2007 Alpine Rally

[Ben Wilson]

Here 'tis:

YouTube- Alpine Rally 2007 Spectator point 1

YouTube- Alpine Rally 2007 Spectator point 1

[grahamthompson]

The Xmas break has allowed time for an analysis of what turned out to be an extraordinarily competitive and dramatic event, opening with the withdrawal of No1 seed Geoff Portman with suspected engine failure in his Commodore after the media day.

Darryn Snooks and Matt de Vaus in the Stanza were third on the road and came out fast with an eye-opening 7:29, 4 secs ahead of Paul Batten in his P510 navved by his dad, but importantly 10 seconds or more ahead of his other serious rivals. Proving this was no fluke, Snooks backed up with FTD on SS2 with a 3:19, but only 1 second faster than a rapidly awakening Claude Murray. Richard Leitis's fancied Escort withdrew with gearbox woes.

No doubt prodded along by an enthusiastic Lizzie Ferme, Claude hit full pace on SS3 with an 11:11, 8 seconds quicker than Snooks, whose overall lead was cut to a mere 3 seconds. Now into stride, Claude applied the pressure and flew through the fast SS4 with a 9:08, 2 seconds to the good of the Wayne Bell/Nick Vardos Fiat 131, and grabbing the outright lead by 16 seconds from Snooks and Batten. Kiri Dirickx and Tim Batten in their Datsun 1600 produced a competitive 9:17 but at a price of four broken valve springs, victims of a sustained 7500rpm on the wide open spaces. I believe Bob Devenish and his crew came to their aid with some specialised gear allowing repairs to be made without the head being removed, limiting their time penalties. The Schofield/Moore BDA Escort didn't like the flat out pace either, expiring at the end of a very long straight. Carl Stewart and Matt James were also lucky to be able to change a clutch with minimal time losses.

Claude did not keep the lead for long however, as he dropped over a minute to his chasers on SS5 with an excursion, giving outright to Paul Batten whose FTD 4:11 put him 7 seconds in front of Snooks. Batten's moment in the sun also did not last as the Datto's gearbox popped on SS6, leaving Snooks ahead by 16 seconds from Dirickx and Bell, with Stewart only 1 second behind.

Bell was clearly becoming more comfortable in the Fiat and topped SS7 with a 9:46, but only 1 second faster than Snooks, who replied with FTD of 18:52 on the much longer SS8. This was 5 seconds faster than Murray, but importantly extended his lead to 25 seconds over the chasing Bell. On SS9, Middleton/Benefield in the Honda made a stunning move to get into Brett's publicly announced goal of a top 5 position by knocking off a FTD of 21:41. This was only 2 seconds quicker than Bell, but vaulted the Honda from 6th to 3rd outright. Snooks immediately hit back on SS10 with a fastest 6:41 edging a further 4 seconds away from both Bell and Middleton.

Overall positions at the end of the daylight divisions were as follows:

1. Snooks/De Vaus 1.43:37
2. Bell/Vardos + 0:19
3. Middleton/Benefield + 0:33
4. Stewart/James + 0:02
5. Monkhouse/Moscatt + 0:13
6. Semmens/Parry + 0:11
7. Murray/Ferme + 0:07
8. Dirickx/Batten + 0:08
9. David/ Geelan + 0:24
10. Robison/Robison + 0:01

Nightfall, and competition opened with the highly anticipated 32 km tarmac blast up to Buchan. Taylor and Smalley showed the RX7 could do the business with a cracking 19:57, a solitary second quicker than the Semmens/Parry Nissan 200SX (who set FTD in the 2005 event at 19:55). Had not the RX7 been carrying a 2 minute penalty from SS6, their time would have taken the crew to 8th outright. Things went seriously wrong for Bell who slid off backwards without damage, but had the starter motor fail at that critical moment. Despite a dramatic dash on foot by service crew Geoff Stewart and Shaun Urquhart, they gave up exhausted at 7km, still 5 km short of their objective; an impressive attempt nonetheless. Middleton pushed a little too hard coming off his FTD on the previous stage, and looped the Honda deranging its light pod, dropping some 4 minutes to the front runners and out of the top 3. Monkhouse's challenge was set back with alternator failure forcing him to drive the stage on dying high-beams only, costing at least a minute. Stewart suddenly inherited second overall, with a charging Semmens in the enviable position of car 1 on the road, only 11 seconds back.

On SS12 Semmens took full advantage of his dust free slot to post a 12:01, 22 seconds quicker than Dirickx in the immediately following vehicle. This drew him to only 6 seconds from the lead and things were looking ominous for the chasers if the dust persisted. Dirickx's alternator decided to fail about this point and he gave up his second spot on the road making repairs, and this misfortune may have decided the rally.

Adding to the drama, Semmens seriously damaged the Nissan's exhaust on SS12, dropping him from the front-running position, and thus Snooks, rather than Dirickx, inherited the dust-free run. His good fortune resulted in a FTD of 27:41, 20 seconds better than Murray and Taylor. Critically his closest challengers fell back 2 minutes or more in the dust, and his lead over Murray blew out to 1:25. Monkhouse was lucky to only lose some 30 seconds after beaching the Datsun while pushing hard in the dust.

SS14 was no better for the chasers with Snooks clocking 15:18; 20 seconds ahead of Middleton. Murray's challenge faltered with a flat, seriously slowing 3rd placed Stewart in his wake. The David/Geelan Porsche probably didn't know they had slipped into 2nd overall, albeit 4:16 in arrears. However Stewart, Dirickx, Monkhouse and Robison were all within the next 27 seconds.

On the final night stage, Middleton and Robison must have stumbled into holes in the dust with 11:19 and 11:27 respectively. Robison was 28 seconds quicker than Snooks and 41 seconds faster than David, so swept into 2nd overall. Crews pondered their strategy for the morrow as they went to bed in the following positions:

1. Snooks/De Vaus 3.11:42
2. Robison/Robison + 4:15
3. David/Geelan + 0:14
4. Stewart/James + 0:21
5. Monkhouse/Moscatt + 0:03
6. Dirickx/Batten + 0:14
7. Taylor/Smalley + 0:06
8. Murray/Ferme + 0:11
9. Middleton/Benefield + 0:12
10. West/West + 1:17

Although Sunday morning offered some slippery conditions, Snooks's lead appeared unassailable, but surely Robison was feeling the pressure! Or was he? The SKDAC Dattos immediately threw out the challenge on SS16, Stewart's 4:19 bettering Murray by one second, but Robison kept pace only one further back.

Monkhouse wound up the 180BSSS for a 2:49 on SS17, one second ahead of Stewart, whose time was good enough to push David's Porsche back to 4th ouright. Not to be overshadowed by his fellow SKDACians, Dirickx knocked off SS18 with a 2:23, but was matched by Robison, both one second faster than Murray. Somewhere about here Robison's exhaust system fell off, but was replaced without time penalty.

Stewart went into full attack mode on SS19 and judging from the in-car video, barely got away with it, but his 8:50 was a whopping 15 seconds faster than Dirickx and Robison, getting within 16 seconds of the latter's 2nd spot.

At 41 km, SS20 was the last real chance the attackers would have to grab some advantage, but Murray's 26:38 only pipped Dirickx by 2 seconds. Critically Robison's 3rd fastest doubled his lead over Stewart to 32 seconds, who was at risk of falling into Dirickx's clutches.

Snooks was well into quick and riskless mode but Robison was going all out, producing fastest time of 5:39 on SS21, 4 seconds to the better of Monkhouse. Dirickx's 5:50 more significantly took 7 seconds off Stewart and with it 3rd outright by 1 second!

On the penultimate stage Murray took FTD with a 10:08, Monkhouse again being edged, this time by 1 second. Dirickx was a further 1 second back, but increased his margin over Stewart to 4 seconds.

On the final stage Monkhouse finally prevailed to be quickest at 13:06; 1 second to the better of Murray, but both just failed by 3 and 5 seconds respectively to overtake Stewart. Dirickx held his nerve with a 13:09 to gain a further second to Stewart and lock up 3rd outright; his third consecutive Alpine podium.

Final positions were;

1. Snooks/de Vaus 4.27:42
2. Robison/Robison + 2:58
3. Dirickx/Batten + 0:42
4. Stewart/James + 0:05
5. Murray/Ferme + 0:02
6. Monkhouse/Moscatt + 0:02
7. Middleton/Benefield +1:16
8. David/Geelan + 0:59
9. Taylor/Smalley + 1:57
10. West/West + 0:32

With 11 crews taking fastest times, this was a cracker of an event. Murray won Division 1 by 16 seconds from Snooks, Snooks won Division 2 by 4 seconds from Bell, Taylor won the night Division 3 by 10 seconds from Snooks, and Murray won Division 4 by 12 seconds from Dirickx. Snooks/de Vaus were the only crew to make the top 10 on 22 of the 23 stages, missing by 2 seconds only from a perfect score. Monkhouse managed 21 of 23, Murray and Stewart one less.

The pace was up from 2005, when the best Group 1 car finished 6th outright: this year the reliable Gibson/Cole BMW took those honours at 24th, whereas the crew was 10th o/r in 2005.

The seeding was pretty much spot on, for of those outside the top 20, only Heywood (seeded at 30 but tipped as a flyer by insiders) managed to crack the top 10 on seven occasions. Cuthbert (at 24) did it 4 times, Justin Snooks (21) three, Willett (27) twice, Whittenbury (23) and Roberts (36) once each. The blat up to Buchan was particularly telling, with all 8 of the remaining top 10 seeds taking the fastest times, with Justin Snooks' Escort and the West/West Proton (which improved on its 2005 time by almost 2 minutes) making up the places.

With so few accidents and such brilliant performances at the top end of the field, this rally set a new standard, a credit to both organisers and competitors. Roll on 2009.

[DaveTrees]

Originally Posted by grahamthompson

Brian Semmens appears not to have finished SS13 (anyone know why?)

Brian damaged his exhaust on SS12 I think ..... they were still madly working on the Silvia back in the Buchan service park when we (car 74) were there. They then cut & ran back to Lakes I think..

[bob moore]

Originally Posted by grahamthompson

(lots and lots of words and numbers)

So that's what was happening!

Great report, GT

Originally Posted by grahamthompson

Roll on 2009.

Amen.

Although the bp Ultimate Rally might provide some entertainment in 2008.

[Darryn Snooks]

Middleton had a big spin on the tarmac I believe, wiping out his driving light pod in the process

[monk]

great report!

yer brett had a big spin on the night stage and lost time removing his driving lights. we also lost bout 1 min 20 on the tarmac night stage too with no alternator from the startline, driving on very dull high beams!

then went off on the long night stage and got beached trying to get off the cliff we were perched on!! lol managed to reverse off after about 30 seconds of trying..

also got a flat on ss 19 and had no spare for the next 2 stages..

apart from that, had a ball!

[wbell]

Great Report
You should have been a Motor Sport Reporter

[razoo]

Originally Posted by bob moore

So that's what was happening!

Although the bp Ultimate Rally might provide some entertainment in 2008.

News update on BP Ultimate Rally
HRA BP Site

Geoff

[Stewy]

Top report there GT, that reminds me I must finish off my report that I only got half way through

[Spac]

Any news on the Teams results?

[DaveTrees]

Originally Posted by Spac

Any news on the Teams results?

No idea. I'll see if I can find out. At worst, all will be revealed at the presentation at the Feb HRA meeting I guess !

We must be in with half a chance, seeing all 6 "Euros & Yen" cars finished !!

[AussieNav]

Does it really matter, lets be honest I'm sure the team results will be as big a balls up and hoax as the outright ones became...

[Kagan]

Originally Posted by AussieNav

Does it really matter, lets be honest I'm sure the team results will be as big a balls up and hoax as the outright ones became...

What did I miss??? What was the Hoax??

[monk]

lol dale

[mattj]

awards and all other trophies: