CARBASE SOMERSET STAGES

Neil Weaver & Nick Thornton

The 4th Round of the 2006 Silverstone Tyres BTRDA Rally Series took place at the weekend in North Somerset, with 12 Special Stages in the forests of Exmoor National Park.

Over 150 cars took part in the Carbase Somerset Stages, with a third of them not reaching the finish line due mainly to mechanical problems.

The event was won for the 6th consecutive time by Lyonshall’s Andrew Burton in his unique hybrid Peugeot Cosworth.

Ludlow Castle Motor Club was well represented, with nine crews taking part.

Neil Weaver, co-driven by Nick Thornton, was the first LCMC member to start the event and they finished 28th O/A and over 3 minutes ahead of their nearest Class rivals.

They were competing in the 1400 section of the rally and once again easily won the category which means they extend their lead in this Championship and also Class B9.

Having won the first four Rounds of the Championship, all Neil needs to do is win another two events and he will claim the 2006 Championship title. With another six Rounds to go this should prove an easy task for Neil.

The highest placed LCMC members were Nigel Griffiths and Andrew Owens who brought the Subaru Impreza home in 8th place O/A.

After their non-finish on the previous Round, the North Humberside Rally, Championship contenders Roger Chilman Jnr and Andrew Sankey were happy to finish 13th O/A in the Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 6.

This result takes them up into second place in the Championship and leaders in Class B13.

Simon Rogers finished a couple of seconds behind Roger and Andrew in 14th place O/A in his Ford Escort Cosworth.

Robert Dalziel finished 39th O/A in his Subaru Impreza.

Adrian Allen and Mike Wilding finished 52nd O/A in the Opel Manta.

The other LCMC crews competing all retired from the event due to mechanical problems.

Gordon Davies’s retired on the very first Stage of the day when his Opel Manta suffered fuel pump problems and then the clutch failed.

Clutch failure also brought the Ford Escort RS of Henri Grehan and Chris Ridge to the end of its Rally on the 3rd Stage.

In spite of their service crew working into the early hours of Friday morning to prepare the TNT Tyres (Ludlow) Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 5, Shaun Gardener and Ben Innes were forced to withdraw from the event on Special Stage 5 with broken drive shafts.

The next event in the Championship is the South Wales based Red Dragon Rally in May.

Shaun Gardener & Ben Innes

REPORT by KEITH GLUYAS

PHOTOS by RALLY ACTION PHOTOGRAPHY

VIDEO & QUIZ SOCIAL EVENING

Ludlow Castle Motor Club are holding a social evening on Wednesday April 26th at The Salwey Arms, Woofferton, Ludlow, starting at 8.30 pm.

All are welcome, whether you're a member or not.

There is a £1 admission charge which includes chip butties.

For more information please contact Keith on 01584 781265

DENBIGHSHIRE ASTRA STAGES RALLY

Llangollen was the start and finish of the Denbighshire Astra Stages Rally at the weekend.

The event was organised by the Vauxhall Motoring Group ( Wirral ) Club and it took place mainly in the North Wales Clocaenog forest complex.

The Astra stages was really four rallies in one, made up of Modern, Historic, Club and Astra Stars.

Ludlow Castle Motor was well represented at the event with members taking part in the Modern and Club sections, producing some excellent results.

The highest placed LCMC members were Nigel Griffiths and Andrew Sankey who finished 4th O/A in the Subaru Impeza.

James Wozencroft brought his Suzuki Ignis Super 1600 home in an 9th O/A and winning his class by an amazing 11 minutes.

In the Club section of the event Joe Price finished 6th O/A and 1st in Class in the Ford Escort.

Chris Ridge, co-driving in a Subaru Impreza, finished 9th O/A and 2nd in class.

Chris’s brothers, Martin and Simon, produced a fine performance in their Vauxhall Nova which crossed the finish line 12th O/A. They won their class by over four minutes, an excellent result.

REPORT by KEITH GLUYAS

HORIBA D’ISIS STAGES RALLY 2006

Richard Davies & Gareth Wilcox

The Horiba D’Isis Stages Rally was organised by Quinton Motor Club at the weekend and attracted 72 entries, of which 54 managed to cross the finish line.

The event took place at MIRA near Nuneaton, Warwickshire, the Motor Industry testing ground, where competitors faced 55 miles of action over eight special tarmac stages throughout the day.

The event was won once again by Tom Morris and Neil Chambers who led from start to finish in their MG Metro 6R4.

Good results were achieved by the only two crews from Ludlow Castle Motor Club who competed in the event.

Gordon Davies’s Opel Manta suffered from fuel pump problems which caused him to lose two minutes on one stage, but in spite of this he still managed to finish 17th O/A.

The other LCMC crew competing were registered contenders in the 2006 Jam Motorsport Heart of England Rally Championship, of which this Rally was the second Round.

Richard Davies and Gareth Wilcox finished 9 seconds in front of Gordon, bringing the Ford Escort Mark 2 across the finish line in 16th place O/A.

This result should mean that Richard and Gareth maintain their Class lead in the championship.

The Club’s planned event at Ditton Priors on Sunday 9th April has been postponed to
July, exact date to be announced shortly.

REPORT by KEITH GLUYAS
PHOTOS by RALLY ACTION PHOTOGRAPHY

Gordon Davies