“Christmas Stages Rally”
Rally driver Alistair Hutchinson from Eggleston and navigator St.John Dykes from Barnard Castle gained a highly creditable result and trophy from last weekends, “Christmas Stages Rally” held at Croft Circuit near Darlington. This was their first outing in a new car, which had never been rallied before. Their new mount is a Renault Clio Sport, which is backed by “MSS Autogas and Northern Energy”.
The regular Christmas event attracted a full entry of 86 cars from all around the region. The variety of cars, ranged from ex-works Subaru’s and Hyundai’s to budget Skoda’s and Mini’s. The weather was good was very cold on the day, but the skies remained clear. However over night frost, had left the smooth track covered in frost, which caught some crews out and resulted in a few spins. There was a number of incidents, however the retirement list was surprisingly short with 68 cars completing the 44 mile course.
The Clio finished 14th overall, 3rd in their class (2000cc) and 2nd front wheel drive car. Driver Alistair Hutchinson said “This is our first event in a brand new car, that has never been tested. You normally expect a lot of teething problems, but the car has run faultlessly all day. This has been a brilliant start for us, but there is a lot more to come from the car and us!”
The 2 lads have built the entire car from new, over the last 18 months. They have built a new car because their old one, which they had rallied for 8 years, was dramatically crashed beyond repair, on the army ranges in Northumberland. The navigator had to spend 2 nights in hospital with a broken bone in his back.
The crew is now planning to do a local championship this year, which will include roughly 9 events on both tarmac roads and forestry stages.
Another local crew of Mark Thompson from Evenwood and Giles Dykes of Barnard Castle, who were doing the event in a Peugeot 206 GTI, had to retire in 16th place after their gearbox failed on stage 3.
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