SUMMER 2011 Time flies by so quick, and another Border Lines is due. Club members have been out and about on various events, a few more and we could reach double figures on some, which is good for the club and the sport in general, but there are still some concerns. If you have any ideas of what you would like to see in this publication, please contact me – EDITOR. The website is updated regularly; check out for further information and news.

Website www.bordermotorclub.co.uk Border Motor Club are also on

CHAIRMAN’S CHAT

Have you ever been on a drive (usually the commute to work), reached your destination, and suddenly realised that you couldn’t remember a thing about the journey you’ve just done? Well, typing this column, I’ve discovered that I feel exactly the same way about June. I can remember May, which had the Classic in the middle of it (report elsewhere in this newsletter), and there was the Border AGM at the beginning of June; but for the rest of the month, all I can recall is wind and showers, and that’s about it. In motorsport, the Canadian Grand Prix provided a welcome contrast to the normal Red Bull/Ferrari/McLaren procession, with Jenson Button proving that driving skills do still matter. Actually, although we might complain about things like a lack of overtaking in Formula 1, a look at the history of the sport will show a different picture. The car has always been the dominant feature in Formula 1, and for many years, when one team was dominant, (e.g. Ferrari, McLaren, Williams, etc), a race would consist of the leading team driving off into the distance, and everyone else scrapping over the minor places. The only variation would come when it rained, (e.g. Montreal), or when mechanical breakdown intervened; something the new rules seem to have virtually eliminated with considerable success. Maybe, if the Good Old Days are here and now, perhaps I should be getting out more and doing things to remember. Trouble is there always seems so much to do; especially if you’ve got a family. Also, there’s so much available now on the internet and other media, perhaps you don’t really need to get out in the wide world to experience things? This brings to mind a line from a well-known pop song, “Did he get tired, or did he just get lazy?” (Actually, the line is “Did she get tired, or did she just get lazy?” A free drink to the first person who comes up to me at a Club night or Committee meeting and correctly identifies the song and the group involved.) So, I will resolve to get out there and do more motorsport. Perhaps we could do a survey amongst Border members, to find out what their motorsport ambitions are; a sort of “501 things to do in motorsport before I die”; or before you’re too old to drive, anyway. You never know, if several of us want to do the same things, perhaps we can all actually start planning to make it happen. Anyone fancy a trip to Le Mans some time? That would make June a bit more memorable.

NEWS The Motor Sports Association has warned that the U-turn over the sell-off of the public forest estate leaves motor sport in no better position than before, as the government has announced that it will now set up an independent panel of experts to consider what the future forestry policy should be. The MSA is concerned that this panel will inevitably be more concerned with bio-diversity and commercial logging than it will be with the needs of the motor sport community, and has therefore proposed that motorised recreation be represented by the Land Access Recreation Association (LARA). “We have no idea what recommendations the new panel will come up with in the Autumn,” said MSA Chief Executive Colin Hilton. “However, we do know that if the views and access requirements of motor sport are not taken into account by this panel, then it will likely be just the rights of walkers, cyclists and horse riders that are protected in any future policy. We need everyone to make the point to their MP that the forests are so critical to the future of motor sport that we cannot be ignored as a user group.” The MSA will update its marshals’ database this year and will thereafter do so on an annual basis. Currently, those registered remain on the database indefinitely, so many who are not actively marshalling are still receiving communications and information from the MSA. New registration documents will be sent out later this year, and all who wish to be registered on the database will be asked to renew for 2012, even if they registered as recently as 2011 The MSA licensing department will then send out personal registration and record cards after processing the renewals. All marshals should receive these documents by the end of the year, with annual renewals in the future being completed via the MSA website. Some better news from the MSA, their campaign to bring closed road motor sport to mainland Britain received a major boost last week, as the coalition government confirmed that it will shortly begin a three-month public consultation to establish how existing legislation can be amended to allow motor sport to take place on public roads. ASSOCIATION OF NORTH EAST MIDLAND MOTOR CLUBS A rare opportunity to meet with and discuss motor sport matters with the most important people in the Motor Sports Association. COLIN HILTON – CHIEF EXECUTIVE TONY SCOTT-ANDREWS- CHAIRMAN OF THE MOTOR SPORTS COUNCIL Both will be attending the July meeting of the Association. Now is the chance to air your views and make any points you wish to make personally to these people who can make a difference to the way the sport is run. Bentley hotel, Lincoln, Monday 18th July 2011 at 8:00pm. Vicky White cannot decide which seat, or car come to that, she likes the best, and has been both driving and co-driving in an MkII Escort and Saxo. Watch out Blair, only 4WD to go!

On his first attempt Mark Higgins smashed the late Tony Pond’s 21 year record around the 37.8-mile Isle of Man TT course in a production-spec Subaru WRX STi, setting a lap time of 19 minutes and 56.7 seconds and averaging 113mph around the course. On his second lap, he was joined by Road & Track photographer Chris Cantle and in less than 2-minutes from the off, Higgins had what he describes as “the biggest moment of my life”. Watch Higgins’ calmness behind the wheel on You Tube. Type in ‘Rally Champion Mark Higgins Near Crash’ Two videos, one in car. Looks like ‘The Rally Show’ will not be running in the future as the company promoting the event has gone into administration. The change of venue from Chatsworth to Cornbury did not bring in the spectators, despite WRC stars being there, but the stages found favour with the competitors. 25 years ago in May 1986, Henri Toivonen and co-driver Sergio Cresta lost their lives competing in a Lancia Delta S4 on the Corsican Rally. ‘Google’ his name and you have around three quarters of a million results, so plenty to read and see about him. Here are a few facts and figures on his short, but eventful life.

Started in karts, moved to a mix of circuit racing and rallying, swapping to full time rallying as his family were concerned about safety of the circuits. How ironic that would prove to be.

Competed in 40 world rallies, winning 3, and being on the podium nine times. 185 stage wins and retired 22 times

His father, Pauli, won the 1966 Monte Carlo rally after the first four cars were excluded for having illegal headlight bulbs following a protest by Citroen. He never drove for them again.

Henri became the youngest driver to win a World Championship Rally, on the Lombard RAC in 1980; a record which stood until Jari-Matti Latvala won the 2008 Swedish Rally.

Teaming up with Fred Gallagher in 1981 saw a communication problem, which led them to use just three notes - bad, fast and flat, and ignore the ice crew’s notes as Henri couldn’t comprehend words like ‘patchy’. All this on an event they neither had competed on before.

Winning the RAC for the second time in a Lancia Delta S4 Henri said "I may have won the RAC Rally with Lancia, but I just did not know how to drive it. It seemed to have a mind of its own."

He drove works cars for Talbot, Opel, Porsche and Lancia. Also competed in a Ferrari 308 GTB on the San Marino Rally in 1983.

Within hours of his death FISA banned the powerful GPB machines, ending the supercar are. Henri was highly regarded by his fellow competitors and until the tragic accident it looked as though he would be a world champion one day. Missed, but certainly not forgotten. A bit off topic for this magazine, but well worth a mention. Aryton Senna’s death at the San Marino Grand Prix in 1994 was the second of that weekend; Roland Ratzenberger was killed in qualifying and Rubens Barrichello (Can you believe he is still competing in F1) also had a serious accident. The legacy of these fateful days was a raft of safety improvements, which saved many competitors from more serious injuries in accidents. A documentary of Aryton’s life was released in June, surf the net for reviews and clips. Catch it on the big screen, or wait for the DVD if you are a couch potato.

Mel Hudson was having a little paddle in the sea whilst on holiday in April, when a nasty wave pushed him over, doing all sorts of damage to his right knee. This stopped him from competing on a couple of rallies and an illness also stopped Paul Rhodes from co-driving on the Jack Neal. Both are now back in their respective seats. Rotherham Motor Club are organising an Autosolo event under a Clubman’s' Permit on 7th August to which Border Motor Club member's are invited. Regulations will be out shortly with a limit of 30 entries. The format will be simple, not too tight, but a stop astride a line as opposed to a flying finish. Regulations on Border & Rotherham’s website.

SEPTEMBER CLASSIC

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 4th.

Approx 80 miles starting mid morning from a venue close to Scunthorpe. A straight run using a tulip road book with the usual information. No code boards, but clues to find on the route. Finish in a North Yorkshire village. contact email address - borderclassic@gmail.com Regulations out early July. Marshals and volunteers will be required – Contact Paul Rhodes.

EVENT REPORTS

Horiba D’Isis, MIRA 16th April – Stuart. Ranby/Paul. Rhodes (Retired SS1). Paul Moran/Vicky White (35th O/A 16th in class.) Blair Bushby/John Savage (8th O/A 8th in class.)

Good result for Blair/John and Paul/Vicky finished again. Not so good for Stuart/Paul. Paul Rhodes was talking to another crew at Blyton who had retired on SS1 and they had worked it out that their rally cost them £84 per INCH. Photograph by kind permission of Mark Colston - Quinton Motor Club

Hallamshire Stages, Barkston Heath 1st May – Vicky White/Paul Moran (36th O/A 14th in class

Vicky’s first stage event behind the wheel, finished, and beat a WRC Focus. (So the Focus retired, but ‘To finish first, first you have to finish’)

Middlewick Stages, Woodbridge 8th May – Paul Moran/Adrian Woodcock (17th O/A 11th in class)

All change again for this event, Paul back driving, with Ade in the co-drivers seat.

Many thanks to Bob & Carole Offer for supplying the above 2 photographs. Bob marshals on many local events, with Carole taking the shots. See their website www.digicamco.com for further details. Border Classic, 15th May – Nick Leuchars. (To ‘B’ or not to ‘B’, that is the question….)

I have a terrible tendency to leave everything to the last minute (Never! – Ed). Getting towards the end of April and still no transport for this years’ Border Classic. No money to buy anything, but there was enough cash to hire one, perhaps. I found a firm north of York, Reflections Classic Car Hire, who did me a good deal on a 24 hour hire for an MGB Roadster; which I pick up Saturday evening, and travel home using the back roads from York to Howden, so I can get used to the B properly. Sunday morning, up early to pick up navigator Simon, then on to Brigg Market Place; which doesn’t seem quite as busy as normal. Entries were down slightly on last year, but it makes the bacon butty service a bit quicker. Other Border members out included Mel and Christine Hudson at 7 with the Jaguar XK140, Phil Wheeldon and Pete Jackson in one of Phil’s Mini (the quieter one) at 23, and Ray and Sharon Woodcock in their Vauxhall Victor at 39. We’re at 44, just in front of a Commer Camper van. The weather was looking a bit iffy, so we kept the hood up to start with. The first sections took us west of Brigg, then in an unusual direction, via Scawby and cutting the southern edge of Scunthorpe, where we encounter the first set of road works. I thought Councils were short of cash, but all through the first half we found council workers earning overtime. We miss a junction, and get overtaken by the Camper Van (the shame of it!) Over the river at Keadby Bridge, and I’m onto home territory; which probably explains a lack of concentration and making a mess of the next junction. Anyway, quickly sorted, and pick up a missing secret marker before Phil Woodcock and the first control. Through Epworth and Thorne (and TWO more sets of road works!) before heading north, to join the M62 at Goole. Making sure we don’t miss the exit, we skirt Howden to the west, then back on to the minor roads, and head for the lunch halt. Once again the organisers had done really well at Bubwith with good facilities and plenty of parking. We’re not the only ones to think it’s a good spot, as a number of vintage Bentleys are also there. Not as many as on our event, but the value per unit might be slightly higher! Talking with other crews at the lunch halt confirms our fears that we’ve missed a secret marker. Also, we’ve been given the tie-decider question, which involves totalling the classification numbers of all the B roads used on the event. Sad, competitive people that we are, Simon and I use part of our halt and a road atlas in the car to see if we can redeem ourselves by getting this right; (we didn’t, but were quite close). So on to the second half, determined to get a clean sheet. The back roads soon lead onto the marvellous sweeping Wolds lanes; including Millington Pastures, so well known on night rallies, where the narrow sweeps suddenly end in steeply climbing hairpins. A bit beyond that, we’re towards the back of a queue of about six cars; but the elderly lady in the Volvo coming the other way refuses to back up, causing some confusion as our convoy reverses to find passing places.

A bit further on, and we’ve reached the happy state of all passage checks and secrets markers found for that section, and still three miles to the next control. Time to open the taps a bit, and test the brakes as well; (not bad, actually). So to the excellent finish, at Driffield Rugby Club. We’ve cleaned the second half; but that’s not quite good enough, as three crews are penalty free. From an organisers’ point of view, that’s just about perfect. The ideal (as on road rallies) is for one car to be penalty free; so only three is pretty good. Also, the crews who did miss one marker missed different ones; all of which shows the board positioning was just about right this year.

On the main Classic event, the winners were event first-timers Ian and Carole Couch, in a 1964 Rolls Royce of all things! He deserved an award just for getting it up Millington Pastures! Second were Mark Thompson and Emily Bird in an RS 2000, with event regulars Jane and Richard Spencer third in their Scimitar. None of the Moderns cleaned the route, so the tie break was used to separate winners David and Amanda Dawson in their XJ6 (another large car!) from Andy Wolliams/Paul Herring in their Rover Mini Cooper and the Pells in their Porsche 911. The TSW award for most desirable car went to event regular Del John and his lovely red Gilbern Genie.

For those now suffering from code board deprivation, don’t forget our September Classic, in just a few weeks time. You never know, I might just get organised enough to buy something for it. John Overend Memorial Rally, Melbourne 15th May – Stuart Ranby/Roy Bell Roy’s Ramblings. Not out for a while, so accepted the invite to navigate for Stuart. Started on Knobblies with a half spin on the first stage after under steering on a loose chicane. SS2 was going a lot better till got a misfire, and then the engine cut out altogether, right next to the pig farm. Great! Frantic checking of fuses wiring etc and it struck up. Ready for the off and stopped again. Tried other bits and found a suspect joint block, but at least got to the end of the stage, where repairs were made. Kept on the same tyres for the next two, Slicks were around 15 – 20 seconds a stage quicker, but as well down in the results left well alone, and there were some coming off stage with flats. Had to take a longer route on SS5 after missing a split left, but got no penalty as had no time advantage. At the end of the rally 21st O/A, 6th in class, out of 24 finishers, but with 23 retiring, this was an achievement itself. Thanks to all who helped service on the day.

Above photographs by kind permission of Phill Andrews. See his website - www.rallyaround.co.uk for further photographs of this and other events.

Jack Neal Memorial Rally, Blyton Park 21st May Mel Hudson/Roy Bell First time out with the new s’hand engine and on the new tarmac layout at Blyton. Plans showed fast flowing stages with only a couple of chicanes to slow things down, so thought wouldn’t get a look in, but how wrong we were. As no others in class 4, put in with the 4WD’s. They did their best not to finish, on SS2 an Evo was off across a grassed area and in a ditch. Just looked beached until dragged out, which showed all the rear pushed up, so not going anywhere else that day. Then on SS5 an Impezza and 6R4 got tangled up at the split after confusion of who was going where, resulting in the 6R4 rolling with bits flying everywhere, and the other car losing lots of time. Both crews were OK thankfully. All this put the first 4WD 3rd O/A and left us 7th O/A, first in class 5 in a 2WD car, with 3 more 4WD behind us. No wonder the COC said when we collected our awards that we were smiling all day. What a result, great event with no dramas, half spins or errors, and ran the same tyres all day. Fronts now knackered, but plenty of life left in the rears. Vicky White/Ade Woodcock Vicky swapped seats again for this event, and also the driven wheels, as she drove the Saxo with Ade navigating/cowering/crying/laughing (delete as applicable.) Got quicker as the day went on, had a little spin, but finished 28th O/A, 6th in class, with 6 other cars behind her. Maybe she wasn’t as worried about the paintwork on the Saxo!!

Photos kindly supplied by Paul Rhodes. See next page

Keith Frecker Memorial Stages, Weeton Camp 12th June –John Savage/Paul Rhodes (18th O/A 1st in class John’s Jottings. Paul Rhodes and I decided to have a go at this rally as it looked as though it would suit the Mini with it being fairly tight with no long straights. Setting off the night before and staying at Preston about 10 miles from the venue was a good idea as a long drive there on the day was a bit much with scrutineering from 7am on the morning. We arrived on the venue on a fine and dry morning with the weather forecast for rain from dinner time onwards, (well you can hope that they get it wrong as they usually do,) and scrutineered with no problems. The first stage was attacked with as much pace as possible but also with a certain amount of care as there are plenty of kerbs to catch you out, and at least 2 cars didn’t make the end of that stage with 4 wheels still attached, which proved the point. This put us 28th O/A out of 50 starters, level on time with a Nissan Micra RWD Class 4 car, and 1st in class by 49 seconds. We carried on in the same vain over the next 4 stages building our lead over the other 4 class 1 cars, and climbing up to 24th. O/A Stage 6 was a repeat of 5, but it started to rain as forecast (didn’t get it wrong this time then – Ed) and so was attacked with a little more care, but only dropped 12 seconds, which was a lot less than a lot of the other crews managed, as two more cars lost a corner each in the wet. For stage 7 the rain was heavy and it was time to bolt on the wets, which for the Mini are the same tyres as for the dry but new! We carried on in the same way to the end of the event, avoiding the kerbs and consistently setting times which increased our class lead at the end to 3min 27sec. Not bad as the Mini was the oldest car out there at 41 years old, with a driver even older by quite a way. A big thanks go to the guys servicing for car 28 who push started us for the last 7 stages as the starter motor had decided to give up for the day. A long drive home across the Pennines in weather more suited to speedboats meant I didn’t have to wash the car when I got home. The last 3 events have gone well with 1st, 2nd, and 1st in class, hope this continues on either Promenade Stages at Wirral or Lindholmes event at Blyton in September. Rally of the Midlands, Multi Venue 17th & 18th June – Paul Moran/Vicky White The first multi venue attempted by this crew, which featured stages on the Friday evening, including two around the Council House ‘Argents Mead’ in the centre of Hinckley, followed by visits to MIRA, local stately homes and a military base on Saturday. They finished 31st O/A, 7th in class in an event which saw over 50% of the entries retire. Once again this car beat a WRC one, this time a Skoda Fabia. OK so it caught fire after putting leg out of bed, but that’s only a technicality.

Video clip of different approaches to the hump back bridge at Arbury Hall on this event http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQbzUE0JysI The Jane Cowling Memorial Phoenix Stages, Twyford Wood 26th June. Mel Hudson/Roy Bell had entered and was looking forward to this event, but unfortunately it was cancelled due to lack of entries. Let’s hope this is not the end of rallying at the venue and the other one held there by Mid-Derbyshire Motor club goes ahead next year.