Johnston Trophy 2010 Report

Berwick & District Motor Club kicked off its 75^th anniversary year with the now traditional curtain raiser the Johnston Trophy Rally weather caused a change of date to run the rally by three weeks due to the excessive amount of snow and nothing but 4 x 4s were really moving.  With the snow all gone everything looked OK to run but the weather was still going to play an important factor in the results. There was a covering of snow on the Friday night before the event which turned to ice and caused a few headaches for some of the competitors on Sunday morning.

The one day event included fourteen special driving tests and a navigation section of around 26 miles. The first test was covered in snow and ice from start to finish and caused traction problems for a few at the token drop mid test. Quickest on this was the Midget of Archie and Richard Simmonds followed closely by the Escort of Andy Smith and Ali Proctor.

There was a fairly long road section to the first of the farmyard tests which caused a few spins on the ice at Easington Grange. On to Coastal Grains and you could hardly walk around never mind drive a car but all managed without damage to cars or scenery.

On to the navigation section and the road conditions caused more problems than the actual navigation. A dip in the road caused several competitors to be stuck and needed the helping hand of the navigators to push the vehicles out. This section also saw the first casualty of the rally with the Avenger of Kevin Clark and Tom Leeming taking a wrong slot and getting stuck in the ditch and causing damage enough to take them out of the rally. The Butterworth’s Escort also went out at this point trying to help and a fuel leak causing breathing problems inside the car, they decided to retire. The Simmonds Midget also lost a lot of time on the last section which would cost them dearly at the end of the day.

Test four was a repeat of one although someone replaced the token box further away from the track which necessitated the navigator to extract themselves from the seat and place the token in the box, not easy for someone, especially with a broken leg i.e. Andrew Fish!

Tests five to nine were run on the Lilburn Estates and comprised some old and some new tests. Five was the first of these and was a short test up a tarmac section, into a silage clamp and out and saw the Escort of Smith/Proctor fastest from the Simmonds Midget followed closely by the Thompson twins Avenger and the Chrisp/Thornton Astra.

Test six at the Horton’s is the events signature test, voted by all the crews as the there favourite, It was slightly changed this year but still got the thumbs up as best test. The Simmonds Midget reclaiming fastest time here.

Test seven at Laverock Law was unchanged from previous years and saw the Escort/Midget battle tied on time.

Test eight from Holborn Grange to North Hazelrigg was new to everyone and at 1.3 miles was the longest of the event. Ice, chicanes and cattle sheds caused a few crews headaches but saw the Simmonds Midget back in command but the Thompson’s Avenger was not far behind.

Test nine was the end of the loop of 5 and caused the demise of the Chrisp/Thornton Astra when a driveshaft let go and had to be pushed out of the test.

Tests ten to fourteen were a re-run of the previous five and with the Simmonds Midget now knowing its way around they were never to be beaten on test times.

The modern section was missing some of the regulars but there were also some new faces and a different winner. The Mitsubishi Colt of Richard and Darren Tennant missed out on a Class win first time out by four seconds from the Fiesta of R Lowrie/N Brigham, but eventual winner was Will Jackson partnered by Neil Morrison in his trusty Opel Manta.

Winners overall were Andy Smith/Ali Proctor but fastest on the tests were Archie and Richard Simmonds. Drive of the day must go to Sue Hynd in the little Fiat 127, an incredible 4^th overall.

Berwick & District Motor Club has certainly started off its 75^th anniversary in the best possible way after another great event, many thanks must go once again to all the landowners who kindly gave the club the use of there land, the Purdy Lodge near Belford and also to all that helped out on the day.

Full results in pdf format Download here