Bardy freezes out rivals to celebrate Jack Frost glory

Driving his Nissan Sunny GTI-R on the Darlington and District Motor Club annual event, the Scotch Corner driver and his York co-driver Reg Smith saw off a three-pronged MG Metro 6R4 onslaught from double winners John Bogie and David Paterson, Croft debutants John Stone and Lee Carter and Middleham brothers Stuart and John Adamson.

With black ice and intermittent rain greeting competitors, Bardy was quickest out of the blocks by seven seconds ahead of the ultra-rapid Ford Escort Mk 1 of Stafford driver Dave Holland, with Lancastrian Stone third fastest. Scotsman Bogie struggled and dropped half a minute on the ice before Bardy edged further ahead on SS2.

Bogie got a slice of luck with the only dry run on SS3 before another cloudburst and clawed four seconds back on second-fastest Bardy, a feat he repeated on SS4.

As they headed into the lunch interval, Bardy, despite a spin, led by 11 seconds over Holland with Stone third, two seconds up on Bogie with Leeds driver Dave Turnbull (Subaru WRC) and Adamson completing the top six.

With a drying track for the afternoon's action, the 6R4s started to up the pace and Bogie set fastest time on SS5 to move to within three seconds of Holland, but Bardy was still ahead and it was Stone's turn to top the time charts on SS6.

Going into the final two stages, Bardy's lead stood at 36 seconds ahead of Bogie, who had displaced Holland by three seconds with Stone a similar distance back in fourth.

But Holland's brave bid came to a halt on the penultimate stage with a burst oil pipe, leaving the resurgent Stone to set another fastest time ahead of Bardy as an incorrect tyre choice effectively ended Bogie's bid.

Bardy, who spends most of his time preparing rallycross cars, just needed a clean run around the final stage in the dark to secure victory, which he did to end his ten-year drought and take the win by 18 seconds ahead of Stone, who beat Bogie by seven seconds.

Turnbull retired when his clutch gave up on SS7, handing fourth to Adamson, while Mancunian Steve Simpson eventually got to grips with his Subaru WRC to claim fifth. Sixth was secured by a sensational drive by Carlisle brothers Barry and Michael Lindsey in their little 1600cc Peugeot 106.

Stockton's Keith Davison and Hartburn co-driver Ian Jackson brought their Darrian home in 12th place overall and second in class, two places behind Darlington stunt driver Russ Swift, who was co-driving for Dave Jones in his Escort Cosworth.

Mark Thompson from Evenwood and Barnard Castle co-driver Giles Dykes overcame their recent reliability problems in their Peugeot 206 to claim 13th overall and third in class despite a cautious start which included a spin on the opening stage.

The pair endured a couple of overshoots in the tricky conditions before setting eighth-fastest time on the final stage to claim vital points in the North of England Championship.

Eggleston's Alistair Hutchinson looked set to continue his great form along with St John Dykes (Barnard Castle) as the pair set an amazing sixth-fastest time on SS1 in their Renault Clio. But an electrical fault on stage two gave them a maximum, which dropped them down the order.

But they persevered and, despite a spin and gearbox problems late in the day, finished a battling 39th overall.

Gilling West driver Terry Searle, with son Luke on the maps, was 18th overall and fourth in class in his Rover 25, while Paul Swift emulated father Russ in the co-driver's seat of Paul Moss' Citroen Saxo and the pair finished 22nd overall.

Former circuit manager Brian Morris (Dalton) and Darlington's Mark Leybourne impressed in their Datsun 204Z with 32nd place overall and fourth in class.

Great Langton driver Steve Williams recorded third in class for bringing his Rover Metro home in 26th position, while Northallerton bike racer Darren Grimston claimed a fighting 48th overall and 12th in class in the Simon Bailes-backed CS Automotive Peugeot 106.

Top ten. - 1 Tony Bardy/Reg Smith, Nissan Sunny GTI-R, 39min 13sec; 2 John Stone/Lee Carter, MG Metro 6R4, 39.31; 3 John Bogie/David Paterson, MG Metro 6R4, 39.39; 4 Stuart Adamson/John Adamson MG Metro 6R4, 41.12; 5 Steve Simpson/Mark Booth, Subaru Impreza, 41.31; 6 Barry Lindsey/Michael Lindsey, Peugeot 106, 41.40; 7 Chris Platt/Mick Robinson, Vauxhall Corsa, 42.18; 8 Michael Holland/Rhona Calverley, Ford Escort Mk 1, 42.22; 9 Richard Wormald/Dave Hanlon, Vauxhall Astra Sport, 42.28; 10 David Jones/Russ Swift, Ford Escort Cosworth, 42.30.

* The organisers of the Eastern Airways British Sidecar Championship have announced that the series will be backed by flooring specialist Carpet Time of Darlington.

Carpet Time is working with teams on the image and presentation of the new-look series, which gets under way at Silverstone on March 28.

l The opening round of the Kwik Fit Pirelli British Rally Championship, the Pirelli International Rally over the weekend of April 23 and 24, will feature a short, sharp format with the entire ten-stage event and the reconnaissance all crammed into just 36 hours as the organisers strive to reduce costs for competitors while still providing an international-standard event.

Deputy clerk of the course Alan Blake is the man charged with coming up with an acceptable schedule and he has produced an interesting format with some new twists to the well-known classic Kielder Forest stages in Northumberland.

Stage reconnaissance will take place on the morning and early afternoon of the Friday before the event proper blasts off from Gateshead's Baltic Centre for Contemporary Arts. The 7.30pm start is timed to avoid the rush hour traffic which marred last year's event.

The usual curtain-raising city centre stage has been dropped and the rally heads straight to the giant Kielder complex for a batch of three evening stages before an overnight halt in Hexham.

Saturday morning will see a 7am restart from Hexham, followed by a full day of action featuring seven classic Kielder stages interspersed with central servicing at the well-equipped Hexham Auction Mart venue, before an early evening finish back in Gateshead town centre.

The weekend's action will also include the Pirelli Clubman's Rally, a one-day event offering some 60 stage miles, and a new innovation, the Pirelli Historic Challenge. This will run over both days, at the front of the field, and will give Historic enthusiasts the opportunity to drive the famous Kielder stages, which were for so long a feature of the Lombard RAC Rally.

* Following on from the popular Specsavers Christmas Stages video night recently, Northallerton Auto Club will be repeating the format when they meet at Elders function room bar in Northallerton on Monday evening.

Action from last weekend's Jack Frost rally will be featured as well as some classic rally videos from the past. There will also be a table quiz and the evening gets under way at 9pm. Admission is free and members both old and new are welcome.

Meanwhile, the annual dinner and awards presentation will take place on Saturday, February 21 at Romanby Golf Club. Tickets will be available at Monday's social evening or by reserving them with Dave Owen at Motoscope on 01609 780155.

* The first round of The Walkers/Tecno2 ANECCC Stage Rally Championship gets under way in the shape of the Riponian Rally next weekend and, with just a few days left, entries are still coming in.

Latest to be received is from previous winner Charlie Payne driving the Hyundai Accent WRC recently acquired from Paul Bird. Other leading entries are former Scottish champion Barry Johnson, Kevin Procter, Ian Joel and another former winner, Matt Yeadon.

Also on the list and sure to be a crowd-pleaser is David Stokes, a national champion in the Seventies, with his ex-works Mk1 Escort. Well-known international competitor Steve Petch will drive the Subaru course car with regular co-driver John Richardson alongside him.

The event starts and finishes at Lightwater Valley theme park on the A6108, four miles north of Ripon, and a full preview will appear next week.