The Rockingham Stages 2004A joint promotion by Thame Motorsport Club and Middlesex County Automobile Club Report by Pete Wood – Chairman of the organising Committee
This project has been going on for 9 months, from the very first meeting at the venue to successful completion last Sunday. This was the very first use of the venue for Rallying, so we were “boldly going where no Club had gone before” to mis-quote captain Kirk. We have worked closely with Middlesex with this one and the partnership worked well – We put together the early planning actions, including Bank account (me), Web site and Rally UK site (which attracted over 2,000 hits) Andy Cadle and James Walters. This proved so successful that we had requests for over 120 sets of regs and filled the entry in 6 working days! In return we utilised MCAC’s strengths of stage design (Andy Greenhill) and paperwork (Tony Phillips) and their depth in numbers for set-up. As we came closer to the day other TMC members came to the fore – Duncan (Eddie) amassed the Marshals, the Gamages made a huge effort both in set-up and knock-down, James Walters was flat out as Entries Secretary and Brian Cammack was Deputy Stage Commander.
On the day we had help as marshals from Rob Slingerland and Liz, Nick Vine, both my sons helped with set-up, and James had persuaded both his and Duncan’s better halves to help sign-on. Many other Club members were there on the day, marshalling or servicing for the 7 TMC crews who had entered the event. Car 1+2 had a titanic battle for the honours. Car 1 was the Hyundai WRC (ex Freddy Loix) car of Simpson and 2 was the 6R4 of Stone. Stone led after SS1 by 3 seconds, by Simpson pulled 8 back on SS2 to retake the lead. They were all level after SS3, but Stone retook the lead on SS4 by 3s. So it went on and by SS7 Simpson lead by 5s, but Stone roared round SS8 and won by 3s – a great battle, and fantastic watching in the dark with flames from the exhaust and spotlights flashing around the bowl.
The Maugers had a traumatic time of it. They started with Simon at 3 in an Escort Cossy WRC kit car, Dick at 12 in the Cossy WRC blue car and Nick Mauger waiting in the reserves in the Astra 2.0 fresh back from Jersey. Then they discovered that the 3 car needed a full rebuild, so Simon withdrew. Dick then found in the week of the event that the blue car had blown a head gasket and needed a rebuild as well! Just as Dick withdrew Simon decided to double enter with Nick in the Astra! As I said, they kept James very busy! So we ended up as follows:
The Mauger 12/84 was doomed to suffer and the second pairing had a flat on SS1, with a compulsory wheel change dropped them 3 minutes. All looked good on SS2 but disaster on SS3 when wheel studs broke and the car lost a front wheel. Nick and Henry appeared again later but were out of the running. Nick said later that he thought this was the best SV he had ever done! Andy Corner/ James Greenwood had a trouble-free day after the recent traumas and were 15th fastest after SS1. They climbed steadily to 13th and 4th in class after SS4 and finished an excellent 11th overall and 3rd in class.
Paul Diamond/ Steve Cox. Mr consistent set 11th on SS1 then 10th to finish an excellent 9th overall and 2nd in class. Paul said he was unsure of the dark stages (failing eyesight!) but looked very fast to me! Richard Upton/ Stuart Parkins. 26th overall after SS1 and again steady up to 25/7 after SS4 and finished 18th overall 5th in class and won the best TMC award. Great looking flames out of the exhaust in the dark – awesome! Simon Clark/ Stuart Darvill. The first outing for the car, now with more power. Running throttle bodies and ECU, but still standard cams and head. It soon became apparent that they need more brakes as the fronts soon cooked, and Simon kept dialling in more rear, with obvious wagging effects! Simon also had flu, which slowed him a bit, but said he enjoyed the venue hugely. They climbed from 38th after SS1 to hold 32nd after SS4 and 8. Simon’s first rallying in the dark and I think he liked it – he wants to book the first entry for next year’s event! Julz Coulter/ Steve Bostock. The Kadett is recently returned from re-fettling and looked really fast on the stages. SS1 and suffered a mis-fire and lack of brakes; soon fixed in service and 41 o/all. SS2 and an oil pressure problem caused a 10s stop. They quickly climbed to 32/7 after SS4 and passed a car on every stage.
They had a stall on SS7 (and very nearly hit the pit wall), but were penalised 3 minutes for clocking in early which dropped them to 36th overall / 8th in class at the finish. Without the penalty they would have been 26th overall. Many thanks to the hard working Service crew of Macey, Housey, Bones and OZ. It’s great to finish an event with a car ready to start the next event! A great event and a huge thank you to all the many Thame members that made it all possible. A great deal of effort has gone in from many members and the reward is that we have run a SV for the first time in many years, and the venue is keen for us to do it again on 11th December 2005!
The sight from the top of the grandstand as 14 cars roared round with glowing disks and flaming exhausts will keep me going for a long time. Pete Wood Home | News / Info | Calendar | Event Reports | Photo Gallery | Rally Teams | Contacts | Links - Updated Sunday, 24 February, 2008 |
