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Subaru Group N Trophy – by Val Thompson & Neil Dodd
Saturday morning, 09.31 in a bright market street in the small Scottish
Borders town of Jedburgh and seven Subaru Imprezas take the start line
before heading south to the Kielder Forest complex.
The winner of the previous round, Jock Armstrong led the field away but
it was fellow Scots Alistair Thorburn and Paul McGuire who were first to
make an impression on the event on stage one parking his car on it's
side against a tree early on the stage. After a visit to hospital, both
crew were reported as OK.
Jock and co-driver Kirsty Riddick started off with a string of fastest
stage times, despite his comments of "could do better". He felt that he
had been watching the safety DVD too much. At second service Jock was
lying 4th overall and 1st in Group N against the might of the WRC’s
The morning was still proving to be a learning curve for Roger Chilman/Andrew
Sankey, but their event ended very quickly on stage 6 when Roger
admitted that he was going 80mph too quick into a sharp bend resulting
in him going straight on into a ditch where he remained firmly stuck
until recovery after the finish.
Huw Jeffries and Avarina Connor (Impreza N8) suffered problems with
turbo boost all morning, then had an overshoot and couldn't find
reverse. To add insult to injury they lost the brakes on the last stage.
Joining the series after a dreadful start to the Rallye Sunseeker when
they failed to make the start, Alan Cookson/Julian Wilkinson made the
epic journey north from Cornwall . No technical maladies were reported
but the crew always had huge smiles on their faces and loved every
minute of the rally. The only hiccup was on stage 6 when they got sucked
into a ditch for
50 yards but managed to get to the finish arch as 2nd Subaru, which they
hadn't realised until told.
Trevor Martin / Ray Cleghorn had a tricky morning with a wrong tyre
choice and suspension set up issues. Once these were sorted out at
service it totally transformed the cars handling and then set a fastest
Subaru stage time in stage 5.
Andrew Barnes/Neil Dashfield lost all the brakes on stage 3 and suffered
a puncture on stage 7 but made it to the finish in 31st overall.
But despite stopping with an electrical problem for around 90 seconds,
Jock Armstrong and Kirsty Riddick arrived back at Jedburgh to collect
their second Subaru winner’s trophy of the year.
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