North West Stages (Blackpool) - 3-4 Feb 12

Bird Claims Moral Victory On North West Stages

Posted: February 9, 2012 11:07 AM

This weekend's Legend Fires North West Stages Rally saw Penrith rally driver Paul Bird produce one of the best drives of his career when he stormed back from 81st overall last night to clinch a sensational fifth place overall at this evening's finish in Blackpool.

Driving the Fuchs Titan, Rapid Solicitors and Kick Energy-backed FBP Ford Focus WRC07, Bird and Scottish co driver Kirsty Riddick were leading after two stages last night when a timing anomaly going into SS3 saw them incur six minutes of road penalties which relegated them to virtually last place.

Despite the handicap, Bird, who was making his debut on the popular event, decided to continue and to use the remaining 18 stages for vital testing prior to his assault on the MSA Asphalt Rally Championship and despite his lack of knowledge of the stages, set about climbing the leaderboard.

With early ice making conditions treacherous, the British Superbike and MotoGP team boss had clawed his way up to 41st after the first loop this morning but it was after the first service halt that he really started to motor. Fastest time on four of the next six stages saw him up to an amazing 12th overall and going into the afternoon stages, he was planning on continuing his charge.

And that is exactly what he did as on the final eight stages, he set fastest time on six of them and was second and third fastest on the other two meaning that as he arrived back at the finish; he'd made it up to an amazing fifth overall courtesy of those 13 fastest stage times. If fact, the 2005 National Champion was only outside the top three times on two out of the 22 stages.

Checking the results sheet at the end didn't make good reading for the Cumbrian as it emerged that without the penalty, he would have won the event by over a minute...

"These things happen in rallying and the time penalty was unfortunate but rather than parking the car up last night, we thought we'd give it a go and see how far up the leaderboard we could get. I thought that if I pushed, I might make it into the top ten but fifth is fantastic, and we only missed out on fourth by two seconds! I'm happy enough seeing as though I'd never seen these stages before so if anything it's a moral victory and we got valuable testing time in the car. It's onwards and upwards from now on and whilst I'm disappointed not to win, you've got to admit it, it was some drive!"

Bird plans a rare outing on gravel next with his local Malcolm Wilson Rally on March 3rd before the first of the MSA Asphalt Rally Championship rounds, the Tour of Epynt the week after.

Off-Road Excursion Proves Costly For Swift

Posted: February 9, 2012 11:01 AM

Darlington rally driver Paul Swift claimed a deserved 15th overall and third in class on this weekend's Legend Fires North West Stages Rally despite a time-consuming off-road excursion which cost him over two minutes.

Along with Welsh co-driver Stuart Powell, the pair were contesting the popular two-day Blackpool-based event in their 2.0 litre Ford Escort Mk2 RS1800 and after a steady run round the opening pair of stages last night, they upped the pace in front of a big crowd on Blackpool Promenade to set a pair of top five times and hold 14th overall overnight.

With slippery conditions set to dominate throughout today, the day didn't get off to a good start when they got stuck behind a car which had spun on a hairpin on the first stage dropping 30 seconds in the process as it was blocking the stage temporarily.

Undeterred, the seven-times British champion and professional precision and stunt driver charged back into contention and by the halfway point, had moved up to ninth overall and held the class lead going into the afternoon stages.

All was going well and Swift was holding sway inside the top ten, when on the 16th stage in Lytham Hall, the route took the crews down a muddy track and with very little grip, the Escort slid off the road and down a bank, dropping two valuable minutes as the marshals eventually extracted them.

Dropping to 17th overall as a result and losing the class lead, it was a damage limitation exercise from thereon in and with a string of top 20 times on the remaining stages, Swift clawed his way back to 15th overall and third in class after the 22 stages, consolidating his lead in the 2012 AS Performance North of England Tarmacadam Championship in the process.

Paul commented:
"Firstly, I have to thank the marshals who pushed us out of the ditch and up the bank when we went off as without their help, we would have been out of the rally so I'll be buying them a couple of beers tonight if I see them. We were on slick tyres and it was sheer mud through some trees and that's how we ended up going off. It was frustrating to drop time earlier in the day also when we were wedged behind a stricken car on a hairpin so those two problems cost us the chance of a better result but I'm still happy enough with 15th overall and third in class considering the level of competition. Stuart has won this event before and did a great job for me and it was vital time together before the first round of the MSA Asphalt Rally Championship in a month's time."

Indeed Swift's next event is Tour of Epynt which takes place on Sunday March 11th and comprises the opening round of the 2012 MSA Asphalt Rally Championship.

Results

Posted: February 9, 2012 10:57 AM

1 Tony Bardy/Tony Walker (Nissan Sunny GTI-R) 1:27:22
2 John Stone/Lee Carter (Skoda Fabia WRC) 1:28:51
3 Kevin Procter/Dave Bellerby (Subaru Impreza WRC) 1:31:15
4 Mark Roberts/Gareth Twiss (Ford Escort RS Cosworth) 1:32:18
5 Paul Bird/Kirsty Riddick (Ford Focus WRC) 1:32:20
6 Alex Taylor/Martyn Taylor (Subaru Forester) 1:33:19
7 Simon Bowen/Richard Robinson (Subaru Impreza) 1:33:21
8 Russell Morgan/Martin Kenyon (Ford Escort MK1) 1:33:30
9 Pete Gibson/Josh Davison (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo) 1:34:51
10 Adrian Atkinson/Dave Riley (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6) 1:35:49

North West Stages (Blackpool) - 3-4 Feb 12 - FULL RESULTS

Results by: Tynemouth Computer Services Rally Results | Full Results on line

Seeded Entry List

Posted: January 30, 2012 5:40 PM

1 Kevin Procter/David R. Bellerby (Subaru Impreza WRC) [D]
2 Paul Bird/Kirsty Riddick (Ford Focus 07 WRC) [D]
3 Tony Bardy/Tony Walker (Nissan Sunny Gtir) [D]
4 John Stone/Lee Carter (Skoda Fabia WRC) [D]
5 Darren Doherty/Chris Thirling (Subaru Impreza) [D]
6 Billy McLelland /Baz Green (Mitsbushi Lancer Evo 3.5) [D]
7 Mark Roberts/Gareth Twiss (Ford Escort Cosworth) [D]
8 Alex Taylor/Martyn Taylor (Subaru Forester) [D]
9 Bob Grant/David O'Brien (Subaru Impreza) [D]
10 Simon Bowen/Richard Robinson (Subaru Impreza) [D]
11 Nigel Hobson/Tim Hobson (Mitsubishi EVO 6) [D]
12 Nigel Worswick/Clive Molyneux (Ford Escort mk2) [D]
14 James Ford/Neil Colman (Ford Escort MKII) [C]
15 Adrian Atkinson/Dave Riley (Mitsubishi Evo 6) [D]
16 Paul Swift/Stuart Powell (Ford Escort MK2 RS1800) [C]
17 Steve Cressey/Sam Collis (Ford Escort) [D]
18 Tony Hewitt/Emma Hewitt (Mitsubishi EVO 5) [D]
19 Andy Davison/ (Mitsubishi Evo 5) [D]
20 Russell Morgan/Martin Kenyon (Ford Escort MK1) [D]
21 Alan Kirby/Lawrence Kirby (Subaru Impreza) [D]
22 Andrew Varley/Paul Wild (Ford Escort Cosworth) [D]
23 Duncan Wardrop/Ian Crosbie (Subaru Impreza N11) [D]
24 Kevin Tappin/Charles Tappin (Ford Escort mk2) [B]
25 Chris Phillips/Sarah Hughes (Peugeot 106) [B]
26 Keith Richardson/Jackie Richardson (Ford Escort Cosworth) [D]
27 Peppe Planeta/Chris Williams (Ford Fiesta Cosworth WRC) [D]
28 Andy Leech/Craig Simkiss (BMW M3 E36) [D]
29 Stuart Walker/Jack Morton (Mitsubishi Evo 9) [D]
30 Tom Preston/Andrew Park (BMW M3 Coupe) [D]
31 Mathew Roberts/Rob Hopewell (Citroen Saxo) [B]
32 Pete Gibson/Josh Davison (Mitsubishi Evo) [D]
33 Keith Dowthwaite/Tony King (Ford Escort Mk2) [C]
34 Michael English/David Roberts (Ford Escort Mk2 RS) [C]
35 Craig Pennington/Michael Calvert (Mitsubishi EVO 9) [D]
36 Chris Myers/Matt Whattam (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9) [D]
37 Steve Quigley/Terry Martin (Renault Clio 16v) [C]
38 Derek Blyth/Phil Peak (Subaru Impreza N12B) [D]
39 Nick Stamper/Heather Mary Stamper (Subaru Impreza) [D]
40 Barry Stevenson-Wheeler/John Neil Pickavance (Ford Escort RS) [C]
41 Jim McDowall/Charlotte McDowall (Ford Focus RS) [C]
42 Graham Butler/Jamie Foster (Ford Puma S1600) [B]
43 Wesley Simpson/ (Ford Escort MK2 RS1800) [D]
44 Steve Doherty/Russ Smith (Ford Escort MK2) [C]
45 Paul Kay/Stephen Landen (Toyota MR2) [B]
46 Guy Gladwin/Gavin Heseltine (Ford Escort Cosworth) [D]
47 Alex Laffey/John Conner (Ford Fiesta R2) [B]
48 Geoff Simpson/Mick Magic Johnson (Mitsubishi EVO 6) [D]
49 Kev Tennick/Ian Jackson (Peugeot 205) [C]
50 Kevin Williams/Andrew George (Ford Escort MKII) [C]
51 Mike Axford/Dave Thomason (Ford Fiesta RS) [B]
52 Barry Grant/Emyr Hall (Peugeot 205) [B]
53 Andrew Fawcett/Chris Purvis (Vauxhall Nova) [A]
54 Mark Constantine/Andrew Constantine (Vauxhall Corsa) [A]
55 Michael Davison/Chris Dodds (Proton Satria Compact) [B]
56 Stephen Ritchie/Ian Harden (BMW M3 Compact) [D]
57 Conrad Law/Chris Walton (Subaru Impreza RA) [D]
58 Chris Richard/Mitch McGrath (Hawk Stratos) [D]
59 Ean Lewin/Laura Taylor (Ford Fiesta ST150 GpN) [C]
60 Brian Davis/Jamie Vaughan (Ford Escort) [C]
61 David Benson/Steven Benson (Honda Civic) [B]
62 Ross Butterworth/Jonny Koonja (BMW 316 Compact) [B]
63 Reginald Marshall/Antony Collins (Subaru Impreza) [D]
64 Philip Jennings/George Jennings (BMW 318ti Compact) [C]
65 Phil Morton/Jo-Emma Hind (Fiat X/19 Prototipo) [A]
66 Graham Chester/Ian Rayner (Sunbeam Talbot) [B]
67 Bill Bates/Tom Woodburn (Peugeot 106 GTi) [B]
68 Wenna Roberts/ (Citreon Saxo) [B]
69 Dylan Thomas/Eilir Williams (Peugeot 106 Gti) [B]
70 Alan Pemberton/Geoff Clements (Audi S2 Coupe quattro) [D]
71 Shaun Riley/ (Subaru Impreza) [D]
72 Jonathan Trenholme/Cala Sharp (Subaru Impreza) [D]
73 Andrew Gardner/John Gardner (Subaru Impreza) [D]
74 Lee Farrer/Kate Ellis (Peugeot 205) [C]
75 David Greenbank/Allister Wells (Subaru Impreza) [D]
76 David Fairhurst/Craig Fairhurst (Vauxhall Corsa) [A]
77 Jeffrey Anthony Simm/Graham Hutchinson (Skoda Felicia) [A]
78 James R. Blyth/David N. Blyth (Peugeot 205) [B]
79 Alan Kitson/Ronald Aspinwall (Sunbeam Imp Sport) [A]
80 Paul Stringer/Steven Brown (Nissan Micra) [F]
81 Simon Povey/Peter Jones (Nissan Micra) [F]
82 Stephen Johnson/Steven Butler (Nissan Micra) [F]
83 Daniel Brown/Darren Riley (Nissan Micra) [F]
84 Keith Markham/Andrew Jones (Peugeot 107) [F]
85 Simon Livesey/Mark Livesey (Nissan Micra) [F]

Entries Received

Posted: January 3, 2012 2:25 PM

Available at:

www.rallies.info/webentry/2012/northwest/entries.php?type=u

Regulations available

Posted: December 11, 2011 9:45 PM

• North West Stages Rally

Event Website / Details

Posted: December 6, 2011 9:32 AM

• North West Stages Rally