Top placings for local teams (From Gazette & Herald)

Top placings for local teams

The snowfall failed to stop crews and spectators turning out for what was to be a great weekend of motorsport when two rallies took place in Pickering.

Over 500 marshals braved the weekend's weather to set up and run the six stages in the forests of Dalby, Langdale, Cropton and Pickering. Two new spectator vantage points were provided by the organisers.

Subaru Imprezas took their crews to overall honour in the National Kall Kwik Rally. Of the 26 teams that took part, 10 were from the Ryedale/York area.

With weather conditions more familiar to the same events in the seventies and eighties, crews were faced with a dilemma over which tyre tread/compound to use in the conditions.

Last year's winner Ryan Champion from Castleton and co-driver Larry Carter anguished over the choice of tyre at the start. But their decision proved irrelevant as a seized transmission forced them out after a few miles.

Number two seeds Charlie Payne and Craig Thorley retired with mechanical problems after the third stage in Cropton.

Running at number three, previous winners Steve Petch and John Richardson survived a spectacular crash only yards into the first stage. Their car was badly damaged. Steve escaped with minor bruising, but co-driver John was taken to Scarborough Hospital with badly bruised ribs.

Capitalising on his father's misfortune, Stephen Petch stormed to his first ever victory from a seeded 14 position with co-driver Mike Wilkinson in a Subaru Impreza, two minutes ahead of Malton duo Gavin Read and Craig Jenkinson in another Impreza.

In third place and a mere second adrift of Read after 45 miles, was the Impreza of another Malton crew John Bannister and Graham Wilcock. So close was the battle for the honours that less than a minute separated the second, third, fourth and fifth place teams.

In the Kall Kwik Rally, 53 teams took part, with 14 teams not completing the course. The final results saw the first three places taken by Malton-based teams.

Yorkshire driver Luke Pinder, partnered by Nicola Fearnley in the Total Motorsport Solutions car looked to hold the advantage where local knowledge was concerned, but all their hopes came to nothing in Dalby when a rock jammed a front caliper, locking the wheel and shearing a driveshaft in the process, forcing the crew into instant retirement.

The weather continued to take a toll on the cars as Castlederg's Jonathan McDaid partnered by the experience Martin McGarrity slid off on the third test, leaving the car temporarily stranded and slipped to fourth in the process.

At the end of the event, the top six places were not nearly as close as the national competition. The team of James Metcalfe and Allan Russell held a comfortable win at the top, with over a minute on the second-placed team of Jon Finch and Paul Vasey.

Updated: 11:07 Wednesday, February 23, 2005