Motorsport By Tony Brunskill

Published at 05:16, Friday, 05 December 2008

AS you slip into your end-of-the-week pint don’t have a second as you’ll need to be up early tomorrow morning to get to the Coppermines Grizedale Stages Rally which is flagged off from the centre of Coniston at 9am for one of the most spectacular rallies of the year.

Being a one day event there will be no chance of drivers easing themselves in but will have to go flat out from the start and with former British Rally Champion and No1 good guy Mark Higgins with top international co-driver Nick Grist leading the rally in his Subaru Impreza they will be a good target for local star, David ‘Shuty’ Shuttleworth to aim for in the fast and furious stages.

There are a host of local crews to support and cheer, including regular Pip Simpson and Nick Fieldhouse (no 13) upholding the honours of the Kirkby Lonsdale and Furness motor clubs in their Scooby but will be chased hard for the same honours by Gary Tomlinson/Jemma Bellingham (No14) and Robert Swann/Darren Garrod (no.15) both in Scoobies as well.

The dark horse who will be keen to prove his skill and bravery will be Crackenthorpe wizard, young Kris Hall, in the rapid Ford Fiesta at No16 with Seb Marshall on the notes, while Steve Head (No 20) from Furness MC and former hopeful will doubtless make his Vauxhall Astra fly.

Always good to watch will be the West Cumbrian contingent headed by William Jarman in his Cossie (No27) with Paul Benn up his chuff in 21st in a similar Escort, while the battling Cooks (Richard and Edwin) will be pedalling their Astra hard with their usual smile.

Among the local rallying glitterati but with an unusually low seeding is Wigton MC’s Nick Stamper down in 85th with Steve Brockbank in the right hand seat of his Skoda Felicia.

As the rally finishes at about 3.30pm, it’s wise to plan your spectator positions before you go and should you want to join in the jollies, Prize Giving and the after rally party get underway at around 5pm.

Starting next week is the Rally Wales GB, the 15th and final round of the World Rally Championship which starts in Cardiff on Thursday December 4 at 6pm but that is the glitzy start and the real rallying get underway in the Hafren Forest on Friday December 5 at 9am.

The Sweet Lamb 1, Myherin, Hafren 2, Sweet Lamb 2 Myherin 2 stages follow before the cars and crews get tucked into their nice warm beds around 9pm.

Day two has the Resolfen, Haflway, Crychan stages run twice before beddy byes with the final day, Sunday December 7, having the Rheola and Port Talbot stages being used twice before finishing around 3pm.

The battle between Seb Loeb in his Citroen and Mikko Hirvonen in his Focus WRC will be intense with 10 points separating them, while Matt Wilson (No 8) in the Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Focus will want to get even higher than his seeding at 8th. The two-wheel fanatics will have their eyes peeled for car number 46, the Ford Focus WRC of bike champion Valentino Rossi who was reported to have tested in Greystoke Forest and will be interesting to see if he will follows in the footsteps of the other great bike racer turned four wheel champion, John Surtees.

Certainly if he is as spectacular in the Focus as he was on Hondas, it is hoped he will keep to the tracks to score a place as the last time he tried the Rally Wales GB a couple of years ago in a Peugeot he ended in a ditch.

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk