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MOTOR SPORT
The North West Stages Rally is a very gruelling rally, on both crews and service crews, writes WHEELSPIN.
It lasts over two days and consists of 28 stages - four on Friday Night and 24 on the Saturday - run in and around Blackpool with some of the Stages even run along the Blackpool seafront.
West Cumbria Motorsport Club had five crews out on this gruelling even, all with mixed reactions and tales to tell of the rally.
The Friday saw a very nice sunny day greet the competitors with all crews making it through, but not without incident.
First to retire was Ian Wozencroft who was navigating in a Evo 6. He made it to Saturday only to retire on SS9 with Diff problems.
Mitch McGrath from Frizington and Trevor Waldron from Whitehaven in the Pug 205 Rallye got as far as the finish boards on SS1 and then went and wiped them out going straight over them.
Their rally was dogged by a misfire all Friday but they did nearly make it to the finish on Saturday and after numerous visits to the scenery, one being a Trailer Axle, luckily for them it still had it's tyres on, and when they hit a Water Barrel the flying glass injured their navigator, but they battled on and were forced to retire on SS24 with Gearbox problems.
The husband and wife pairing of Keith and Jackie Richardson from Frizington made an excellent start in their Kelton Electrical Sponsored Escort Cozzy. They set top 15 times on the first three stages on Friday with a 12th fastest on the 2nd stage only to be robbed of a good finish when the Cozzy lost all its belts on the last stage.
This put them way down the field for the Saturday start, but al least they were still in it. They set some good fast times on the Saturday and were steadily working their way back up the field until SS11, when a front wheel bearing went on the Cozzy forcing them to retire.
The Kelton Electrical and Blackbeck Inn sponsored Vauxhall Nova SR of Stephen Bethwaite from Workington and Ann Forster from Frizington had an excellent rally and battled for the two days with some really quick cars and were never out of the top three in their Class over the two days.
With nothing more than the usual rallying problems of fog and damp conditions on Saturday, they went on to bring the Nova SR home an excellent 24th O/A but more importantly they won their Class by 30 seconds,
The highest placed crew from West Cumbria Motorsport Club was the other husband and wife pairing of Nick and Heather Stamper from Silloth in a Scooby. They finished just 22 seconds in front of Bethwaite and Forster in 23rd O/A.
This weekend will see the Haven Tyre Centre sponsored Scooby of Peter Thornton from Whitehaven taking part in the Ripponian Stages Rally. He is away at car 24.
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