Christmas Stages Rally @ Croft Circuit. (Not 56K friendly)

[GSH]

<Looks around for the usual suspects....looks like i'm first :lol: >



On a day when Brass Monkeys were too scared to venture outside, Croft Circuit once again played host to Northallerton Auto Club's Christmas Stages Rally 2005.

As per usual the weather was mixed, ranging from sunshine to snow showers, just like summer at Croft then :D

For anyone familiar with Croft, but not familiar with this event, some of the stages used the perimeter road, which made for some interesting shots and equally interesting conditions for those of us moving around the track. Not being able to walk on the road meant i took most of the mud from around the site home with me, on my boots :rolleyes:


The eventual overall winners, Tony Bardy & Reg Smith in a Nissan Sunny GTi-R.

http://www.pbase.com/geoff_hubbert/image/54041639/original.jpg


Nick Cook & Tommi Graham in a MK1 Escort. They took 1st place in their class and a very creditable 17th Overall.

http://www.pbase.com/geoff_hubbert/image/54041672/original.jpg


Colin & Helen Elstrop in their Triumph GT6.

http://www.pbase.com/geoff_hubbert/image/54041692/original.jpg

Later in the day, Summer arrived !

http://www.pbase.com/geoff_hubbert/image/54041694/original.jpg

Ian & Neil Coleman in another Sunny GTi-R

http://www.pbase.com/geoff_hubbert/image/54041659/original.jpg

Can't have a rally thread without a Mk2 Escort...

http://www.pbase.com/geoff_hubbert/image/54041612/original.jpg


Apologies for not getting any closer to the cars, but i really didn't fancy ending up as the Rally equivalent of the Rolls-Royce Flying Lady, sitting on the front of a MK2 Escort or something ;)


All the shots above were with the 20D and Sigma 70-200 f2.8, as are all the shots in the gallery...

Christmas Stages Rally Gallery (http://www.pbase.com/geoff_hubbert/croftxmas&page=all)

Thanks for looking, if indeed you did ;)

[BruceC]

look great! I really like that second.

[gsgary]

Damn wish i had known about this i was staying in Yarm for Christmas could have stayed an extra day
Great shots
Gary

[GSH]

Thanks for the comments chaps :)

Here's a couple more.

Car 45 was driven by Ian Gillespie, with Matthew Wilson as his co-driver. Matthew is the son of Malcolm Wilson, Manager of the Ford WRC Team. I'm told Matthew was co-driving here as "relaxation" before heading off to drive in the Monte Carlo Rally at the end of January ! :)

http://www.pbase.com/geoff_hubbert/image/54073073/original.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/geoff_hubbert/image/54073074/original.jpg

[Ian_H]

Great shots Geoff :) It was a bit Baltic at times and some really weird light, I parked up inside the stages so sat 2 of them out in the car trying to defrost, I'll post some of my shots up later.

Cheers
Ian

[KennyG]

I gave it a miss this year as I didn't have any clients running. Just as well with the weather as the journey home would have been 'interesting'. May do the JF, not decided yet. Hope you are thawed out Ian. It has not got above freezing here since Monday.