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MOTOR SPORT
 Talk about trial by fire - The Greystoke stages ran at the week-end with an entry of 56 cars and with only 41 finishers that in itself shows it wasn't an easy day for the organizers, writes WHEELSPIN.
The first stage saw the first incidents to test the organizers when car 1 with Steve Patch went out of the rally when his prop shaft broke on his Evo 9. This then went up and punctured his fuel tank, resulting in a small fire.
Then there was a big off (crash) when a MK 2 Escort went over the flying finish upside down, and remember this is West Cumbria Motor Sport Club’s first attempt at a Forest event. The next stage saw a few cars end up in ditches, which again tested the organizers but they stood up to the challenge.
It was really stage three which really provided the big tests, and it was again the flying finish that caused one of the problems when a Scooby, driven by one of our own Club members, David Jackson went over the flying finish upside down.
It resulted in the navigator Nicola Smith being taken to Penrith Hospital for a check-up, and it was nice to see her back in the service park later in the day apparently none the worse for her adventure.
They had just got that cleaned up when a pug went off and was then hit by another car totally blocking the stage, which gave the organizers no choice but to cancel stages three and four on safety grounds.
It did give them time to regroup and sort out a plan of attack for the afternoon stages.
Thankfully things sort of quieted down in the afternoon, with no major problems as in the morning stages, so they could relax just a little bit and enjoy the day.
With stages three and four being cancelled the organizers thought it was only fair to try and give the remaining entries an extra stage to make up the mileage that was lost in the morning.
So a quick run into Penrith to make some extra paperwork and an extra stage was organized which went without any real incidents. I just saw a car off at the finish but everyone got out ok.
Only two club members didn't finish the rally - David Jackson/Nicola Smith was one and Willie Jarman/Mark Fisher were the other, they blew the dif on the Cozy on SS3, the others all finished.
First home was navigator Richard Millener in fourth O/A while Alex Benn was four places behind him in eighth despite doing the last three stages with broken suspension.
The husband and wife pairing of Keith and Jacqueline Richardson received the Highest WCMC placed crew finishers in 23rd O/A.
In 26th O/A were Kevin Charles/ Anthony Jevons while Peter Thornton had a good rally after being out for two years and finished in 28th O/A.
He was lying in the top ten but a ride into the brush saw him get stuck losing him two or three minutes.
Then there was four crews all together - 33rd Mitch McGrath driving his pug and with only a couple of spins he had a good day; the ever reliable Green Mk1 of David Mitchinson/Ryan Winthrop made it to the end despite the car dancing all over the stages due to the rear suspension being broke, but that makes it more fun so we might leave it in. They came home 34th and are pictured in action at the top of the column.
Chris Breen/ Simon Graham were 35th; the father son duo of Reg and Andrew Irving were 26th having had a trouble free day and at 37th was Stephen Palmer.
West Cumbria Motorsport Club put on an excellent event despite all the incidents and as a competitor on the day I would like to thank everyone who was involved.
There are too many people to mention as everyone played their part in putting this together, and also I would like to thank all the marshal's who gave up their Sunday to come along and help run the event. Who says Rallying is dead?
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