Thoughtless bunch these
youngsters. They ruined my planned introduction. There was an Englishman, a Welshman,
another Englishman, a Scot and a Northern Irishman in the top five places at
the end of yesterday's www.usedcarparts.co.uk Solway Coast Junior Rally. Somehow
'another Englishman' just doesn't fit the old joke opening line, eh.
Whatever, the event attracted a
terrific entry of 27 cars and crews, plus two Formula 1000 crews, from all over
the UK, and almost to a man (boy?) and girl, the event and venue was judged a
huge success. That was down to the fact that unlike the more usual airfield or
race circuit flat terrain the youngsters are used to, this one had hills and
crests. It also had Route Notes so that the teenagers knew what lay beyond
those crests and round those corners!
Now in his last year of Junior
rallying, Alex Vassallo, with Michael Gilbey, dominated proceedings, fastest
over each of the ten stages in their Citroen C1.
James Williams was second in his
Peugeot 107 having survived an overshoot on Stage 3 and 15 year old Zak Hughes
on his fifth ever rally was third in his Citroen C1. Only 7 seconds behind at
the finish was the Toyota Aygo of top Scot Michael Robertson with Eoghan Bogue
and Sam Bilham rounding off the top six.
The expected challenges from
William Creighton failed to materialise when a driveshaft broke, Dylan
O'Donnell's fuel pump failed, Brodie Balfour burst an engine mounting and Sebastian
Perez parked his Micra in the middle of a big field - having cut a new access gateway
through a barbed wire fence, which didn't do the paintwork any good!
As for the planned appearance of
Jim McRae in a 1300cc Micra, that didn't happen. Jim turned up bright eyed and
bushy tailed on Sunday morning, but the car was already on a trailer home.
Young Harry Marchbank explained why later, but was being rather economical with
the truth, when he described the incident as a "slow speed off into a ditch".
That part was true, but it was the bit leading up to it and afterwards that he
omitted to mention. Methinks he's spending too much time in the wrong company,
or he has been given the 'Rally Driver 's Bumper Book of Excuses' for his 17th
birthday.
More will be revealed in the main
report in the on-line Mag shortly ...
1, Alex Vassallo / Michael
Gilbey (Citroen C1) 53:19
2, James Williams / Kirsty
Riddick (Peugeot 107) 55:03
3, Zak Hughes / Chris Evans
(Citroen C1) 55:55
4, Michael Robertson / Phil
Sandham (Toyota Aygo) 56:02
5, Eoghan Bogue / John Henderson
(Nissan Micra) 56:26
6, Sam Bilham / Graham
Wild (Nissan Micra) 56:34
7, Philip White / Richard
Wardle (Nissan Micra) 56:45
8, Sandy Fairbairn / Callum
Atkinson (Nissan Micra) 56:52
9, Peter Bennett / Arthur
Kierans (Citroen C1) 57:08
10, Andy Struthers / Andrew
Falconer (Nissan Micra) 57:56
