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LinksJim Clark Rally - Peugeot Sport UK News
Posted: July 16, 2002 12:06 PM - 6695 Hits
1. 206 Cup
2. PBRC Super 1600
Posted: July 16, 2002 12:06 PM
1. 206 Cup
The Jim Clark Rally is the only public closed road event on mainland Britain and the 21 special stages covering over 160 miles through the lanes and roads of Berwickshire provide a severe test of man and machine.
Ballinamallard man Garry Jennings was dominant, setting fastest times on four of the seven stages, he carries a 17.4 second lead over Donegal based Shaun Gallagher, however towards the end of the day he lost 2nd gear and may well have to drive without it all through Day 2. Finn Marko Ramanen is 3rd,32.0 seconds back having dropped time on stage 6 with a slow puncture. Jazz Nadhra lies fourth after a stunning day with a fastest overall time through Stage 5 Langton. Jack Ingleby had a consistent day moving steadily up the leaderboard into 5th with Daniel Dunbabin sixth.
Jennings nearly never made it through the day, going off on Stage 7 apparently whilst showing off to the spectators. Meanwhile Ramanen was going through a learning curve, somewhat perplexed as to why the rear of the car was sliding when he was running slicks on the front and intermediate tyres on the rear.
Gallagher was struggling with a misfire after going through the Watersplash at Langton. Chris Moore was depressed and felt his heart wasnt in it anymore after losing over ten minutes on SS4 Abbey St Bathans when he went off into a ditch. He took it easy on the final stage of the day and ironically set the 2nd fastest time.1 Garry Jennings Paul Nagle GB/GB 0:46:05.4 2 Shaun Gallagher Richard Pashley IRL/GB 0:46:22.8 0:00:17.4 3 Marko Ramanen Ian Bevan FIN/GB 0:46:37.4 0:00:32.0 4 Jazz Nandhra James Phillips GB/GB 0:47:20.5 0:01:15.1 5 Jack Ingleby Grania Ingleby GB/GB 0:47:27.0 0:01:21.6 6 Daniel Dunbabin Clive Dunbabin GB/GB 0:47:40.8 0:01:35.4 7 Andy Pawley Tim Sturla GB/GB 0:48:08.3 0:02:02.9 8 George Philippedes Marshall Clarke GB/GB 0:48:14.9 0:02:09.5 9 Gareth MacHale Derek Brannigan IRL/IRL 0:48:23.2 0:02:17.8 10 Martin Evans Shaun O'Gorman GB/GB 0:48:23.5 0:02:18.1
One hundred and eight miles awaited the remaining 18 crews on the second day of the fourth round of the TOTAL supported 206 Super Cup.
With a dawn start at 5.30am the crews were greeted by a deep blue sky and the temperature soared through the day, a complete contrast to the torrential rain of the previous day.
Overnight leader Garry Jennings was confident that he could keep his stranglehold on the event, carrying an 8.6 second lead over Chris Moore with Shaun Gallagher 3rd, 14.3 seconds down on the leader.
The opening stage of the day was the 7.72 miles of Blackadder and the leader board changed immediately when Jennings went off into a field of barley. Gallagher was somewhat surprised by Jennings appearing at a farm gate just as he was passing. Chris Moore set the fastest time, still totally despondent after ruling himself out of contention when he lost 10 minutes on the previous day.Position after SS8 1 Shaun Gallagher 0:53:51.2 2 Marko Ramanen 0:54:08.6 3 Garry Jennings 0:54:14.3Stage nine Ayton 1, a 7.87 miler, saw Pawley visit the scenery when he went through a hedge damaging his sump guard. Chris Moore was rueing what might have been with another fastest time with Gallagher 2nd. Marko Ramanen retired on SS10 Chirnside. Half way through the 10 miler he was caught out by a slippy corner, flew up a bank and hit a tree. The crew were unhurt but the event was over for the Finnish flyer. (The demise of Ramanen promoted Jazz Nandhra up into 3rd ).
Moore was delighted with his times and intent on keeping his foot in. Jack Ingleby had a big moment at the same point where Ramanen went off, he also slid up a bank but was relieved to the extreme, when he managed to settle the car and stay on the stage. Richard Sykes who also lost chunks of time on Friday was beginning to enjoy himself and he sent spectators scattering when he took a huge cut. Unfortunately later in the stage he got a traffic cone stuck under the car which only freed over a big jump later in the stage.
Positions after SS10 1 Shaun Gallagher 1:11:37.2 2 Garry Jennings 1:12:01.3 0:00:24.1 3 Jazz Nandhra 1:13:15.7 0:01:38.5Stage 11 Blackadder 2 saw Gallagher quickest, he had now stretched his lead out to 25.6 seconds, he said; Ive backed off a bit now and am not taking any risks. Jennings was checking times formulating a strategy and Sykes picked up a rabbit which was grilling to a turn jammed against his radiator. Martin Evans was having a fair event however he was having problems with intermittent power steering. Ayton immediately saw Jennings take advantage of Gallaghers caution by taking 12.6 seconds from his fellow competitor, Nandhra was second fastest and consolidated his 3rd position.
Positions after SS12 1 Shaun Gallagher 1:26:39.4 2 Garry Jennings 1:26:52.4 0:00:13.0 3 Jazz Nandhra 1:28:11.5 0:01:32.1Stage 13 saw Jennings yet again fastest taking a further 4.2 seconds from Gallagher whose lead was beginning to look a little shaky. Moore split the pair with another excellent time but Chirnside saw the demise of Sykes who went off and had to retire after breaking the steering rack.
The short Langton water splash fell to Jennings who had now narrowed the gap on Gallagher to 8.4 seconds.
The 8.96 miles of Eccles 1 saw Jennings eke out a further 3.9 seconds on Gallagher who was complaining about the heat and that he had to drink loads of water. A marked contrast to the day before. Jennings also commented on the heat; Its savage hot and the tyres are going off. Ingleby was slipping back on the bumpy stuff with variable handling after earlier damaging a wishbone and steering arm. Pawley suffered some problems with his notes a similar problem to Dunbabin who suffered some hairy moments. Patrick Richard was having a quiet day learning but still overshot a hairpin damaging his bumper and having to reverse again.
Jennings was now on a huge charge and took another fastest time through Swinton 1 to narrow the gap to a mere 0.6 seconds and the inevitability of it all was beginning to dawn on Gallagher.
Fogo 1 saw Jennings finally retake the top spot; he was fastest again taking 1.8 seconds from Gallagher to move into a 1.2 second lead. Nandhra looked comfortable in 3rd , 2minutes down on the leader but with a 1minute 21 second buffer on 4th placed Dunbabin. Roper retired at service after suffering accident damage. Richard had a nightmare through stage 17 when his throttle jammed open for 6 miles through the stage.
Just when it was going all Jennings way Gallagher showed he was having none of it setting the fastest time through Langton by 1.7 seconds and moving back into a very narrow half second lead. Dunbabin was struggling with a new set of pads and a brake pedal that was unnervingly hitting the floor.
With Eccles 2 cancelled it was no change at the top and the crews went into the penultimate stage split by only 0.5 seconds.
Swinton 2 looked like it was game over with Jennings setting a stunning time 6.4 seconds up on Gallagher over the 11.17 mile stage. He moved into a 5.9 second lead going into the final stage.
Yet again it all came down to the very last stage and Jennings and Gallagher both gave their all and at the end of the stage they were only split by 0.7 seconds, it was however in Jennings favour and took him to victory by a very slender 6.6 seconds. He was understandably delighted commenting; Who dares wins. He had even caught Hughes on the last stage but fortunately had been quick enough on the earlier section of the stage which negated the time lost behind Hughes.
Gallagher said; Im delighted with the result, but gutted I couldnt catch Garry.
Jazz Nandhra rounded off an excellent event with a fine 3rd place, commenting; I tried hard to catch the guys early on but decided to settle for the points. He picks up the Motorsport News Award for Best Improvement in Seeding for his efforts.
Daniel Dunbabin took fourth with Jack Ingleby gushing, It was extremely eventful and I cant believe where we have ended up.
Chris Moore took the Total Spirit of the Rally Award after his superb stage performances during the second day when the event was all but over for him. Some consolation for a late retirement with clutch failure. Jack Ingleby won the Hella Cool Box on behalf of his service crew.Driver Co-driver Nat Total Diff 1 Garry Jennings Paul Naggle GB/GB 2:24:46.1 2 Shaun Gallagher Richard Pashley IRL/GB 2:24:52.7 0:00:06.6 3 Jazz Nandhra James Phillips GB/GB 2:27:16.4 0:02:30.3 4 Daniel Dunbabin Clive Dunbabin GB/GB 2:29:26.4 0:04:40.3 5 Gareth MacHale Derek Brannigan IRL/IRL 2:29:35.4 0:04:49.3 6 Jack Ingleby Grania Ingleby GB/GB 2:30:47.7 0:06:01.6 7 George Philippedes Marshall Clarke GB/GB 2:31:18.4 0:06:32.3 8 Andy Pawley Tim Sturla GB/GB 2:31:46.8 0:07:00.7 9 Eugeen Meegan Patrick Walsh IRL/GB 2:32:01.2 0:07:15.1 10 Tom Hynd Sue Hynd GB/GB 2:33:23.7 0:08:37.6 11 Patrick Richard Alyson Marlow CDN/GB 2:37:23.8 0:12:37.7 12 Adrian McElhinney Rory Thomas IRL/IRL 2:39:15.9 0:14:29.8
2. PBRC Super 1600
The Jim Clark Memorial Rally takes the series from Edinburgh to the hills around Duns and Berwick, providing some of the most testing stages so far this season for official works drivers, Rory Galligan and Justin Dale in their Super 1600 Peugeot 206s.
Heading down into the famous water stage at Langton, where a new road has been constructed to accommodate the volume of spectators, Dale put in an impressive first stage, fastest of the Super 1600 (S1600) field by 1/10th of a second. Teammate Galligan was 1.07 seconds behind Dale.
Just 1.8 seconds behind Gwyndaff Evans, Peugeots Justin Dale held second place at stage 3 in the hills of Bothwell, with Galligan in 3rd place, 15 seconds down on Evans. The ex-works Peugeot 106 of Kents Martin Sansom completes the Peugeot line up in the British Rally Championship as he lies just behind Galligan in fourth place
With every conceivable driving condition on the first few stages, Rory Galligan commented; These stages are very changeable. We are slipping about and have lost a bit of bumper, but thats only cosmetic. We are struggling a little with grip but dont intend to change the set-up before leg 2.
After a relatively dry start to leg 1, stage 4 witnessed a downpour with subsequent spins and slides from the works Peugeot 206 as the weather closed in. Dale lost time with two spins and lies 26.7 seconds down on Evans with Galligan 3rd , 44.1 seconds behind.
Still struggling for grip Dale and Bargery dropped a few seconds on stage 5. Galligan put in an impressive stage time of 13.3 seconds followed closely by Peugeot 106 driver Martin Sansom.
Martin Sansom continued to charge and on stage 6 he set a second fastest time. Peugeot now held 2nd, 3rd and 4th places. Dale blasted through stage 7 making a massive 35 seconds on Evans in the MG. Martin Sansom, who is this weekend being co-driven by Leuan Thomas, was delighted with his position slightly ahead of Galligan.
Justin Dale commented; After heavy rain earlier this afternoon we were slipping about a lot. We changed our suspension at the last service, which helped for the last three stages. We also changed the gearbox to a higher gearing for tomorrow.
The final leg of the Jim Clark Memorial Rally kicked off in the early hours of this morning with spectacular results for Peugeot Sport UK and works driver Justin Dale. Dale who suffered yesterday with grip problems proved the Jim Clark Rally wasnt to beat him when he set 10 of the fastest stage times out of a possible 14 stages today, ensuring his win for the Super 1600 category in his works Peugeot 206.
Delighted Justin Dale commented; We struggled with grip a bit this morning but the weather changed this afternoon and allowed us to keep a steady pace. It was hard out there this weekend and we have had our fair share of problems with the new set-up. Its good to have won this event again for Peugeot.
After a battle with MGs Gwyndaff Evans, Dale charged ahead of the former British Rally champion early on in the Scottish Borders taking the fastest stage time from Evans by 8/10th of a second. Blackadder and Ayton proved tough for Dale but he soon regained the fastest stage times from Evans into the tough stage of Chirnside.
Martin Sansom continued to charge for the title this afternoon putting in a cracking stage time of 2:03 at the famous Langton 5 water splash, his fastest stage time today slightly ahead of Dale. Sansom commented; The car feels much better today, we were able to push a lot harder. Sansom went on to follow Dale home in second place in the Super 1600 class, despite flattening his exhaust hitting the rear end of the car while avoiding a head on into a wall.
The Jim Clark Rally has been the first opportunity the Peugeot Works team have had to use and develop their Peugeot 206s after the new tarmac parts from France arrived only a few days ago.
Struggling with grip problems, works driver, Irishman Galligan commented; We were on full wets this morning and that just didnt work for us into stage 8 we slid into a metal fence and burst the radiator.
Trying to escape through a field and rejoin the rally, the only way out was through a wooden gate that led us into a steep ditch. We had to keep stopping along the road to top up the radiator to stop it from overheating and we lost our front wings. Gordon and I will treat the rest of today as a test. The engine power is down and we have lost a lot of time. We just want to finish in the points. His day got better when he chose slicks for the Langton Stage and the weather began to brighten up.
Dale led the rally from stage 9 to the finish, albeit with a slight oil problem. Through sheer determination, team and car excellence Dale wins the 4th round of the British Rally Championship.
Peugeot UK Motorsport Manager, Mick Linford commented; We are obviously pleased with Justins result. Its great considering we only received the new revised suspension set-up from France last Wednesday. Its frustrating for Rory but he kept going and has had more time in the car.
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