and dropping them to tenth overall at the finish.

Alistair Hutchinson, of Eggleston, in the Northern Energy supported LPG Renault Clio, had a last-minute change of co-driver to Giles Dykes, of Barnard Castle. They had been going well on the first stage, until a patch of fog made them miss their braking for a corner which resulted in the car leaving the road and rolling several times.

Mark Thompson, from Evenwood, and his nephew Matt, from Ingleton, were out in their Peugeot 206, supported by Chameleon and ALM Products.

They had a steady run through stage one with 16-year-old Matt getting used to reading pace notes and this steady run left them in 27th overall.

The next two stages went well and they had climbed up to 20th overall, but over the last four stages the crew upped their game to finish 16th overall and fourth in class.

For the second event in succession, County Durham rally driver Chris Anderson’s hopes of a good result were thwarted when the mechanical gremlins struck on the opening stage of the event.

After the disappointment of the last stage problems which robbed him of a potential top ten finish on the previous Weeton Stages Rally, Anderson was hoping for a return to form, but on the very first stage, he suffered problems with the power steering which hindered his progress, but luckily for him, Durham co-driver Chris Thirling had a spare part in his kit bag and the problem was fixed at the end of the stage.

But that is where his luck ended, as any hopes he had of progressing on his debut were dashed when gearbox problems stopped the MSR Motorsport- prepared Ford Puma S1600 on the day’s second stage of the Alnwick and DMC and BDMC event – which comprised a qualifying round of the AS Performance North of England Tarmacadam Rally Championship.

Speaking afterwards, 17- year-old Anderson, from Butterknowle, said: “I’m very disappointed as I didn’t get a proper run but what little bit of experience I did get in using pacenotes was invaluable and they were working very well.

“We suffered a problem with the car on the first stage and we thought we had done well to fix it, but then it started losing power and making funny noises on SS2, so rather than just drive it until it broke, we parked it up, which my team told me was the most sensible thing to do. ”

The next event for Anderson is the two-day Mercury Stages Rally to be held at Ingliston, Scotland, over the weekend of Saturday and Sunday, July 25-26.

FOLLOWING on from an accident at this year’s Isle of Man TT Races, the region’s sidecar racing fraternity is hosting a charity fundraising evening for Manxman Nicky Crowe and his passenger Mark Cox, who were very seriously injured when they crashed near Ballaugh on the opening lap of the second race.

North Yorkshire enthusiast Dave Hudspeth, who has carpet shops in Catterick and Leyburn, is a personal friend and sponsor of the five-times winners as well as running his own team and, along with a number of friends, has organised a fundraising night to be held at The Golden Lion in Northallerton on Friday, August 21.

Many of the top sidecar racers in the country will be in attendance, including three times World Champion Tim Reeves and 14 times TT winner Dave Molyneux, as well as a number of other starts from the British Superbike Championship.

Tickets cost £10 and raffle and auction lots are required.

For further information, call Eve Vanner on 07518 021137.

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