Competitors' Round-up

John Blaber/Alan Jamieson
have whiled away the time before their next outing to the Trackrod in September by buying another 205 shell for a ridiculously low sum. This commits them to the hoppy little car for another season...

Christine Daniels
did the Bombalong Stages at Debden Airrield, coming First Renault out of four. She was also 50th overall and 15th out of 32 in class, finding the Debden stages very interesting and well organised. She contrasted it with the "typical" airfield event - the stages made little use of the main runway which can give the event away to the more powerful cars. She strongly recommends this event, which ran a full 70+ miles in 8 stages and was very well organised.

Colin Early
managed to snap a 360bhp driveshaft in half on Swinderby with his lightweight but torquey Darrian. The first stage had been tight and twisty, not suiting the car at all which never got out of 3rd. On 552 the stage was more open and he reached 5th, making the driveshaft failure all the more irritating. He was last seen taking the engine to a rolling road to check its power output.

Justin Northage
has sold his teddy bear and mortgaged his brother in a last-minute attempt to do the Manx. He was last seen heading over the Irish sea without either helmet or navigator.

Sue Orchard/Graham Morris
were going well on the Mewla over Eppynt until the wipers packed up on SSI2 and the engine went off, not pulling at all in the main rev band. Right up at the end of the rally, this dropped them back from 2nd in class to 3rd. For their next outing they are off to Huy to do the Condoz. At least, that's where they think it is based...

Richard Phillipson/Catherine Phillipson
had a successful outing on the Woodpecker, increasing their chances of a class win on the Welsh National Forestry championship with a third in class result. The Woodpecker was trying a two-day format for the first time, largely successfully, although it did involve hanging around a bit on Saturday. A bent left front strut before the event was soon balanced by damage to the right hand side as a very slippy downhill section in Radnor saw them slide over the middle of a 90 right. Fog on the Saturday meant that they improved their standing - Richard drives better when he can't see the dangers!

James Potter
had a twirly time in the wet on the Woodpecker stages. He also found the 90 right in Radnor (by this point the junction was apparently dogged with stranded and broken F2 cars), falling down a hole and doing a certain amount of damage as well as dropping about a minute. His next outing will probably be the Kent Forestry stages, once he has portapowered the front end out again.

Tony Straker's ...
Sprite engine went bang on a recent event. He was heard to remark "I might as well throw it away now" - apparently he has expected the engine to give up at any period over the last two years.

Mark Straker/Simon Catling
had lots of fun on Eppynt, climbing to 1st in class and 9th overall. They were still having fun when they went off backwards on a patch of gravel and it took over 10 minutes for spectators to get them back on. With an 18-mile stage still facing them and an unknown amount of damage done to the car, they decided it was prudent to call it a day.

For club members to get your news in here, talk to Richard Phillipson on club night, call on 0181 947 3800 or send an email to cdoherty@gartmore.com.