Skoda Rally Blog

Yesterday Rally Guide 1 was published for Wales Rally GB 2012, so the schedule is available, and sees a return to servicing in Cardiff (as per 2010), meaning a more central location (i.e. being able to stay in Cardiff all week).  It takes place on 14-16 September, a couple of months earlier than previously, so should hopefully see better weather than other years.

However, I have a problem.  I don’t have a navigator – Paul is unfortunately unable to do the event as Baby Burley II is in the oven, and due out about a month after the event.  Last year didn’t work out and I didn’t get to do the event, so I’m posting this to see if anyone has any decent suggestions.  I’ll outline what I’m after:

• Someone who has a Rally International Licence – this means you will need to have finished enough rallies to go from having your MSA Stage Rally Driver licence (6 national B finishes will do it), then done the medical and got your upgrade.  This is easy enough, but obviously costs  a few quid (depending on your doctor – mine charged me £12 for my last one, Paul’s was more like £180!).  They will also need the full FIA-compliant set of safety gear (underwear, boots, suit, helmet, HANS device)
• Someone who is willing to put up half the cost of the entry; this is the only way I can afford to take part.  In 2010 I think the total was around £4000, give or take.  Paying the entry fee of £1745 and your own costs would be pretty much what is needed – the other costs I can take care of; it might seem like there’s nothing else to spend, but believe me once you’ve paid for accomodation, fuel, tyres and a bunch of other stuff, another £2000 is spent pretty quickly.
• Someone who has the same attitude as me (and indeed Paul) to doing the event.  We have done it previously with Paul producing a single-page schedule for the week, and this has worked perfectly well – I’ve spoken to a couple of drivers who say they have had navigators who have produced “War and Peace movement schedules” – this isn’t something that’s needed, IMO, and I don’t think I would see eye-to-eye with anyone who would do that.  As we would be spending the week together for 12 hours+ per day, this is essential.  I take rallying seriously, but within the bounds of knowing my own talent/ability, and having a laugh.  I am under no illusions that I’m going to be doing this for anything other than the (fantastic) experience – indeed having done it 4 times before I know what I’m looking to do.  Obviously I’m not going to drive round like an OAP, but it’s a balance between having a great week and frightening myself silly!  A sense of humour is vital, I think, but I guess everyone thinks they have one!
• Having a car that could be used for recce would be a big advantage – I sold my recce car in 2010, and would need to prepare another one which wouldn’t be the end of the world, but would be more time and money…

That just about covers it.  The car is nearly ready to go (which is unusual) – it needs a few more touches done to the mapping, and a small list of “niggles” addressed, but it’s in the best shape it’s ever been, and more powerful than ever before.  This is absolutely the last time I will be able to afford to do something like this, and I would like to do it, but I can’t do it without finding the right person to do it with;  I’ve been immensely fortunate to have done it four times with Paul, and despite all the struggles on a couple of the events, they have been among the most memorable things I’ve ever done.  I WANT TO DO THIS, so if anyone has any suggestions, I am all ears – use the contact form!

As anyone who knows me (and indeed anyone who will listen) will tell you, I have loved doing Rally GB.  It’s not only been achieving (in a sense) a boyhood dream, but the experience itself has been a brilliant one for me; from the highs of just being there in 2006, to the horror and hell of 2007 (which was hell at the time but taught me a lot), having a great run in 2008, and of course the truly rollercoaster experience of 2010, I have managed to finish 3 times, and do something that very few people will do.  But the FIA’s rules are rules, and that meant that the car would be ineligible as of 31st December 2010.  The original rules gave a car up to 7 years after it went out of production (the Felicia stopped in 2001, I believe), so 2008 was supposed to be the end.  A change (in rules, I assume, I never got an answer from the FIA) led to the car being allowed in until 2010, but then the writing was on the wall.  As a result there was probably far more interest in us than you would expect from such a low-budget, low-achievement team, but it was, after all, our swan-song.

To that end I finally bit the bullet a few days ago, and sold the Recce car, something I regretted almost instantly as soon as the snow came down again.  But there was far worse to come; I got a message from someone telling me to go check the FIA’s website out;  one thing to be said for the FIA is that all documents and regulations are published on their website, so you can usually find an answer to technical issues (or rather, information as answers are usually a little more oblique).  One of the many documents that is of interest is on this page:

http://www.fia.com/en-GB/sport/Pages/Homologations.aspx

This is the list of homologations – i.e. the vehicles which are currently certified for International competition such as the WRC.  And as I’d been told, I checked the document, and found that….

… the Felicia has been extended for another 2 years.  According to this, we could enter Rally GB another 2 times.  That would be fantastic, as far as I’m concerned.  There are obviously bridges to cross before then, both in terms of finance (although I have been careful this year with money, so I can’t see that being an enormous problem), seeing if everyone else is up for it again, and also to get the engine quicker in the car as well (as there are other parts of the new homologation which I could take advantage of to do this), but if I can, I will be there next year.

Well, it’s been just under a week since the end of Rally GB, and this has been the first time I’ve had a chance to do anything on the car – after all, I got back at nearly midnight on the Sunday, and went to work on the Monday for about 8:30, and have been working since then!  Obviously there was housekeeping to take care of, such as getting Mark’s van back to him (which I didn’t manage until late yesterday), taking the trailer back, etc., but today I got a chance to actually look at the car and give it a clean-up.  And that took quite a while; despite the jetwash that was done at the end of Resolfen and Margam, there was still a LOT of mud and mess on the car, meaning it took about 2 hours of jetwashing to get it near clean.  Then the suspension needed to come off the car – the rears because they will need to go back to Proflex to be rebuilt, but also because they really need to be kept clean to look after them – the reason they were in such poor condition when I got them was because they hadn’t had simple maintenance done, post-event; when you’ve got £4000 worth of suspension (yes, really!) on a car, it makes sense to dedicate an hour or two to removing them and cleaning them up after they’ve done some work, really.  So the rears came off and apart easy enough, and they cleaned up perfectly; I hope that the 2 miles or so of driving without oil in them hasn’t damaged them…  The fronts came off and have been cleaned (although not dismantled yet because of a lack of space, that will have to wait until tomorrow at best), and then the task of cleaning up all the spares and tools started, and this is a BIG job – there was a LOT of water when we were in Wales, so everything needs drying and cleaning, and that’s still in progress, although the spares have mostly been done, there’s still a lot to do, plus all the tools.

So, what was the damage done to the car?

Rear suspension – that will need rebuilding, which will probably be about the £200 mark.  A fitting or setup fault – both hoses had problems, so there’s clearly something wrong, although I thought I’d got everything in the right place.

Front suspension – top mounting spherical bearings were both worn out, they will need replacing at about £50

Mountings – the gearbox mounting needs replacing, about £20

Tankguard – this took a LOT of damage on the Sunday, meaning it will need replacing.  As you can see from the pictures below, it’s had a hard time, mostly because of the low (and bouncy) rear suspension we had to fit on Saturday night to get us through Sunday.

A fair bit of damage taken here...

Long view from the front, see how low it's hanging...

This is about £100 or so for a new one, although there is a fuel leak, so I think the fuel tank has a split in it too, so that will need replacing if that is the case.

Brakes – the front brake pads had started to break up; unusual for Mintex pads, and not cheap at about £80 per set.

There are a few other bits and pieces as well, plus of course replacing the tyres – we wore out 8 tyres completely over the course of the event (at £80 per throw, new), so they will need to be replaced for the next event, which hopefully will be Rallye Sunseeker.  After that the car will need some engine work (again), as the bottom end still has some more improvements to make, which will hopefully allow a higher RPM limit and therefore more power.

It’s not all doom and gloom.  I was privileged to be featured in BBC Wales’ coverage of the event, with about a minute of coverage of us in the car and then a short bit of an interview with me.

Felicia on WRC! © North One Sport and BBC

Round the hairpin, second run; the first run was terrible here so I’m glad that wasn’t shown!

Felicia in the watersplash - © North One Sport and BBC

Through the watersplash in Margam – brilliant fun!

Me on the TV! © North One Sport and BBC

It was really great to see the car on such high-quality video (albeit slowly!), and to have my name on-screen with a Union Jack and a Skoda logo was something I won’t forget!  Huge thanks to Mark James and the team for their excellent coverage of the event (much better than the usual stuff we see), not just because of me being in it!

So, what’s next?

Monte Carlo 2012. It’s an iconic event that would be an immense challenge (both in terms of logistics and driving-wise), and is part of the IRC series, so the Felicia will be eligible for it.  It will require a LOT of saving up, some specialist parts (particularly the tyres, where I’m drawing a blank at the moment, as studded tyres will be necessary), and some real commitment, but I’m determined to do it.  Somehow.

After a rather stressful Saturday night service and having booked the car in 20 minutes late to try to get it running better, I didn’t have a very good night’s sleep, and only got 6 hours in bed anyway (I think I was awake for about two of them, plus I had the weirdest dream about getting a dog (Rufus, from the place where I keep my trailer) to the finish of some kind of event!

Sunday morning was reasonably good, in terms of weather, and we all set off in Al’s car to service, as of course the Recce Felicia which Paul and I had been getting about in was currently up on axle stands with no rear suspension.  Paul was his usual positive self, and said that we’d see how it went – essentially, it is what it is, and what will happen will happen – and was once more a perfect foil for me fretting over what would happen.

We got to Parc Ferme and started the car up, and it ran roughly for about 30 seconds, and then played ball, behaving perfectly as we went to service to load up and set out on what would hopefully be a full day’s rallying with 4 stages; Resolfen which was long at 30km, and Margam which was about 8km with a final section out in the open in the park itself with a big watersplash right at the end.

The road section out to Resolfen 1 was much shorter than Friday or Saturday, but still a reasonable distance, and long enough for the car to break down or play up (but then I guess 200 yards would be that!), but it was fine until we stopped for petrol (filling up with some 99 from Tesco), and then for a mile or two it really stuttered, and nearly stopped completely, with us stuck on a roundabout for a bit… but then it cleared, so I took to thrashing it and then coasting to slow down rather than trying to keep a constant speed, which seemed to work well; it didn’t play up again on the way to the stage.  We arrived about 15 minutes early, and parked up on the forest access road, and it was interesting to see the different approach methods used by different drivers; some were just driving up, while others were really warming the car up as they went, weaving and left-foot braking as they went.  When we got going, Paul said it would probably be a good idea to do the same, to see how much grip we now had from the lower and much softer/bouncier rear end, so I weaved until the back went out, which was a lot earlier than it would with the Proflex on.  We got to the start and then it was time to go into the stage, so we lined up and away we went.

The stage layout meant that after an initial downhill section there was an open hairpin left, and when we went round that it was apparent that there really was a lot less grip than before – the back end was all over the place, which was a bit worrying as the next section was along the side of the mountain, with some fast (for us!) 1 and 2 corners, but I thought we’d see how it went, and bouncy is the first word that sprang to mind.  For the first time I really knew what proper rally drivers were talking about when they talk about needing to back off a bit; I think I needed to take a few mph off on corners, and whenever there were some bumps then it definitely needed to be taken slower as the back would be up in the air, having bottomed out first and then rebounded skywards – not confidence inspiring but after a few goes I think I’d recalibrated enough to get on with it instead of worrying about tumbling down the mountain to my ultimate doom!

Paul was as ever being spot on during this, commenting on how the car was behaving and being positive about how it was going, and once we’d got over the first bit it was going well, all things considered!  The engine spluttered a couple of times, but this was while I was being tentative round a series of bends, so I gave it a good thrash to stop that happening again, which seemed to work.  We got out to the open section up top, and there were lots of spectators there, who probably wondered why we were going so slowly, and particularly down the 700 yard run to the square right, but there were bumps about and I really didn’t want to ping off of the track to a DNF because of a bouncy back end!  We got caught by Nick West again, and got out of his way, and it was interesting to follow him for a bit (until he got away on the longer straights and rougher stuff) and see what lines he was taking and where he was braking as well.  There was a huge rock in the road that I couldn’t avoid and hit with the left front, leading to a dent in the wheel – you could just hear it knocking on left-handers, but we’ve done that before and it soon gets worn away as it wasn’t too bad, so we kept going, hoping it wouldn’t go flat; the next big right-hander showed it was still up, so that was the last we thought about it. We got to the end of the stage pretty happy really.  As Paul said – “One down”.  He also showed me the time card and said “We’re going to fill this all in”.  I said I hoped so!

We had a car wash, and then out onto the road section, where the car played up again – it didn’t want to run at all at one point, but we kept it going thanks to a long downhill section, and that seemed to be the technique – if possible just run on a closed throttle for a while and then it would behave.  Through a town and back onto the road, and then up to Margam, where we parked up on the road outside and got ourselves ready, then drove up to the start, taking care over the bumps we’d noted on recce on the way into it, which had got worse – we thought we might get stuck at one point…

Margam was rough to begin with – the car just didn’t want to get going on the first section, but once it opened up a bit, we finally got some speed up, taking care over the 5 left we’d spun on during the recce, and taking some “interesting” lines through the pair of hairpins (OK, I got it pretty wrong, with the car pointing all over the place, and Paul saying “well, that’s one way to do that”), and then round the back section down to a gap in a wall where I lost the car momentarily, stalling the engine and heading straight for one of the posts; I saw Paul tense up and brace for impact, but managed to get round it – I bet it looked interesting from outside!  Then there was another fast section and into a 6 left through some woods where I’d said on recce that someone would stick a car in, and lo and behold, there was a triangle out, marshals saying keep left, and then an Evo which had been installed at a rather interesting angle shortly after the corner….  We carried on to the open section at the end and tried not to make the same mistake as on the recce run, and it went well, other than backing off over the bump (but still having the back end bump up), and probably braking way too much for the watersplash which almost stopped the car anyway.

Two down, two to go.

The road section went OK – the car didn’t play up at all, and we were back at the service in point in plenty of time, and got out and had a chat to several people, including Rob Pike about next year’s Rallye Sunseeker, although the Skoda will need a LOT of work before then…

We got into service, and there wasn’t anything to do, really; all the issues we’d been carrying were still there; rattling top mounts, a knackered gearbox mounting and so on, but I gave it a check over anyway, and then we had some food; by this time Ian and Al had gone home so it was quite quiet; we saw that Duncan from BRF’s car had a transmission failure, and was looking unlikely to get out for the final two stages, and it always seems so cruel to have got that far and then not finish, but then it’s probably better than going out on the first day and doing next to no stages….

Sunday Lunchtime Service

We set off again, and repeated the same road section, although this time while I was filling up Paul went to McDonald’s to get a Big Mac, which he ate on the way, and then produced a Hamburger as “dessert”…We waited in the same place again, watching people come by….

Skoda sat ready for the last long stage of 2010

.. and then set off one the course closing car turned up behind us, and soon enough we were into the stage.  I’d noticed that the car felt even more bouncy on the road section on the way to the stage, and this was soon confirmed as I “warmed up” the car on the way in – it had even less grip, which would be fun as the National rally had also run through the stage by now, so it would be pretty cut up, I thought.

I wasn’t wrong – there were a lot more bumps and areas of real roughness as soon as we got going, and this carried on throughout; the car felt quite dicey in places and again I didn’t want to chuck it off the road, having had so much trouble and come so far, but I still wanted to give it a good go.  About half way in there was a long straight with a bank on the left and trees on the right, and we were going pretty quickly down it (nearly flat in fourth) when we hit a bump, which chucked the rear up in the air and we went right – left – right as I tried to get the car back under control – I was convinced we were going off as we only narrowly missed a big pile of rocks, but somehow we ended up with it pointing in the right direction (I remembered to try not to over-correct and do an unintentional pendulum turn), and off we went again, although for the next couple of K I took it easy, probably too easy as we got caught by Nick a lot more quickly this time.  There was a LOT of noise from the back of the car, which I thought would be the tankguard dragging because the back of the car was so low, plus the rocks that the FC seem to think are a repair to the road as well!  In the end I think we were only slightly slower than the first run, so it wasn’t too bad overall, and we’d done 3 stages of the 4 of the day.  If we didn’t finish now, at least we’d have had most of the fun, if not the glory.

The final run to Margam went fine, with the car behaving aside from sulking a bit in the run through one of the towns, and it was difficult to clear it as the only way is a flat-out thrash so I did some left foot braking to work the engine hard while not speeding, and this seemed to at least keep it going… and then, into Margam for the last time; one way or another this would be my last ever WRC stage, and the last for a Felicia too.

Margam had really cut up in places too – the beginnning was mega-tough and the now-slaughtered tankguard was dragging on the floor for much of this part of the stage, but it only had 5 miles to keep going through, so we got on with it; on the stage there was a narrow section through posts over a cattle grid where Krudda’s S1600 Swift was firmly buried (with an OK board out though, thankfully), so the next posts were taken a bit gingerly, but at least I made a better job of the next hairpin combo, and even got to overtake Al-Shamsi on stage (admittedly with a problem), handily I he moved out of the way very neatly for us, just before the Evo deposit point in the woods where it had already been removed from!

Finally, out into the open, I gave it a good thrash, trying to take the square left as quickly as possible but it wasn’t spectacular, I’m sure.

Margam - pic by Steven Millband

But more so than stalling the engine in the watersplash (my fault, not the car’s), and then over the finish.  We’d done the stages, I couldn’t believe it and celebrated with gratuitous horn beeping!

So, out into the road section, and we waited around for Nick West to come out of the stage, and then followed him very, very closely until we got to Cardiff, where a problem developed – the engine just stopped, completely.  We’d hit a bump just before this and the mapping box for the ECU had fallen off the dash and then the car just stopped.  A quick check showed that none of the sensors were reading at all, and it looked like the ECU had failed.  So near, yet so far, but we still had a chance – if we got the car to the controls in Cardiff then we could still be classified as finishers, so we pushed the car the 300 yards to the regroup in control and spoke to Gary and Johnathan the Competitor Relations Officers who told us that officials of the event (such as Marshals) could assist, but members of the public or our team couldn’t do, and then helped us push the car round to the Service In control along with another official whose name I don’t know (but am indebted to!) and then the half mile or so to the service out control – James Attwood from Motorsports News offered to help but was advised that it may be illegal so it was best not to; we had 10 minutes to do this, and we managed it in 6, by which time I was rather hot and tired, but at least we’d made it.  We quickly got the WRC tracker out (and were helped by one of the ISC staff who was very helpful), and then got the timecard signed as we were in time then.  We had actually finished, and had only to get the car to Parc Ferme “in a reasonable time”, which would be possible with a bit more push work, but we couldn’t go over the finish ramp without the car, and pushing it there was NOT an option (too far and too many inclines), but I wanted to take another look at the ECU with the laptop, so plugged it in, and started the software.

When I saw what I saw, my heart jumped, and not because of the exercise I’d just done.  The software said “Engine Stopped” at the bottom.  This wasn’t it stating the obvious, it was that the stop button had been pressed on the mapping box we had attached so we could diagnose the problem during the day, and it had killed the engine, but interestingly it was a latching one – Paul had tried it, but possibly twice therefore re-setting it again.  I pressed it again, and it said “Engine Run”.  I walked round to the driver’s side of the car and told the guys who had pushed us that there may be a punchline at this point.

I turned the key.

The engine fired up.

Amazing – OK, we hadn’t missed out on anything as a result of the car stopping running, thankfully, but we could now go to the finish ramp, without which I think our rally wouldn’t quite have felt complete.  I unplugged, thanked the chaps and then set off for the ramp holding area, which involved us driving through the Priority 1 area in the bay, and then along the waterfront.

Done it!

We parked up and I really felt elated; we really had done it, with all these ups and downs.  We spent a fair while talking to other competitors and Marshals (including Paul from BRF trying to convince me to go to Barbados next year), and Andrew Kellitt once more – it’s really good to know that key officials from the MSA take an interest in normal Joes like us as well as the works teams (who were still on the podium celebrating at this point), and after quite a while we got down to the finish ramp – here’s Nick’s Fiesta in front of ours, with a Swift on the ramp…

Ready for the ramp....

… and soon enough it was our turn.  While there wasn’t a massive crowd by now, there were still quite a few people there, and they were really enthusiastic about us, which was great – big thanks to them for their reception and we tried to give them a clap too after I’d been interviewed on the podium, and we’d got our finisher’s awards as well as the Class A5 trophies, which again are beautiful crystal ones with the trophy and event logo inside them in 3D.

We now had to put the car into Parc Ferme for the last time, with it parked up with all the other finishers, most of which looked pretty tidy; I did my last bit of tourism and took a few snaps, but really needed a much brighter flash, alas!

Final Parc Ferme

Fabia S2000 - if only!

We then had a 90 minute wait until 7pm so we could get the car back after the results had been declared final, so we went to Pizza Express in the bay and got the van ready for going home and tools ready for the suspension swap – before Paul could get home we’d need to put the broken suspension back on the rally car, and the suspension coming off the rally car back where it belonged on the recce car so he could drive it home.  This was done reasonably quickly, but it was still 8pm before we left Cardiff…

Ready to go home at last..

The drive home took about 3 1/2 hours, partly because I was taking it easy, partly because I was really, really tired by this point, and partly because Paul called me and said the recce car was making a knocking noise or two, so he stopped at Magor services and I caught him up and checked it out – there wasn’t anything wrong, it’s just a noisy old car that’s got a knocky sumpguard on it, and he’s used to driving a 2-year old BMW!  Still, better to check than have an accident!

So, that was it.  Rally GB 2010.  My summary?  For me, I think it had everything – highs and lows.  For the first time I really think I actually drove well throughout – I openly admit I was really all over the place when first starting the recce, but I got it together reasonably quickly, and Paul was often commenting that I’d done something well, and that we “didn’t want to be going any faster than that”, etc.  Obviously I’d have been happier had the car not played up, but it all turned out OK in the end, and certainly added some drama and spice to it, and we got through it.

I have to say a few thanks – Ian and Al for being a brilliant service crew and really keeping our spirits up and looking after us; it really wouldn’t have been the same without them.  They got everything changed over on Saturday service with seconds to spare, and we would have got into Parc Ferme on time had it not been for the engine playing up suddenly again; top marks to both of them for that.  To Paul for again being a brilliant navigator and always being pragmatic and positive throughout the event, even when things went horribly wrong, and for suggesting solutions to problems, most of which worked out.  Plus providing some interesting road section banter, including the theory on sheep in Wales amongst many other things.  To Nick and Simon for being really great guys as we had a good laugh til the very end, and for helping us out when we really needed it.  To everyone who marshalled and attended the event, it was great to see people clapping and waving at us as we drove past, even when slow and bouncy!  To Tammie who has been great throughout all the build-up and the event – she doesn’t understand half the things I’m talking about (she says this, not me), but listens and helps anyway, and to my Mum for as ever sorting things out for me when I’ve not got time – she’s taken bits here there and everywhere as well as stayed in for couriers to deliver last-minute parts to get everything done in time.

It’s been brilliant doing this, and as I sit here writing this on Monday morning (at work, but thankfully there are benefits to teaching, such as setting tests!), I’m really pleased that we did it; it’s not something that I’ll ever forget, made more special by all the difficulties we had and overcame in the end.  I know that in the future I’ll be a little sad that I’ll not get to do something like this again, because there’s just no way that I can afford a newer car that’s still homologated.  I’d love to do an IRC round or two before the car is not eligible for that any more, and Monte Carlo really appeals, but it would mean a solid year of saving and even then it would be an incredibly difficult thing to do, both personally and financially.

OK, first up this will be brief – today has been a VERY long day and with a not-too-great outcome, so it is late, and I am very tired and not in the best frame of mind – so apologies for this, it’ll be more “bullet points” than long text – I will come back and flesh it out later on, honest!

So, with that in mind:

We set out about the same time, got the car out of Parc Ferme and all was well – got to service and loaded up for the day, and set off on the long road section to the first stage, Radnor 1.  This was the first stage we recce’d, and seems a LONG time ago now.  The road section was pretty easy on time, so we got near the stage entry and parked up with some other cars, and had a break, watching others come through.  One notable thing was one rally car reversing into another one when he missed his junction, and didn’t even stop to apologise or anything!

These were NOT the cars that ran into each other!

The stage itself went really well – the car was running well, although it wasn’t happy on part throttle (misfiring) it was revving out OK, and the stage was good as it was bright and sunny, with LOTS of spectators about, and the condition of the stage was good.  I got into a good rhythm pretty much straight away, and I felt it went really well all over, aside from the very end of the stage, which was really muddy, and I ended up totally off the line in the field instead of on the track, but I don’t think I was alone in that from the tracks I saw.

The road section to the next stage, Monument Hill 1 was fairly long, during which Paul came up with a theory that there aren’t actually many sheep in Wales, most of them are plastic dummies as they never move.  He also renamed one of the towns we went through as “Pillow”.  We had a bit of time spare when we got there too, and again watched the big boys pass us by, before going into the stage – here we are on the stage start:

Monument Hill - thanks for the pic, Simon!

Again this went well, with the car running OK, and the downhill sections getting it pretty much flat in top gear; gripping stuff aside from the shadows we went into making it hard to see where corners started.  But again, it went well, and we had a few “moments”, but nothing serious; it just felt like I was getting something like the most out of the car.

Next up was Four Ways Crychan – here we are on the start line again:

Crychan start - thanks again Simon!

This stage had worried me before, being half tarmac and then the classic forest stage (one I really like), but I needn’t have worried too much; yes, the tarmac was really slippy where it had mud dragged onto it, but for the most part it was pretty much as you’d expect, despite being on gravel tyres and suspension.

SS10 pic by Rob Lees

It was certainly LONG though, and then we were into the gravel section, which I loved; I was really getting confident and happy to keep the speed up on the longer sections with 1 and 2 corners, some of which were pretty slippy, but the car went where it should do, once you told it to!

SS10 pic courtesy of Andy Wort

We got caught by the Swift (2 cars behind us) towards the end, but it worked out OK for both of us, and again I felt I’d done a good job; most of the corners had been taken at decent speed and again lines round slower stuff were improving as was the speed.

Finally in the loop was Halfway, one of my favourite stages which has a great forestry section to start, and then open army range roads to finish; while the car could definitely do with more power for them, it was great, most of the time the speed was kept up, and sections which I’d had problems with before went well; the middle bit with some difficult corners and rally-finishing rocks nearby was taken with some caution but still with a reasonable bit of speed.  Again, I thought I’d done a decent job and so did Paul.

The weather was good, the stages were going well, and for the most part the car was too.  The only issue really was a part-throttle misfire which came and went; sometimes it would be OK, other times it would be quite bad.

Lunchtime service was at Builth Wells again, and we got a good spot, having arrived nice and early allowing consumption of a fine hot dog while waiting to book in, and comparing stories with Nick West in the Fiesta while we were in the regroup.  Service went without any real issues, and we were back out again soon enough.

The re-run stages were much rougher than usual as the National B rally had also run over them, leading Radnor to be a bit cut up and very slippy at the very end; it wasn’t as bad as we’d been told, but certainly in a few places it was hard work and hard on the car, although it seemed OK about it!

Monument Hill 2 was also fairly cut up in places, although the change of sun meant that some of it could be taken quicker and with more confidence than before; a bit of cloud meant that there wasn’t the bright sun/shade leading to a bit more confidence from me, and some good fun had while out there.

Crychan 2 was quite testing; as soon as we started there was a nasty “knock” whenever on/off the throttle, which I thought was a gearbox mounting, and in addition I thought the gearbox had broken, but this was from someone else’s smell in places! (Not Paul, I hasten to add).  Got some of the corners really good though, and although we got caught by Nick towards the end of the forest section, I still think it went well; its quite difficult doing the tarmac section in the dark as a lot of your information comes from peripheral vision, etc., but I still enjoyed it.

And then Halfway 2.  Again, this was in the dark; before we went in I just checked that the gearbox wasn’t broken (it wasn’t, so I think it was just a mounting having given up), and then in we went.  I think this went really well; I decided that I needed to properly commit to the notes as they had all been good and trustworthy beforehand, and the end result was a run which felt good, and was confirmed by the time we got – the marshal at the end said we’d done really well!

Then it was time to head to Cardiff, and a long, long road section.  And here things started to go wrong; the part throttle issue became an issue in all situations at one point; about 60k out I had real problems keeping the engine going at all, but then it suddenly seemed to sort itself out, firing up OK and running perfectly again.  But with about 10k to go, it died again on the A4232, and I was convinced we wouldn’t make it even off the road; at one point we were doing about 20mph with no power from the engine, and only a lot of frantic effort got us to a petrol station.  I checked everything over while Paul got some WD-40 and we cleaned up all the connections we could, and I checked that the throttle body pot was working (as I thought this may be the problem) – it was OK.  Went to start the car up, and it ran perfectly – no problem at all.  We got to the stage arrival without incident and then booked in, and waited for the stage which was about 40 minutes as the normal 1 minute gaps became 2 for this stage.

Waiting in the dark for Cardiff 2

Eventually we took to the stage, and were off; the start went much better than Thursday (due to having decent fuel in the car), and so did the chicane – partly due to commitment and partly because someone had already taken a fair chunk out of it.  We had decided to give it a bit more of an effort over the jump as we’d be flatter, and we did this – not crazily fast, but with a bit of speed.

BIG mistake.

Now, I don’t think we went quickly over it, but when we landed the back of the car bounced really high into the air, and although I controlled it (or Newton’s laws did, more like), it was quickly apparent that something was wrong – VERY wrong.  The back of the car had no grip, and was just bouncing up and down; Paul kept calling the notes, but I said that a) something was wrong and b) I was an idiot for not taking it easy; I really don’t think we went mad over it, but it had broken something really badly.

In the cardiff stage, bouncing about...

We bounced through the rest of the stage and then got to the car wash near the service check in, and I got out to have a look (while a Japanese lady took pictures of the car).  It was soon obvious what had happened – one of the hoses on the rear suspension (which hold all the oil and pressure of the damping) had broken – it had just burst!  I’m not sure what happened, but the right-side one had come loose – I didn’t think that anything could foul them (and there’s no other way to fit them), so I guess I’ll have to analyse that further later on….

Broken Proflex....

I was devastated.  Game over.  Or was it?  Hopefully not; a plan was hatched to rob the rear shocks from the recce car, and carry on with that setup – it had done 4 recces of Rally GB, so why not?  The boys soon had them off of the recce car, and it reminded me of when C3PO offers his parts to fix R2D2…

Donor car!

We checked out of the ‘dead zone’ and into service, and amazingly we got the rears done, tankguard reattached, horn fixed, a few other bits and pieces and check-tightened the gearbox mountings again (the bush has failed, so nothing we can do really).  And Al was still bolting the sumpguard up as we went to leave, but the misfire returned – the car would barely move, and this was what I’d wanted to fix while in the service before the rears died.

We tried to drive to Parc Ferme but it was so slow I thought it would be better to book in late rather than have a car that won’t run tomorrow.  We spent a frantic 20 minutes trying to find out what was wrong (and found nothing we could see – fuel pressure OK, plugs OK, all connections OK, ECU happy with everything), but changed the plugs anyway, it seemed OK-ish on the road (but clearly randomly rather than actually fixed) and booked into Parc Ferme for the night.

Saturday Parc Ferme...

Went back to service, packed away in the rain, came back here, felt deflated.

So, I have no idea if the car will even start, let alone move tomorrow.  I’m gutted; it was all going so well, and I was really wanting to give the Felicia a good send-off, but it looks destined not to happen.  We are out at 07:18, and will see how it goes; if the car runs like it did earlier today then everything will be fine, but we really don’t know what’s wrong, and dont have much time to find out; we are going to take as many spares as we can and then take it from there.  Wish us luck, we will need it.

Today was the day of the first stages proper of the event, the most northerly of the lot, with Hafren, Sweet Lamb and Myherin, all run twice with a remote service at Builth Wells.  Our start time was 07:14, so we started the day with a great breakfast made by Al, and left the house about 6:30 to be down in service in time to pick the car up.

The rules of Parc Ferme mean we can get access to the car 10 minutes before our ‘due’ time at the control to get it started up, but given how the car wasn’t particularly happy last night I thought it would be best to leave it until we would be able to drive it straight out, which worked well – out of the car park fairly easily, and then we had 10 minutes for the morning service, which for us really just consists of checking the car over a bit, and loading up for the day – the time soon flew by and then we were due at the service out control – firstly to get a time but also to get out tyres/wheels marked, which involved a bit of trouble for Paul as he had to get out and remove the second spare so both could be marked.  Then we were off on the three hour plus road section up to the first stage of the day, Hafren 1, and it immediately became apparent that there was a problem – as soon as we were out on the dual carriageway, the car was missing and bucking around, with the engine cutting out seemingly randomly; by the time we were on the A470 it was running really badly, and seemed to just change from running OK to running really badly – it seemed better on full throttle but still didn’t run right.  When we got most of the way to the stage we filled the half-empty tank with fuel from another well known vendor (instead of the stuff that I put in yesterday which I will not mention, but it’s clear I’m not in a Ford!), and it seemed to help a bit, but the problem was still there.  There was a fair bit of time spare in the timing, so we stopped off at a village (which was already littered with rally cars) and went into a cafe (whose clientele was quadrupled by the presence of several rally crews including Tom Cave).  After a super-healthy sandwich of Bacon, it was time to go up to the stage, which we did, parking up a bit short of the control to get all set up with our HANS devices – this would be the first gravel stage I’ve done with a HANS on and I was a bit worried about it, but soon got strapped in OK, although Paul took a bit longer – typically it started to rain at this point!

Fun with HANS in the rain!

We headed into the stage, with the start crew pleased to see us (having helped us out on recce) and see us leave too!

Once we got into the stage it was immediately apparent that the car wasn’t running at all well – there just seemed to be no power at all compared to how it was running last week; it just wouldn’t rev out, and was really, REALLY slow.  But knowing Paul for as long as I have has rubbed off on me in some ways as we just said that this was how it is, so there’s no point complaining about it, we should just get on with it, so we did!  Aside from the lack of power and the consequent revving of the car in 2nd and 3rd gear all over the place (it would only pull 4th downhill, and 5th was unheard of!), the stage went well – corners were going well, and I was improving my lines round hairpins (which was even more important given the lack of speed), and we got to the end of the stage feeling like we’d done the best we could given what had happened.

Getting to Sweet Lamb wasn’t easy as the link road is crazy – really steep in one place, and like an off-road course, but we managed it after quite a lot of revving, and quite a lot of clutch slip.  But we got there OK, and with time to spare, so we got ready and then we were in.  Now, Sweet Lamb is loved by many, but on the two occasions I’ve driven it, it has been cut up something rotten, and half of it has just been a case of getting round without getting stuck on the sumpguard, but this time was a bit better – the hairpins were still really difficult to take at any speed, but the rest was looking OK, and we had a bit of a bash at the three jumps in a row, and the end result was that I can clearly tell the Proflex suspension is a world away from the Bilstein stuff we had on the car before.

Stage 3, Sweet Lamb - Rob Lees

There were a couple of cars stuck in the stage (I think a swift had had a drink from the river), but we got to the end OK, had a quick chat with WRC radio (bemoaning the lack of power), and then off to Hafren.  The out of Sweet Lamb was originally a stage, I believe, and it certainly looks like it, so it’s a fairly energetic drive, then some very smooth tarmac road round to the start of Myherin, a stage I was really looking forward to – firstly because we’d only really done a very limited part of it in 2008, and secondly because it’s a really good, long varied stage and I wanted to give it a good bash despite the lack of power!

The start didn’t go well – I don’t want to burn the clutch out, so it means once the car bogs down (which it does below 2500rpm), then it’ll be a slow process to get it going – this is about 12mph in first gear, but above that everything was fine.  We didn’t do it again on the rest of the stage, so that’s a bonus (and an incentive to keep going).  While the uphills were difficult again, some of the downhill stuff was great – I really felt I was getting more out of the car (again I think the better suspension helps here as the car just feels more stable at speed), and there’s a section at the top of Myherin where there’s a 5 left over a concrete base which then goes down into a couple of straights with a 2 left in the middle, and then through some posts into another 5 left, and in the past I’d be a bit cautious about the posts, but got it just right, and used the uphill sections to scrub speed off.  Later on there was a downhill into a hairpin left that I overshot – the brakes just didn’t work when I pressed them and we were lucky that it wasn’t somewhere nasty.  They worked fine after this, although there were a couple of other places that they didn’t work properly, so that went on the list of things to fix.  The last section of Myherin is quite fast and flowing, and again I tried to keep the speed up, trust the notes and commit to cornering at more speed.  Although I’m sure the times don’t reveal that, I think it’s probably the best I’ve driven ever; Paul seemed happy with it, and on the few times when we got close to spinning, he would say something like “you don’t want any more speed than that” or something similar.  And he was right!  Most of the time the back of the car was just moving about enough, and could be taken advantage of.  I also did a bit of left foot braking which really helped in some of the tighter corners, and did so after a lot of practice which finally seems to have paid off!

So, with those three finally done, something hit me.  All this week I have been somewhat nervy and worried, and at times like that I think “why the HELL am I doing this?” – it’s taken a year of saving up, and about six months of work, and I had been wondering what on earth I was doing. Until we got going.  No, it wasn’t perfect, but it was still an amazing feeling to drive through the forests, and come out of a classic stage knowing that you’d given it a go.  As I’ve already said, I’m sure the times don’t reflect that, with us already about four weeks slower than the front runners, but that’s not the only thing that it’s about, it’s the feeling of doing it, and that’s why I’ve neeeded to do this for one last time.

With those three complete, it was time to go to remote service in Builth Wells.  When we got near, we realised the car had a new noise, a sort of squealing which sounded like the front brakes or similar, as well as a suspension rattle which had reared its head during Sweet Lamb (actually on the mega-rough link road).  We stopped for fuel, and I had a quick look to see what the noise was – it wasn’t apparent, but nothing seemed too bad, so we went off to service, and had a number of people asking about us, and even an interview!  We got into service, and found that we’d been allocated Bay 1, which was the one that had just been vacated by Mr Loeb!  Ian and Al had come up trumps again, with everything laid out and ready to go.  We told them what was needed (mostly just to check out the rattle, which turned out to be a loose bolt, and also the squeal, which turned out to be the sensor for the terratrip, so I wasn’t worried about it as the brake disc will win that battle eventually).  I was then interviewed for BBC Wales TV, which was quite surreal – in between the panic of trying to fix the car – albeit with little wrong aside from the fuel which we could do nothing more about – talking to people about what we’d been up to and trying to be coherent was just plain odd, but a good experience.

The afternoon loop was a repeat of the stages we’d already done; it was interesting to see how the stages had changed; it started raining which made them a bit more slippy, but they had changed in different ways – Hafren was really tough, as it had cut up quite badly and was rocky and slippy at the same time!  We were much slower this time, but Paul said I shouldn’t be unhappy with it as I’d driven well anyway, and I wasn’t too unhappy really.  Getting round to Sweet Lamb was hard again, and the car got really steamed up.

Sweet Lamb, SS6 - Rob Lees

Paul’s electric window switch had packed up so he needed to open the door to give the time card over, and it also made it difficult to get the car de-steamed… which became a problem shortly into the stage when we went over some water, and it got into the car; the last half of the stage was driven with very little visibility, but I managed to avoid anything too hard, just nerfed a couple of banks.

Myherin 2 was also pretty tricky – it was almost completely in fog throughout, and the screen was never fully clear either; the seal around the gear lever was broken, so every time we went over water, a little plume of steam rose into the car, and hit the windscreen, so there were a few more “moments” than I would have liked, and also probably a fair few too many hesitations, but I still felt I drove well – the car was humming along given enough of a downhill to get going, and 1 and 2 corners were being taken with a fair turn of speed.  Good stuff, and again I was thinking “this is why I do this!” during it, in between trying to clear the screen, drive and so on!

So, the stages of Day 1 were done!  However, there was the case of the 3 hour road section, which was made challenging by some bad traffic delays (about 20 minutes stuck on a road, near-stationary) and a rather circuitous route (which takes us to the remote refuel zone, despite not needing to go there) – we arrived with a few minutes to spare, although there was some good news – a third refill of the tank seems to have improved things, but we will see.

Once we arrived at Cardiff (and had a car wash!), we had a few minutes spare, and spoke to James from Motorsports News, as well as Andrew Kellitt from the MSA, and then booked into service – we had a few things to do, and they all got done fairly easily, made even better by Al and Ian’s fantastic work setting up the service area, with the Gazebo fully up and lit; it was like being a real rally team!  At one point Al was under the car and said “Does this really belong here?”. I was worried, but then he said it was OK really… just a “stick” was wedged in there, apparently split on the front edge of the tank guard;  when he threw it out we laughed as it wasn’t a stick, more a branch really!

Al and the stick!

With everything done, a quick dash back to Parc Ferme, with the car put to bed with all the big boys – As we were there (because of the flexible service times) several front runners arrived, including Raikkonnen and Henning Solberg.  Or more to the point, their cars, driven by their service crew rather than themselves!

Friday night Parc Ferme

So, that’s it – Day 1 is complete.  Not ideal, by any stretch, but if you said to me I’d be 56th after Day 1, with the car in good shape, I’d have taken it.  Tomorrow is looking good, although a bit less so, ‘cos the hot water has packed up again at the house!

So, after a great dinner cooked up by Ian, it was time to go down and get ready for the first stage.  The big advantage of running at the back is that others are before you so everything works smoothly and you can see what’s going on if you have any doubts.  Everything was going as expected, with people going to the pre-start holding area, and then checking in 2 minutes apart, and then off out on the road section to the Cardiff stage.  For this there was one hour seven minutes and it was about 10km or so – I assume because of the ceremony/parade for the front runners, but it meant that the rest of us had a long wait, and this was evidenced by the route being lined with rally cars parked all over the place.  We found one place to park up, and then it started raining so we got in the car and moved it a bit, and eventually parked on a long downhill road on the way to the stage, and then witnessed everyone else coming past warming their tyres/brakes as they went, and after about 45 minutes waiting there we went down the the car park before the arrival control.  The car wasn’t particularly happy about sitting around and not being driven (clearly some errors in my mapping on tickover etc) so I elected to run it as little as possible, and instead we set about getting the HANS and helmets on and in position – not something Paul has had a lot of time to do, but with a bit of messing about we were both strapped in OK, and ready to check in at 9:25pm, which we did, but then saw that there was a delay – apparently a spectator had an epileptic fit leading to a stoppage and delay while and Ambulance attended to them, so eventually we started the stage about 20 minutes later than we should have, and we were away….

Not very well though, I gave it way too many revs and too much clutch slip, but we got going OK, and the jump didn’t go too badly – certainly not well, but didn’t wreck the car either.  The notes could definitely have done with another run (thanks, ISC for that), as there were a couple of distance errors leading to a no-doubt phenomenally slow time.  When we got to the stage stop it was then I had forgotten about the HANS, and getting it off to do the road section and indeed speak to a reported was quite difficult, so I need to work on that, but we got going in reasonable time (albeit not looking like the WRC drivers do in terms of composure), and off to Parc Ferme, where the cars are stored overnight.  We booked in in time, and then we were in a rally fan’s paradise, where all the cars are stored, from Loeb’s, right down to my Skoda.

All tucked up in bed for the night!

Now that's a car park!

Once everything was turned off, set and secured, we left, walking past some phenomenal machinery – I wish I could upload more pics, but it’s late and the phone connection to the ‘net is really slow, so one or two will have to do.  Take my word for it, it’s an amazing thing being there with all those cars – a stupendous amount of money and technology, and all going to be tested tomorrow.  It’s a fairly early start for us tomorrow, so I am off to bed, hopefully to get a decent night’s sleep instead of waking up at 3:30!

Officially, today doesn’t have much to do in it – just stage 1 which is 1.7km of Cardiff Bay – there isn’t a ceremonial start for us mere mortals unlike previous years (which actually I think I’ll really miss – it made you feel a big part of the event, rather than someone who is tagged on the end who won’t get to see much in the way of the front runners), so there wasn’t much to do.

Officially.

There were, however, quite a few things to actually do; OK, not a full day’s schedule, which was handy as I was tired anyway, and even more so after not getting a great night’s sleep, but we went down about midday to get things sorted as the weather looked to be brightening up.  Just as we arrived (Ian and Al were already there), the skies opened, so we went for lunch instead of getting soaked.  We came back a bit later when it had brightened up again, and as soon as we opened the doors on the car, it started raining again, so we sat it out this time, as we had a fair few things to do.  20 minutes or so later saw it dry enough to get started, including adjusting the harnesses for the HANS devices so everything sat properly, sorting out the tyres for the car, the tool bag and spares that we’re carrying, and wiring in power for navigation devices for Paul, plus a few little bits and pieces in the engine bay.

Ian and Al - service crew extraordinare!

This took a couple of hours, but everything was soon set, and then Ian and Al went off to start on dinner, while Paul and I got some fuel, and sorted out the trip meter calibration.

We parked up, and went off to the house, with only two things of note happening:  Firstly I managed to lose the key for the rally car (thankfully I have a spare, but will obviously need to be bloody careful from now on) and secondly I nearly crashed the recce car – the road the house is down is very narrow and windy and I was probably going too fast (about 30) with someone coming the other way.  It took a fair bit of cadence braking, use of the bank and good luck to miss him – we slid to a halt close enough to not be able to see his headlight!  It wouldn’t have been a terrible one, but not a great way to start the event, really.  Thankfully, no harm was done, so I got away with it…

We’ve just had our start times which are 20:18 for TC0 (meaning a stage start time of well after 9pm), and tomorrow at 07:14.

So, here goes…

Recce car, still going strong...

Happy Camper!

Tomorrow there’s not much to do, so hopefully I’ll get a good night’s sleep and then we’ll get this and that done, and be off!

We left at 6:30 as it was about a 2 hour drive to the first stage for us to Recce (Radnor), and we wanted to get there before everyone else starting queueing up.  When we got there (at 8:30), we stopped at the stage arrival, bemused by the lack of anyone else there including marshals.  A couple of cars turned up, and then drove past, and then we realised why, we should have gone to the stage start instead!  There were only 5 cars in front of us, so it wasn’t the end of the world.  A bit after 9am, we got going into the stage.  This year we’re not making notes from scratch, we’re using Patterson’s (as they are available for all the stages we’re doing, aside from Cardiff) and going to add notes where we think it’s appropriate.  As soon as we got going I realised just how rusty I am.  I’ve never claimed to be a great driver, but I felt completely lacking in confidence – there just seemed to be no grip, and I didn’t feel in control at all.  The massive upside was that it’s far easier to modify notes than it is to make them from scratch – within about a mile I said to Paul that they were probably the best £70 we’d spent in a long time, as it can be quite demanding to describe everything you’re doing and seeing, plus having to drive at the same time.  Despite my reservations about my driving skills, we weren’t being caught (which was good), and as the stage went on I felt a bit better; there were some places that were really slippy (including a 5 right which was already noted as slippy which I wanted to go to defcon 1 on), and other places where the grip was really good.  Some of the places where logging has taken place were the worst, as you would expect, but overall it went fairly smoothly.  At the end of the stage (a very muddy little section) I thought it would be a good idea to go round again – not because I thought we needed to add anything else to the notes (most of the changes we made were personal opinion and things such as to ‘hook’ certain places or to emphasise other instructions), and certainly not for Paul’s benefit – he was as ever calm, composed and controlled!
Run two was better – the ‘fear’ seemed to be subsiding a bit, and having seen the stage already meant there was nothing too bad, although one bit where Paul announced “You wouldn’t want to be going off there…”, followed by “because it would be OVER.  Dead!” was really confidence-inspiring!  The slippy section I’d marked before saw us slide off the road (as I was going a fair bit faster this time), and nerf the bank as we did it.  No problem, just a bit of fun.  The run seemed to be over fairly quickly, which was good, and we did make a few little changes as well.  It was really handy having my phone running in the car as I have a speedo on it, which has an alarm you can turn on – the recce has a speed limit of 80kph, and severe fines if you are caught speeding, so I wanted to avoid that.  But what also struck me was the speed we were doing; the recce Felicia isn’t at the peak of good health and therefore is a bit gutless, but once it gets going it keeps up a decent speed, and it was interesting to see corners being taken at 40-45mph when we weren’t really going for it at all.
Next up was the trio of Hafren, Sweet Lamb and Myherin which will make up Friday’s stages, and they were the ones most severely affected by the bad weather in 2008, plus Myherin was where we came across the accident involving the Turkish Fiesta crew (I am pleased to report that they are both OK, although still needing treatment from the accident).  First up was Hafren, and on the way to the stage I noticed a problem with the car – on a couple of right-handers the back let go a bit early; first was when I was trying to keep up with an Evo who was on recce (yes, I know, but I do get carried away sometimes), so I put it down to that, but when we got nearer, there was a much lower-speed corner which had the same effect, so I thought we had a rear puncture.  This was confirmed on arrival by Tom Cave who’d been following us in (thanks Tom), and I was a little worried as we didn’t have a decent spare.  However, my slippy bank antics from earlier in the day had come to haunt us – what had happened was the valve had been filled with mud as it didn’t have a cap on, and was leaking.  I cleaned it out (with some help from the start marshals there, as well as a couple of mouthfuls of drink to try to force the dirt out), and then we pumped it up.  The start marhals conjured up a valve cap for us, and I hoped it’d hold up.  In we went, and again it was a case of some areas were OK, some were slippy – very much so in places in fact.  However, it went pretty well for the most part – a few cases of losing the back of the car, but getting closer to driving properly which was good.  I also noticed that cornering speeds were improving, and taking better lines through hairpins was helping, and made notes to that effect on the… notes!
Sweet Lamb was next, via a very rough link road section (more like an off-road course than rallying), and suddenly we were engulfed in steam. I feared the worsrt, but there was no place to pull over, and it turned out it was just a watersplash combined with our low speed making for a LOT of steam from the exhaust.  The stage itself isn’t a favourite of mine – it just seems to have cut up really badly in places, which is a pity.  The watersplash and jumps are fun though (although again with Paul’s call of “crest and jump… into that bank!” helping a lot).  Another link road and then briefly on the tarmac road itself (where the recce car suddenly seems smooth) and into Myherin.  This went well too, although up top seemed like another planet, with the massive wind turbines and the wind blowing pretty hard.  Plus what also seemed like another planet, we overtook a couple of cars – unheard of!  Overall it went pretty well, and it was interesting remembering the last time we drove on it, when it was very icy (remember that even Loeb got caught out, rolling his recce car on this bit).  The end section is fast and flowing, and a good way to improve my confidence, which was slowly returning, getting the speed better on the 1 and 2 corners (which are fastest in the notes we use).
Once we’d done that we went back round to do all three again.  There’s not much to note here, other than lunch – we’d had a plan to take a flask of boiling water and make Pot Noodles (as we don’t have the equipment to make hot food at the remote service), so we decided to try that.  Paul started out by decorating the car with the “dust” from his Pot Noodle, which gave me a laugh and made it look very odd.  The water wasn’t hot, so the Pot Noodles were… disgusting!  Something hot though, at least.  This was all made a lot more amusing for me as Paul had forgotten his hat so decided to make do with a towel wrapped round his head – the site of him struggling with a Pot Noodle with a towel round his head, complaining about how cold it was tickled me.  It was a towel from a gym that he never went to, but was given it when he joined, so he reckons the towel cost him a couple of thousand!
Anyway, the next three runs went well – again, getting a bit quicker and taking slightly less moronic lines through the corners, and the alarm on the GPS speedo went off far more often, so we were clearly going better, another good sign.  The back tyre stayed up (so make sure you have your valve caps on, kids), and off we went back to Cardiff, to collect the WRC tracker from ISC.  The traffic was hideous, so it took a LONG time to get there, and when we arrived at just after 6pm… No-one was there.  They should have been there until 7pm, but had clearly all naffed off.  Brilliant.  We phoned the competitor liaison officers, and got no reply, and left messages to that effect.  We’d taken at least an extra hour going to Cardiff for no reason at all.  And now, folks, I’m going to have a moan.  ISC have been utterly useless every time we’ve had to deal with them, and it looks like this year is no exception; the schedule is extremely tight for people like us, and we made a big effort to get there to pick up a piece of equipment that is no use to us that we are forced to carry, and if it gets damaged, we are left with a massive bill for it.  We have since been told that they will be open until 3pm, but given that we’ll be out on recce, this could be “interesting”.  As far as I see it, they should have been there when they were supposed to, and if they weren’t there to dispense their equipment, then they will need to be available at a time that suits us, not the other way round.  Sermon over.
So, aside from issues with ISC-T (and I at least know what the T stands for now), it’s been a GOOD day.  Tomorrow will be a LOT busier, but with any luck it will go as well, and this time tomorrow we will have recce’d all the stages, been scrutineered, and be ready to go.  Even the hot water in the house is working!