Hot on the heels of Round 1 – The Echinville Distillery Stage Rally at Kirkistown, the Micra challenge Round 2 the Race and Rally Stages is almost upon us.
The dust has hardly settled on the excitement of the first round though following the retirement of last year’s champion duo of Stephen Whitford/ Jonny Hart. They led the Micra’s at the half- way mark, but it was all over then as the clutch had failed on the Nissan. As Whitford recalled – “as I neared the stage finish there was a loud noise from the clutch and I lost drive and had to coast the car to the finish line….”. They were being pressed hard early on by brothers Peter and Stephen Dowds who would go on to take a well-deserved inaugural Challenge Win, with some fine driving all day. Dowds had applied the pressure from the start. Whilst Whitford finished the opening stage in his customary first position, he was clearly not going to have it his own way – with Dowds hot on his heels only 1.1 seconds behind. Although Whitford extended his lead by 5.1 seconds on the second stage Dowds took 2.6s back on the third, after which he was in the lead.
Before stage four the heavens opened, and Peter Dowds could not back off. Andrew Bushe was making his Micra debut with Geraldine McBride co-driving, and moved into second, going fastest on stage four, where the Dowd’s had spun in the atrocious conditions. The gap to the lead was down to 11.4 seconds, but Bushe was stuck behind a slow car on stage five, and felt he wasn’t going to catch the rapid Dowds brothers so settled for second.
Stanley Orr/ Graham Henderson were fighting with Andrew Bushe and also try to close up on the Dowds brothers. Stanley was a fine third fastest on stage two, actually a fraction ahead of Dowds, but disaster struck on stage three with a minor over-shot leaving him having to reverse off a tyre, over twenty seconds being lost. Despite some more fast stage times later in the day, the game was up and Bushe finished as runner up to Dowds with Orr taking the final podium position.
In the new for 2024 ‘Standard Car’ class the competition at Kirkistown was a straight fight between the family pairings of Jonathan Eadie/ Alan Eadie (son & father) and Laura Philips/ Robin Philips (daughter & father). Both teams enjoyed the day pushing their lesser spec’d Micras to some very competitive times and keeping each other on their toes. This surely has to be the most economical way to get into proper stage rallying. On the day despite having the guidance of her father and former Northern Ireland Rally Champion Robin, Laura had to take second place behind former motocross champion Jonathan Eadie who was delighted to take the win on his first rally. In addition to competing on the overall Challenge the ‘Standard Car’ competitors have their own mini-competition with the winner declared after the third round at St Angelo on the May Day rally. Advantage Jonathan Eadie.
With the Race and Rally sponsored Round 2 only days away, the entry list has been published to reveal a fantastic 10 Micras will be in attendance. Whilst Jonathan Eadie and Laura Philips will do battle once again for Standard Class honours, overall victory will be an even greater challenge. With Peter Dowds/ Steven Dowds fresh from their Round 1 victory Stephen Whitford/ Jonny Hart have their Micra re-prepared and back to full health and will be chasing hard for much needed Challenge points. They will be joined at Bishopscourt by one of last year’s front runners Philip White/ Brian Rowan who have their car fully repaired following an unfortunate crash on the Down Rally. Also returning to the fray will be Claudy father and son crew Paul and Jordon Hone – only this time Jordan will occupy the drivers seat! Fresh from his Killarney Forestry win in his R5 Fiesta Jordan will be in very different machinery but he is no stranger to the Micra having rallied one across the UK in his formative years.
Andrew Bushe/ Geraldine McBride and Stanley Orr/ Graham Henderson will hopefully pick up where they left off in Round 1 and will be sure to be pushing to the front this weekend at Bishopscourt. Mark McElwee/ John Henderson are new to the Challenge for 2024 as are Fraser Mulholland/ Mark McLernon who have been burning the midnight oil to get their newly built Kit Car out for his first event. Best wishes to all the crews – this is going to be a cracker!
Words: ANDREW BUSHE / MICRA CHALLENGE | Photos: NORTH X NORTH WEST PHOTOGRAPHY [Images must not be used in any way without prior written consent of the photographer]
