THORBURN TAKES NICKY GRIST HONOURS
Duo secure victory by just over a minute on Nicky Grist Stages and with it the BTRDA title.
Euan Thorburn and Paul Beaton maintained their unbeaten run on BTRDA events this year by winning the Nicky Grist Stages in their Ford Focus WRC05. After setting the fastest time on the first test, they were never headed and won by over a minute to claim the Gold Star.
Stephen Petch/michael Wilkinson secured another second place in their Ford Fiesta RS WRC, while young Sam Bilham’s progress continues to impress as he finished in a career-best third place with Patrick Walsh in their Fiesta R5.
The first stage, almost nine miles through Crychan, would prove a tough opening test. Not surprisingly it was Thorburn/beaton who set the fastest time. The driver said: “the first mile opened our eyes,” as it was looser than he had expected. Nonetheless, he had opened up a useful five-second lead as he headed into SS2. Things didn’t go so well there as his Focus WRC05 suffered handbrake issues, which also had an impact on gear changing, and there was a loss of launch control. Despite that, they still managed to set second fastest time, though their lead was down to just two seconds.
With some temporary repairs completed, normal service was resumed on the five-and-a-half-mile Monument stage. Thorburn added another 14 seconds to his lead before returning to service at Builth Wells with a 21-second advantage, after completing the rarely used short Llyn Login stage.
Once again it, was Petch/wilkinson who were Thorburn’s nearest challengers.
The Fiesta RS WRC driver said: “It’s been alright, we’ve had a couple of alright times.”
Stage two had certainly been alright, with Petch setting the fastest time, though he wasn’t so happy on the next test.
“I thought it was disappointing, I couldn’t see through the dust on the long straights. We’re in no man’s land,” he added, making reference to the 28-second advantage over third place.
Holding that third place were Irish visitors Brendan Cumiskey/liam Moynihan, using a Fiesta RS WRC for the first time. Cumiskey’s only issue was that his seat was too low and needed to be raised as he was having trouble seeing through the windscreen. “The stages are good: plenty of room and the car’s perfect,” was his summary of the morning, though a change to harder tyres would be made for the later stages.
Tying with Cumiskey were leading Production Cup runners Pat Naylor/
Ian Lawrence, who found that their Mitsubishi Lancer E9 was working well on some harder tyres that they were using for the first time. “It’s been very good so far, we have to be on it, flat out. I’m really happy with that, it’s been dusty but not too bad,” said a content Naylor, as he sought to keep ahead of his rivals and boost his championship cause.
Close behind were Matthew Hirst/ Declan Dear, who opted to make a steady start on the longer first stage in order to avoid a puncture on their Lancer E9. A push through the following three tests paid dividends, as they moved up from ninth to fifth place.
Just one second behind Hirst were Bilham/walsh, who had a mixed morning. After setting third fastest time on the opening stage, they spun on the second, before setting equal second fastest time through SS3. Unfortunately, they were one of many to overshoot the final junction of stage four despite Bilham “braking early”. Walsh predicted that by driving a bit tidier they would make it on to the podium at the end of the day.
Also having a mixed start were Russ Thompson/andy Murphy, who set a couple of top five times before a rear brake calliper started leaking on their Lancer E9. As a result, Thompson decided to exercise some caution. “I’ve got it in my mind that brakes are quite important, the annoying thing is I could see it coming,” he said, as he lost some time overshooting a junction in stage four.
Production Cup leaders prior to the event, Scott Faulkner/gareth Parry had been quickest of the NR4 runners on stage one, just one second ahead of Naylor, before losing time when the throttle pedal snapped on their Lancer E9 on stage two. With repairs affected he pushed on through the third and fourth tests and was back up to eighth place. Unfortunately, differential problems curtailed his day on stage six.
Ian Joel/shaun Hughes dropped time after going into the undergrowth on stage one, while Ian Bainbridge/jamie Edwards retired their Subaru Impreza with propshaft failure on the same test.
With the rod between the gearbox and handbrake disconnected, Thorburn quickly got back into the groove on the afternoon stages, setting a time 16 seconds quicker than anybody else on the second
running of Crychan.
He followed this up with quickest time on the next two stages before ending the day with third fastest time in Llyn Login 2 to seal another win and championship success. “It’s been good, I didn’t expect this at the start of the year. The Cambrian win was unexpected and things have just snowballed from there,” said Thorburn of his dominant BTRDA campaign.
“We did enough to stay where we are,” was Petch’s reflection of his afternoon after finishing second. “We couldn’t get our harder tyres warm, and we ripped the blocks off them, and our alternative tyres weren’t ideal.”
Bilham was pleased with his work. He said: “That was mint, a lot better than this morning, we set a decent pace and made no mistakes.”
Top three times on all the stages, including a first fastest BTRDA time, enabled Bilham to finish in third position as Walsh had predicted.
Softening the suspension of his Fiesta
RS WRC and changing to harder tyres made the handling of the car to Cumiskey’s liking, but despite setting consistently quick times, he was unable to hold off Bilham and had to be content with a good fourth place.
Fifth overall and first of the Production Cup runners went to a relieved Naylor. “It’s been a great day out, though we’ve had lots of drama and it’s been stressful at times, I keep hearing strange noises,” he said, as he held off regular rival Thompson.
For Thompson, a spin in Halfway 2 proved costly as he was just five seconds behind at the finish, though he had the consolation of a good haul of Welsh Championship points.
Things didn’t go well for Hirst in the afternoon. A top-five finish was on the cards until the steering column collapsed on his Lancer E9, forcing him to limp home and dropping him to seventh. He is now second in the Welsh Championship behind Tom Llewellin, who locked up the under-23 title.