Autumn Stages

Oakington Airfield – 20^th October 2002

Report by Peter Wood, Photographs by Simon Clarke (www.sc-photography.co.uk)

Thame Motorsport entries:

	Car 9 Andy Corner & Eric West - Peugeot 205 1.6 - Class 2
	Car 51 Simon Clark & Alan West - Alfasud 1.5 - Class 2
	Car 53 Nick Vine & Dave Galbraith - Nova 1.4 - Class 1
	Car 55 Julz Coulter & Nick Mauger - Astra 1.6 - Class 2
	Car 56 Dave Kean & Rob S* - Skoda Felica - Class 1
	Car 61 James Walters & Duncan Gamage - Golf GTI 1.8 - Class 3

The day started overcast, with light rain before SS5, getting steadily heavier.

The interesting field included 2 Darrians, 3 Cossies, an MG Metro, a pair of EVO’s, a Subaru, Maxi Corsa, Megane Coupe, two Ibiza’s. Also a lot of oversized engined cars: 205 RWD 2ltr, Focus RWD 2.1, Micra 2.0, Sunbeam V8 4.2, Sierra V8 3.9, TR7V8 3.9, Lada (mi 16).

Some crews had problems right from the start. Subaru (car 33) went 100 metres and stopped for 5 minutes, a Seat Ibiza had to be pushed from start line back to the Service area and Sierra Cosworth (car 11) came back in with a huge dent in Co-driver door and wing.

Car 9 Andy Corner & Eric West
Andy needed to beat Brian Birkin to win the Oakington challenge overall. Also with the car leaving for the Jersey Rally on Wednesday a certain amount of restraint needed to be shown. SS1 and the Colways on the back were giving no grip in cold conditions leaving them 19th o/a - 3rd in class.

A clean run on SS2 moved them to 18th (3rd in class). SS3, caught Focus and lost a few secondss behind it but moved to 15th (2nd in class). SS4 fast again and now 13th. SS5, liked the wet and moved up to 11th. SS6, dropped back to 12th (3rd in class) after a spin.

SS7: Finished 11^th overall and 3^rd in class – enough to win the Oakington Challenge outright – well done!

Car 51 Simon Clark & Alan West
SS1 car only braking on three wheels, causing a BIG spin – found front disc had sheared from centre – soon fixed - 48th o/a (10th in class). SS2 clean run, much quicker, passed Golf (James Walters), moved up to 45th. SS3 Very fast now - 40th. SS4 and up to 37th. SS5 Full spin and stall in the wet, dropped to 39th. SS6 overtaken by Julz, who then spun on grass going in too fast to next corner, so went past him. He soon recovered and re-overtook them!, back to 37th. SS7 up to 35th (10th in class).

Finished 32^nd Overall and 10^th in class – well pleased!

Car 53 Nick Vine & Dave Galbraith
A new 1400 engine had been fitted to the Nova the week prior to the event and they had only put 7 miles on it. The oil and filter were changed 25 minutes before due start time!

Needed push-start at Arrival, but then ran Ok all day. SS1 Hit big straw bale chicane & broke Co-drivers ¼ light window sending glass everywhere! Lying 31st overall (2nd in class). SS2 Clutch smelly, rear shocker shot and held up by Mini, costing a few seconds but no change in position. SS3 Gearbox oil leak, clutch still stinky but moved up to 28th. SS4 Good fun, up to  27th (still 2nd in class). SS5 Big spin and stalled in wet. Then took a wrong route (Nick ignored Dave G!) and turned into wrong junction in buildings, dropping them to 30th and 3rd in class. Good runs over the final 2 wet & slippy stages improved their position.

Finished 27^th Overall and 3^rd in class on a tight new engine.

Car 55 Julz Coulter & Nick Mauger
SS1 car at 90 degrees to the route a lot of the time. they had 3 ½ spins on cold tyres, then missed the split and took a maximum. Thing got better on SS2. Nick Mauger said, "Need a change of underwear", as Julz gets going, passing a MK2 Escort.  They were lying 53rd overall and 12th in class.

Julz & Nick were getting quicker and on SS3 caught and passed car 54 (Saxo) to move up to 49th. Then on SS4 they went sideways into bales, denting drivers door and front 1/4 bumper.

Stage  5 brought more spins, in the wet conditions but moved them to 46th, still 12th in class. Another spin on SS6 lost a few seconds. They were chasing an MG Metro (2 ltr turbo) and passed Simon’s Alfa (car 51) twice! (i.e. passed, spun and un-passed, then re-passed again!) Now 42nd overall. They held position on SS7 and improved one more place on the final stage.

Finished 41^st overall and 12^th in class.

Car 58 Dave Kean & Rob S*
Rob was co-driving for Oxford MC's Dave Kean, in his standard Skoda with less than 60 BHP. They had a monster 360 degree spin on to the grass on SS1 (not flat through corner then Rob after all!) leaving them 47th overall an 6th in class.

SS2 was 50 seconds quicker moving them to 44th. They were going really well now and by SS5 had moved to 36th overall (5th in class).

Finished a very creditable 36^th overall and 5^th in class.

Car 61 James Walters
James and Duncan had swapped seats for this one. The Golf had cost £350 two years ago and had been bought to go sand racing, but a little TLC and three track day usage saw a very tidy car presented for its first Stage rally.

SS1 all OK, but changing down for corners far too early, so 44th overall, 19th in class. They were 30 seconds quicker on SS2. Then on SS3 the radiator  fell out! Much quicker, up a gear on most corners. Now 39th and 15th in class. No problems on SS4 then hit two cones on SS5, needed handbrake recovery "Lots of fun, slippery as hell!" they said. 37th (16th in class)

SS6 - a ‘Moment’ on long hairpin – tested the steering bump-stops – flat in 5^th through chicane on Perry track, up to 36th. SS7 tried hard to keep to the track in the wet and maintained 36th place. A good run on the final stage and they moved up more places. Finished an excellent 33^rd Overall, 14^th in class of 23 on the first event as driver. 

Must be a first as the 5½! Thame crews started and all finished in very difficult conditions. Well done lads. A great venue and the organisation was pretty good. The only complaints were that some very dodgy times were given on stage one and took over an hour to be corrected.

A special mention to Andy Corner and Erik West – they not only won their class on the five event series here at Oakington, they won the overall challenge! They put together a series of 1^st, 1^st, 1^st, 7^th (broken drive-shaft) and 3^rd in class.

Home | News / Info | Calendar | Event Reports | Photo Gallery | Rally Teams | Contacts | Links  - Updated Saturday, 10 April, 2010