New crew on NW Stages roll of honour as Blackpool duo's hopes are dashed

It was looking good for Blackpool South Shore Motor Club members Simon Bowen and Richard Robinson as they headed the leaderboard at the end of Friday's opening leg of the Legend Fires North West Stages rally on Blackpool Promenade.
Winners Arron Newby and Rob Fagg in the Subaru Impreza  Picture: www.pro-rally.co.ukWinners Arron Newby and Rob Fagg in the Subaru Impreza  Picture: www.pro-rally.co.uk
Winners Arron Newby and Rob Fagg in the Subaru Impreza Picture: www.pro-rally.co.uk

Alas it didn’t last as once Saturday dawned the Subrau Impreza WRC crew encountered a number of problems that ultimately forced their retirement.

That left the way open for Carnforth’s Arron Newby and his Manx co-driver Robb Fagg to claim their first-ever victory in the annual Fylde coast event, which features special stages on the Fleetwood seafront as well as more in Blackpool.

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Newby and Fagg also completed a hat-trick of outright rally wins in recent weeks.

They brought their Subaru Impreza home over two minutes ahead of the Ford Focus WRC of Eian Pritchard and Steve McPhee, while Mathew Roberts and Sarah Edwards completed the podium places in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9.

The rally lived up to its reputation as being one of the toughest on the calendar, with 40 of the 94 cars that started the event failing to finish.

Five South Shore crews were among those on the retirement list but a show of dogged determination in the face of adversity saw three others make the finish.

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Heading the way were Duncan Taylor, from Treales, and his Inskip co-driver Stephen Graveson as they brought the Myerscough College Subaru Impreza home in 28th place.

That was no mean feat, given they lost second gear at the start of the very first stage at ABP Fleetwood and had to complete Friday’s leg without it.

With only time for a quick oil change on Saturday morning, the problem couldn’t be resolved and as the day wore on Taylor found he had to hold the stick in third gear to prevent it slipping out.

To cap it all, they missed a split at Weeton that cost them three minutes, so all things considered they were happy to finish.

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Taylor’s sons, Adam and James, contested the event in the Taylors Motorsport Ford Fiesta R2 and thought their rally was about to end early when the oil warning light flicked on at Weeton.

Fearing the worst, they made an early stage exit and incurred a two-minute time loss in the process.

But having then been able to check the fault, they were relieved to find the engine wasn’t at risk. The warning light’s appearance had just been the work of some electrical gremlins!

More electrical issues cost the brothers a further minute on the penultimate stage but they made it to the finish 34th overall.

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South Shore’s only other survivors Robert Kennedy and Catrin Jones brought their Nissan Micra home 53rd overall, their day spoiled by a six-minute time penalty that dropped them 15 places.

It was a combination of gearbox and clutch problems that forced Bowen and Robinson to retire while challenging for the win at Weeton on Saturday afternoon.

Earlier in the day, the Ford Fiesta S2500 of John Stone and Ian Davis had been forced out with differential problems.

An incident at Weeton marked the end of Andy Leech and Chris Sharpe-Simkiss’s run in the BMW M3, while the Blackpool and The Fylde College BMW Mini Cooper manned by Mark Holmes and Craig Simkiss succumbed to transmission problems.

Thomas Matthews and Simon Mills retired their VW Golf on the penultimate stage with driveshaft failure.

PHIL JAMES