Rallying: Steve Magson fires up in forest (From Gazette & Herald)
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Rallying: Steve Magson fires up in forest
2:09pm Wednesday 16th May 2012 in Sport
Malton Motor Club’s Steve Magson and co-driver Geoff Atkinson enjoyed a triumph on the SG Petch Tour Of Hamsterley Rally.
The race, organised by the Stockton Motor Club in association with the Teesside Motor Sport Group, was held in the Hamsterley Forest complex on Sunday.
After retiring on the last round of the Northern Historic Rally Championship with an engine problem in their newly-acquired Vauxhall Chevette HSR, Magson and Atkinson were seeking a good result.
A spin on stage one left them second in class but a determined drive found them on the same time as the class leader Barry Jorden, also in a Chevette, going into the last stage.
Near the end of it, Magson’s engine was sounding very rough, but he managed to beat Jorden’s time by eight seconds, winning the class and scoring good championship points.
Current Northern Historic Rally champion Charley Taylor, with Pickering’s Steve Bielby reading the notes, will require some remedial work on the rear of their otherwise immaculate Mk 2 Ford Escort after hitting a concrete post. They still managed to finish third in class.
Not so lucky this time was Malton Motor Club’s Mat Smith and Giles Dykes. Driving their small-engined Ford Ka very quickly, they only made it to junction 22 on the second stage, when Smith left the road, and with substantial damage to the Ka they had to retire.
Club-mate, and another Ford Ka driver, Amanda Cornforth, with dad Derek navigating, had a tough event.
Two punctures and a problem with the throttle cable made it a long day. Luckily the cable broke close to the end of stage two so they were able to coast to the end of the stage without too much time loss. After all their problems, they still finished second in class and scored good championship points.
The outright winner of the event, driving a Mitsubishi Evo 9, was David Wright and Michael Wilkinson, while Matthew Robinson and co-driver Nigel Hutchinson in a Mk 2 Escort won the historic class.
