Successful Scottish for Rally2Raise team

 

The Rally2Raise team of Aberdeen’s Rachel Clark and Brampton’s Caroline Lodge enjoyed a successful Scottish rally last weekend when they finished second in class with driver Rachel also picking up the trophy for the best lady driver.

After a disappointing Granite City rally in April the team’s aim for the Scottish was to get to the finish in their E.Watson & Son, Pirelli, AW Motorsport, McPherson Document Solutions, Charles Derby Ecosse and San Juan Services-supported Nissan Micra 1300.

The event started with a pair of stages near the village of Ae. Both of these went well  although with Rachel recovering from glandular fever she was suffering at the end of the 14 mile-long second stage.

“I was pleased with the first two stages, it was the first time Caroline and I have competed together but we quickly gelled and had a troublefree run,” said Rachel.  “The second stage left me worn out, the glandular fever totally zapped my energy and I’m not back to full health yet so doing a 14 mile stage in a very hot rally car wasn’t ideal but we made it through and it was great to find we were third in class going into service.”

After the service halt the team faced three more stages. The first was a short blast through Heathhall where the Micra entertained the huge crowd of spectators watching at the watersplash. The event ended with two stages near Gatehouse of Fleet which the team completed with no problems and they headed back to the finish in Dumfries town centre in second in class.

“I’m delighted with the result and winning a trophy that has previously been won by the likes of Louise Aitken-Walker just topped off what was a fantastic weekend. I’d like to dedicate the trophy to Cath Simpson who we lost recently, a true rally enthusiast that will be greatly missed by many including me and the team.”

“Thanks to Caroline for a spot-on job with the notes and keeping me alive with drinks and sweets all day, Colin and Craig Wallace for transporting the car to and from the event, Clark Motorsport for servicing, Paul at Motorsport Mugs for sorting our last minute graphics request and all our sponsors for their support.”

The Rally2Raise team will be back in action on the Speyside Stages in early August. Please visit www.rally2raise.co.uk or www.facebook.com/rally2raise for more information.

Final stage disaster ends brilliant Scottish rally drive by Rodgers

Burton upon Stather’s Tim Rodgers contested his first gravel rally for three years last weekend on the Scottish Challenge event and he was heading for a second place finish when he went off the road avoiding another crew’s accident on the final stage.

Rodgers and co-driver Stefan Arndt were using a Rally4Real.com Ford Fiesta ST and after being on the pace on the tarmac of the Jim Clark Challenge rally they were aiming to be the fastest Fiesta crew in the forests of Dumfries and Galloway.

The event started with two stages in the forests around Ae village before a blast around the popular spectator stage in Heathhall. Despite bending the rear beam in Ae West Rodgers lay in 6^th place. Rodgers moved up to fifth after stage four and then a stunning time in the second run of Ae West, where he was quicker than all the other crews, saw him up into third.

“We started off not pushing too hard as I’ve not competed on gravel for a long time,” said Rodgers. “Even so we were beating all the other Group N Fiesta crews and we had a decent position overall. The bent beam meant I had to get used to the car handling slightly differently but it didn’t slow us much. For the second run of Ae I decided to have a real go and it paid off, we were three seconds faster than the event leader and almost 30 seconds quicker than the nearest Fiesta crew.”

The rally moved west for the final two stages in Clatteringshaws forest. Rodgers headed the timesheets again in stage 7, Shaw Hill, and moved into second place overall. He kept up his charge in the final Loch Grannoch stage and it was all going perfectly until a mile from the end when he came round a slight corner at the end of a long straight to find another car partially blocking the road after crashing. Rodgers managed to avoid hitting the car but in doing so his own car went in a ditch at the side of the road and hit some logs. With the car stuck he had no choice but to wait to be recovered and his likely podium finish was gone.

“I’m totally devastated. The team have worked so hard to get us to the event and it looked like we were going to get a second place finish which would’ve been fantastic. It’s particularly gutting that we went out through no fault of our own, there was no time to slow down enough so it was either hit the stricken car or avoid it and land in the ditch and hit the logs, there was nothing else we could do.”

“Thanks to Stefan for a great job on the notes and to Becky Kirvan for the loan of her car. Thanks also to my family for helping me do the rally.”

Rodgers has no definite plans for further events but an entry for his home event, the Trackrod Challenge rally, is possible if he can find sufficient funding.

 

Rally2Raise team back in action on Scottish rally

 

The all-female Rally2Raise charity motorsport team will be in action next weekend when they contest the Dumfries-based RSAC Scottish rally in their E.Watson and Son, Pirelli, AW Motorsport, McPherson Document Solutions, San Juan Services and Charles Derby Ecosse-supported Nissan Micra.

 

The team, led by driver Rachel Clark from Blackburn in Aberdeenshire, are contesting selected rounds of the Scottish Rally Championship as part of their project to raise funds for the Nystagmus Network and to raise awareness of the Bottle Stop campaign.

 

Joining Rachel in the car will be co-driver Caroline Lodge from Brampton in Cumbria as usual co-driver Katherine Begg has had to withdraw due to illness.

 

“I’m really looking forward to the Scottish rally,” said Rachel. “The event uses some classic forest stages such as Ae and there’s also the hugely popular spectator stage at Heathhall, it’s sure to be a great event.”

 

“The car has been fixed after we bent a beam clipping a bridge on the Granite City rally in April so we’re all set for the start. We’ll be running somewhere near the back of the rally as our car is only a 1300cc Micra but we will be trying hard though and aiming to beat some of the bigger-engined entries.”

 

The rally starts from Dumfries town centre on Saturday 29^th June with the crews competing in the local forests as well as the Heathhall spectator stage. More information on Rally2Raise can be found at www.rally2raise.co.uk

 

Rodgers returns for Scottish Challenge rally

 

After a successful comeback event on the recent Jim Clark Challenge rally Burton upon Stather driver Tim Rodgers will contest the Scottish Challenge rally next weekend in his Rally4Real.com Ford Fiesta ST.

Rodgers finished 7^th overall on the Jim Clark and was only 3 seconds away from being the leading Fiesta driver on what was his first event for three years. With the Scottish Challenge rally being on the forest gravel stages he is more familiar with rather than the tarmac of the Jim Clark Rodgers has high hopes for another good result. He will once again have Stefan Arndt in the co-driver’s seat.

“I was happy with our performance on the Jim Clark rally, I think had we done all of the stages we would’ve been the quickest Fiesta crew but sadly over half of the competitive mileage was cancelled by the rally organisers due to various incidents. Not being able to do the full rally was a bit of a let down so I decided we’d try and get the budget together to have a run on the Scottish.”

“I’m more used to gravel stages although it’s three years since I did a gravel event. I am confident that we’ll be on the pace though. The Scottish route looks excellent with some classic rallying territory such as Ae forest, it’s going to be a tough event but hopefully a rewarding one.”

The rally has a ceremonial start on the evening of Friday 28^th June before 61 competitive stage miles on Saturday 29^th June.

Points vital for Sykes on Scottish Challenge rally

 

Stourbridge’s Richard Sykes will contest the Scottish Challenge rally next weekend and, after a disappointing finish on his last event, a good points haul is vital for his hopes of defending his BRC Challenge championship title.

Sykes was leading at the overnight halt of the last Challenge round, the Jim Clark Challenge rally, but an accident on the first stage of the second day dropped him down the leaderboard. With several stages cancelled by the organisers he was denied the opportunity to fight his way back up the results and ended up in 9^th place overall in his Bathams Brewery, G I Sykes Ltd, Silverstone Tyres and Boroughbridge Marina-supported Citroën C2 R2 Max.

“The Scottish is a really important event for us,” said Sykes. “The Jim Clark result meant we dropped to third in the championship so we really need a very strong performance on the Scottish to maintain our hopes of retaining the BRC Challenge crown.”

“I pushed too hard on the Jim Clark trying to beat local driver Ross Hunter and that resulted in us going through a hedge at 70mph as can be seen on You Tube. Experience has taught me that after an accident like that it’s best to try and repair the car rather than just drive off as quickly as possible so that’s what we did. We got a stage maximum but we were still in the event and salvaged 9^th and second in class.”

“I think I’m probably the only championship driver to have done the Scottish before as it has not been a BRC Challenge round previously. I did it in 2003 though so I don’t think it will give me any advantage. My co-driver Simon Taylor also has some experience of the event.”

“I’m looking forward to being back on the gravel stages again and will set off confident that we can do well. Our times this year have proved we still have the pace to win events but we’ll have to drive to preserve the car also as the Scottish stages can be rough.”

The rally is based in Dumfries and the crews will tackle around 60 miles of stages in the local forests as well as the very popular Heathhall spectator stage.