2001 Jumping Jack Report

2 February 2001

This year's Association of Northern Ireland Car Clubs Navigation Rally championship will be contested without Eric and Glenn Patterson, champions for the 3 previous seasons, and so this leaves the door open for all other competitors to battle for the position of dominant navigation crew.

The only previous Northern Ireland champion competing this year will be the victor in 1995, Barry Taggart with Ed Murphy. Other front runners are likely to be runners up in the last two campaigns, John Henderson and Lloyd Cochrane (2000) and Phil and Brian Dorman (1999). Add to that the other proven rally winners, Leslie Young and Lewis Boyd, and Willie McKeown and Patrick McCollum and 2001 looks set to be a very close fight indeed.

The season started with The Queen's University of Belfast Motor Club's Jumping Jack Rally on the 2nd February. Twenty-six crews, ranging from the most experienced to the first-timer, tackled 90 miles of the best tight and twisty country lanes of County Antrim between Nutt's Corner and Carrickfergus.

In the battle for overall honours, the first third of the rally was cleaned by three crews: last year's winners, John Henderson and Lloyd Cochrane, Leslie Young and Lewis Boyd and the local Carrickfergus crew of Phil and Brian Dorman. Unfortunately the latter retired soon after Brian became ill. Three other crews were still in contention at this stage with only 3 minutes of penalties each. These were Ed Murphy and Barry Taggart, Gary Sheridan and Richard Hicks, and Willie McKeown and Oliver McCollum.

In the second third, Young and Boyd continued to clean the event to lead by 2 minutes from Henderson and Cochrane, while the others fell further behind. It was still very close for 3rd spot, with only 1 penalty separating the three crews that had earlier been tied.

In the final third, Young and Boyd made their first mistakes of the evening to drop 7 penalties so that they started the final 8 mile section having seemingly handed victory to Henderson and Cochrane. The tables turned again, with the new leading crew amassing enough penalties for the rally to finish level. The victory went to Young and Boyd on the further clean rule. Third overall finally went to Murphy and Taggart, after they had the cleanest run of all through that final section. Sheridan and Hicks finished 3 minutes adrift in 4th, with McKeown and McCollum making a costly error by missing a loop and picking up 80 minutes worth of penalties in the process. This let Colin Hazelton and David White, winners of Class 2, into 5th place overall, and another crew to make that expensive error of missing the loop, Trevor and Ricky Reid, finished on 89 minutes and in 6th place.

David Sommerville and Kyle Wethers continued their successful run by winning Class 3 by a considerable margin from Paul Gray and Jim Smith in 2nd and Colin and Pat Quinn in 3rd. Eddie Robinson and Alan Shilliday had a steady run to finish in 4th on 45 minutes penalties. David Gibson and William Hamilton were very impressive for most of the rally, cleaning the first 35 miles, but then having a nightmare 7 miles were they picked up 56 penalties and finally finished 5th in class.

In Class 4, Michael Annett and Bryan Heaney won quite comfortably in the end, although they had to overhaul early leaders James and Philip Stephenson. John McCay and Andrew Milligan completed the top 3 in that class.

Results:

Overall:

  1. Leslie Young/Lewis Boyd (Ford Sierra) 8 mins
  2. John Henderson/Lloyd Cochrane (Talbot Sunbeam) 8 mins
  3. Edward Murphy/Barry Taggart (Vauxhall Nova) 11 mins
  4. Gary Sheridan/Richard Hicks (Vauxhall Astra) 14 mins
  5. Colin Hazelton/David White (Vauxhall Nova) 53 mins
  6. Trevor Reid/Ricky Reid (Ford Escort RS) 89 mins
  7. Willie McKeown/Oliver McCollum (Mini Cooper S) 91 mins

Class 1

  1. Leslie Young/Lewis Boyd (Ford Sierra) 8 mins
  2. John Henderson/Lloyd Cochrane (Talbot Sunbeam) 8 mins
  3. Edward Murphy/Barry Taggart (Vauxhall Nova) 11 mins
  4. Gary Sheridan/Richard Hicks (Vauxhall Astra) 14 mins
  5. Willie McKeown/Oliver McCollum (Mini Cooper S) 91 mins

Class 2

  1. Colin Hazelton/David White (Vauxhall Nova) 53 mins
  2. Trevor Reid/Ricky Reid (Ford Escort RS) 89 mins

Class 3

  1. David Sommerville/Kyle Wethers (Peugeot 205) 2 mins
  2. Paul Gray/Jim Smith (Ford Escort) 22 mins
  3. Colin Quinn/Pat Quinn (Meastro) 23 mins
  4. Eddie Robinson/Alan Shilliday (Metro) 45 mins
  5. David Gibson/William Hamilton (Escort) 64 mins

Class 4

  1. Michael Annett/Bryan Heaney (Vauxhall Cavalier) 50 mins
  2. James Stephenson/Philip Stephenson (Mini) 70 mins
  3. John McCay/Andrew Milligan (VW Golf) 95 mins
  4. Clifford Auld/Peter Moore (Triumph 2.5) 211 mins
  5. Mo Downey/Andrew McKinney (Escort) 219 mins
Posted by PMcCollum on 27/1/2009; Last updated by PMcCollum on 27/1/2009