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East Midlands Off Road Club
Drivers to the left of me drivers to the right.
EMORC has a great start to 2012 with its January meeting at Manton Quarry, North Lincolnshire. Six new members joined us and a total of 16 drivers welcomed in the new year with much laughter and merriment. It was good to see the return of Dave Perkins in his 88” Defender which he had completely rebuilt and improved after rolling it in 2010. Clerk of Course for the day was Dave Brewer who was well aided by Sam Martin, Nathan Thomas and Paul Clarke as Marshalls.
The day started out with some well laid out sections which were challenging due to the recent rain fall. Manton produced its usual mixture of steep inclines, rocks and mud with some testing side slopes. There were one or two moments when competitors pushed their luck to the limit and kept the spectators entertained.
The drivers all took up the challenge and it was a very competitive day. The adapted Jeep used by Dan Furniss and Jonathan Jacques needed running repairs to retain coolant and Simon Lile managed to reshape an alloy on his Discovery. But apart from that the morning was incident free.
By the lunch break Jonathan Jacques (adapted Jeep) was leading CCV with 3 points, Paul “Streaky” Henderson (Suzuki SJ) and Pete Newton (Nissan Terrano) were tied on 4 and Chris Waite (Suzuki SJ) and Stuart Martin (Series) tied on 5. RTV3 saw Simon Lile (Discovery) 3 points adrift of Roger Neal (Toyota Landcruiser).
The second half saw 13 of the 16 drivers go clear on the first section with some excellent driving. Chris Waite’s challenge ended on the 6th section when attempting to get up a steep incline his Suzuki SJ broke a prop shaft. On the same section Ross James was convinced his Suzuki SJ’s slipping clutch wouldn’t get him up the first hill only for him to go clear and his smile afterwards said it all.
The afternoon saw the adapted Jeep being driven by Dan and Jonathan, lose its power steering and force them to park it up, continuing in Alan Turner’s Range Rover. Alan who had been up with the leaders all day without adding a scratch to his vehicle then watched on as his “friends” proceeded to batter his pride and joy, and somehow Alan managed to keep smiling.
The day was concluded as dusk descended and when the scores were in, it was the usual suspects who claimed the day in CCV. Pete Newton took first with 13 points, Paul “Streaky Henderson came second with 18 points just edging out Stuart Martin with 19 points in third. RTV 3 was won by Roger Neal with 23 points and second was Simon Lile with 34 points. RTV 2 was won by Dave Perkins.
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