Skoda Rally Blog

The house is about 12 miles from the Bay, but getting there is fairly easy – only the last couple of miles are on narrow lanes, the rest is A road.  And it’s a really nice place; part of a converted farm, it’s very nicely done, with some ‘interesting’ accomodation upstairs (with two single beds, which are accessed by what is probably best described as a porthole!), and the rest of the place is very plush.  Got settled in and made a plan for tomorrow, and all of this was only foiled by the boiler not working; the owners have promised that someone will take a look at it tomorrow, so hopefully we’ll have hot water for then.

So, we’re all ready for the recce tomorrow – a long drive to start out with, and this year because we were a bit worried about the schedule, we’ve got Patterson’s notes of all the stages that we can then modify.  With any luck this will make for a smooth and easy recce, but we will see tomorrow.  As it is, I need a good night’s sleep, so that’s what I’m going to try to get now!

Yesterday I was navigating for Tony in his 205 on the Tempest, and usually I’d have made a full entry on it, but I have been way too busy, so that will happen another day. However, today was all about getting the last things done on the car and equipment to get everything ready to go to Wales tomorrow.

First up, some mapping – while the full power/throttle mapping was all done, the last-minute change of fuel pressure amplified a problem that was already there – there were a few “holes” in the fuelling, where the car would run really lean, and one of them was at light throttle and about 2-3000rpm, meaning it was difficult (if not impossible) to pull away “nicely”. While this won’t be a problem on the stages, it will on the road sections, and pulling away from controls, etc., so it was time to sort that out. Running with the laptop (rather than logging and remapping from that) pinpointed the areas that needed adjustment, and 4 sets of changes saw the problems largely eradicated – not perfect (with slightly lean or slightly rich in places), but driveable, and a relief that the car started up so cleanly from cold. Took over an hour to sort this out though.

Next up, collecting the van (thanks again Mark), getting a few supplies, and then buying some new mains extension leads. H&S is apparently going to be stricly enforced courtesy of Cardiff Council, and I needed therefore to replace my perfectly good mains leads (which I don’t have PAT test certificates for, and couldn’t arrange at short notice, funnily enough), which will then be OK. I now have new lights and mains leads; I don’t have the money for a generator or mains hookup, so there is no welding or grinding option – I hope I don’t need it!

Then, sorting out a couple of things for the car – the fuel pipes (which are solid metal, and have a SWP of over 2000psi) apparently need to be protected, so they have been plastic covered. In addition, the FIA rules say they should be grounded to the car body (which makes sense), so I’ve done that. I’ve also removed the camera box as a) we’re not running one this year b) it’s a pain as it bangs on the helmets and c) even if we were running a camera I have the nice little GoPro camera now. So, that’s out the way, along with a LOT of wiring for it. Much tidier.

Next, removal of stickers and goo – thankfully Mum did this, saving me a fair bit of effort!

Then, removing all the “mapping” electronics – LM-1 and LMA-3 logging units and the ECU control box/wiring. They have been in the car for a LONG time – in fact I had a bit of a “Ripley” moment (where she says to the Alien ‘You’ve been in my life so long I can’t remember anything else’) when I took it all out. I was a bit worried that the O2 sensor wouldn’t come out, but thankfully it did. Even better, I’d not lost the plug to fill the hole. Result.

Next up, change of wheels – putting the rally wheels on (with new R700s), using my nice new Clarke wheel nut gun (again bought as a result of H&S as I can’t run my compressor!), and then putting the wheels from the rally car onto the recce car.

Now, sumpguards. Fortunately this went smoothly too – the recce car one hasn’t been on in 2 years, but went on with little trouble – I’d even kept the washers and nuts with it, so no searching was needed. The rally car one was straightforward too.

Then collecting the trailer, changing a couple of wheels as the tyres were dodgy, and then loading the van – this took a LONG time as there’s a lot of stuff to pack, including a couple of gazebos, tools, lighting, etc. This took a couple of hours, and by now it was already dark. Hooked the trailer up, got the rally car on, re-fixed the indicator on the trailer that was playing up, and found that the recce car now wouldn’t start (flat battery). And that’s how it stands right now, as I’ve just had dinner. Nearly done, but not quite. Just need to do a few bits and pieces, drop the recce car off at Paul’s and then pack. Unfortunately I need to go to work tomorrow (as I need the money to pay for the new helmet aside from anything else), and as it’s dark I can’t take a “ready to go” pic, but I will do tomorrow morning, with any luck.

In the meantime, this picture will have to do, drawn for me by Sennen, Tammie’s son.  Loving the look on Paul’s face!

Hopefully we'll go fast enough to scare Paul!

So, I made a last-minute effort to gain some more sponsors, and they have come up trumps!  The stickers arrived today (once more thanks to the ever-brilliant Andy for them), and I’ve just put them on, having finished work, in the breaks in the rain!

Valeting.co - car care products.

Nic Nottingham's Nailart Colour!

Sabden Motor Bodies

Sapphire Yachting - for an excellent experience in Skiathos, Greece

The lovely Tammie Barnes wanted this one. 🙂

Steven Tilley

Mark "The Legend" Hawkins, for saving the day!

Helen Phillips' favourite website!

So, huge thanks to everyone.  There are a few little things to do before Monday morning, but most of everything is in place.  Which is handy as I’m navigating for Tony on the Tempest tomorrow, and you can check out my location in real time using the “Live Tracking” link above.  Well, hopefully, if Google Latitude holds up as it should do….

Day off?  As if!  Still things to do, but I’ve made it a nice light one – partly because I really do need a day off, and partly because the weather is alternating between rain and shine.  So, a bit of cleaning off (after Burley came over and sat in the car just to check he’s OK), read the 7-page Health And Safety Instructions for the service park (make of that what you will, never seen anything like that before), and put some stickers on the car!

www.briskoda.net

Bardahl - the oil we are running thanks to www.top-oils.co.uk

Forum member Alex Lake and www.sumoshoes.co.uk (rjbriggsy)

eBayer A Henderson and forum member willskoda

Peter Garforth has a RWD Skoda....

Laura does some amazing therapies!

www.dontbuyitrentit.com - Car Leasing

RTGW, sticker suppliers

So, if you want to join these people, you have until Sunday night to BID ON EBAY!

So, those of you who have been reading regularly will know that this year we were actually more prepared than any other time to do Rally GB.  But a number of things have happened recently which have been less than ideal, and as a result, we don’t have enough support financially to be able to do Rally GB – entries close tomorrow, and let’s just say we’re a long way off our target to have a chance of being able to enter the event, so it looks like that’s that.

All those who have paid into the sponsorship scheme will, of course, get their money back in full, as promised previously.  Aside from the bitter disappointment of not being able to do the event this year, this also leaves me in a position where I’m unsure of what I’ll be doing in the future, if anything at all; I’ve really enjoyed spending a week doing rallying at the highest level once a year, and for various reasons I don’t want to return to doing smaller, local events as my sole rallying.  I’ll have to take a long, hard look at what lies in the future, if anything at all.

Thanks for your support over the years, it’s been much appreciated, as has that of those who sponsored us in prospect of doing Rally GB.  We know who you are, and we’re grateful.

Here are some photos from Rally GB 2008

[Show as slideshow]

1 2 ... 10 ►

Sunday, the last day of Rally GB 2008. Four stages to go, but we’d been told it would be cold. And they weren’t wrong. We got up early as we needed to clean up the house and pack up (as we were leaving today), and I went out to see that the cars were solid with frost – it was really cold – probably colder here than it had been at any point in our stay. Great. I warmed the car up so we’d at least have a frost-free trip, but by the time we got everything done, packed and ready, we didn’t get to Parc Ferme until about 3 minutes to go. No real rush, but not ideal. A massive thanks to the marshals there who (on grounds of safety, M’lord) had scraped the ice from the windows on the Skoda. On the way out one of them had some de-icer and sprayed the screen and gave it a squeegee off. Fantastic support, and typical of all the marshals we’ve met throughout the weekend.

Into Service, Ian had already got everything set up, but there wasn’t much to do, just load up the car with camera, food and crew stuff, check the fluids and then we were off to the service out control and once more to the tyre checking people. Most of the time we’ve had our tyres checked by the same crew, who’ve been a good laugh and very supportive, but of course we’d broken our own record by changing two wheels so now we’d have used a total of 8 for the event. Tyre checks were made much more pleasant by one of them being the lovely scrutineer trainee who’d checked over the car – she was always chatty and had beautiful eyes. Anyway…..

…. off out to Rheola. For once we had plenty of time, so sat down the hill a bit, and drove up slowly to the control as I wanted to spare the clutch – there had been a couple of times where I’d smelled it and I felt that any unneccesary stress could lead to it giving up, so caution was a good idea – I spent the rest of the day looking for level areas to stop on rather than inclines. We were told that it was slippy and compacted throughout, and had an ice warning to sign, for 500 metres after J22, which was near the bottom of the stage.

Rheola starts with a fairly fast downhill section, and then a couple of tighter turns and then a hairpin right. Usually this hairpin is cut up really badly by the time we get to it, but it wasn’t at all. The surface rocks had been cleared, but the road itself wasn’t damaged at all, showing just how cold it had been. It wasn’t mega-slippy, but nowhere near as grippy as it would normally be (and indeed as it was on Recce). Off up the hill, and it was the same everywhere – no ruts to hook into at all. Once we got out into the sun (a tight left at the top round a tree where there are usually lots of spectators) it was softer, and the next section of the stage was mostly exposed so it was softer, a bit cut up (but not as bad as we’d expect) and good, but still slippy and icy, always in the shade. The bit at the top (where the diggers get parked) is usually terrible, but it wasn’t bad – despite being in the sun it wasn’t too soft, and made a nice change, although there were still rocks about, and I took care round a few to try to avoid beating the tank guard off). Down into Walters Arena and it was OK but the first part of the descent (a long downhill that ends in a 4 left) was worrying at first – it wasn’t slippy, but where it had been regraded it was washboardy and sounded like something had failed but I realised in a second or so what it was – it sounded like some of the roads in Mauritania, and at Paul’s request I gave it a bit more over the jump, and it was OK (although I’m sure not spectacular enough for everyone else!) and I was surprised not to have been caught yet – Paul said there were cars behind, but they were a long way back. The next section is a number of faster turns and then a long downhill right into a left and then a 4 right into the tree section. The downhill was OK, but as soon as we got in the shade it was icy – slush on top of ice – and we went very wide on a couple of turns. At this point I totally lost confidence; this coupled with the sun making it hard to see until you were right in a corner in most cases meant I really went off it, and then we came to the section we’d been warned about. The bit that worried me the most was the downhill section, about 80 metres down with a 3 right with a big rock inside which is then bumpy and goes into a 3 left through a gate and another gate. We got caught here as I took it easy – it was very slippy – but we let one car through then another – I didn’t realise it was 2 of them, Nathan O’Connor and Gordon Nichol. The rest of the stage was slow as I’d really lost it, I was worried at every corner even though there was no need really – in the sun it was OK and at lower altitude it was also OK. Got caught by David Harrison as well. I was really at the lowest I’d been now. Let both of us down.

Once we were out on the road things were a bit quiet, and Paul had a word. He was right – I’d been crap and I knew it. As he said, we don’t want to go out, but if you’re being cautious it’s almost more dangerous, so I spent the rest of the road section geeing myself up and trying to get back the confidence that I felt yesterday. The test would be if I’d keep it up when we started Port Talbot – the start crew told us it was a bit slippy in there but with no sheet ice. This was good, so off we went.

And it went well.

Really well.

In fact, I’d say this was the best I’ve ever driven. Obviously if you look at the times, we’re miles off everyone else, but I don’t give a monkey’s about that. We have a car that started the event with 80 horsepower from an engine that has been sat in my shed for a couple of years that was called into service at the last minute. It’s used 2 litres of oil in 2 days, and has a driver who has to temper the desire to have a good time with the realisation that if I trash it, I’ll have to repair every last bit of damage, and foot the bill for everything. But it went really well anyway – the stage is much better this way round as you have some tighter stuff to get you in the swing of things, and then it opens out later on. Before that though, there’s a valley to be crossed where you drop right down to a little bridge and go back uphill for a LONG time (which is much nicer than going downhill on a long straight, for me), and the back of the car was bouncing around all over the place here, but I kept it going. I took it easy in the hairpins as I didn’t want to break a driveshaft (the only mechanical issue we’ve had with the cars has been this), but everywhere else I think I gave it enough to get a real buzz – there were a couple of bits where the car just lifts off a bit, and I even needed to brace my right knee against the cage padding on some corners to keep completely still in the seat – my legs were moving about otherwise. This was wicked, and a total contrast to the stage before. Next there is a section of ‘fast’ 1 left and right corners – they’re not visible in sequence so good notes and trust in them is needed, but I remembered it being fine on recce so I gave it some, and ended up pushing hard in 5th, which was a good feeling. At the end of this section there’s a 2 right that you can hook and we did that too, and it was just spot on. At the jump I took it a bit easy as the back of the car goes really light and I didn’t want to mash the front like I did last year in Walters, but it was OK. I made a note of the gear and revs for next time, and then back into another fast section between some trees. This was spot on again, great fun. Lots of grip, pushing in 5th, fantastic. There’s an open section once more with some more 3 corners and some culverts to avoid, and then a last section with 1 and 2 corners left and right before a couple of tight ones and over the finish.

Before the stop control Paul turned to me and said “Now’s THAT’s how to drive the f***ing car”. I was happy, ‘cos I’d not let him down this time. G’work!

Back to service, just a check over as all seemed well, and Ian had packed up as he needed to get going. He’d been a legend throughout the weekend, and I couldn’t have picked a better man to service for us – he’d combined mechanicing, scavenging, fronting his way close to Citroen to get some great pics, being a top motivator and damn funny and even making me “power shakes” and warming my gloves before the starts in the morning. I’m glad he had a good time as I was worried he’d be bored, but how often do you get to service in the WRC and nose round the service park? Once in a lifetime, I think, if that, for most. We set off, and so did he, once we made sure we had the van keys!

A last time through the tyre check, and then back out to Rheola. This time it was going to be different, I’d give it more, as I was feeling more confident. There were places to take care, but not to be as cautious as I had been. I needed to remember that Crychan 2 had been icier than this and once we got in a rhythm and told the car what to do, we went OK. If you go off the boil or give up, then it’s over. We arrived in good time, and saw that car 88 was behind us (he’d obviously had a few nightmares), in an Evo, so I went to speak to him (checking he spoke English) and told him if he caught us we’d move as soon as it was safe to do so. He seemed surprised we’d even mentioned it!

Rheola 2 was a much better job – We got caught more quickly by Nathan this time, but I wasn’t worried about that as we were definitely going better – the stage was STILL not badly cut up for the most part (if this is what it’s like running near the front then it must be fantastic fun, it was like a new stage for us), and this time everything seemed better. The arena was more fun (although I over-cooked it on one of the shaded corners near the end as THAT was still icy), but soon after there is a crest which goes into a 3 right. I was probably going too quickly (or rather would have been), but there was a marshal there giving us the “calm down” gesture so I did, and was sad to see Nathan’s car off on the left. Couldn’t see whether it was beached or a mechanical problem but obviously we had to worry about our own issues, and cracked on again). We got caught by Gordon but don’t think we held him up too much, but the shaded section after the long downhill corner was slipper than before if anything – a couple of times we nearly went off despite me doing the “right” thing and keeping lock and power on. If I’d not done that we’d have been off for sure! The post-J22 section was taken easier and was still as slick as hell, so I was glad to have avoided either going straight on, hitting the rock, or the gates. Heard later that this claimed one of the Land Rover boys who just hit it and went straight off at about 5 mph, and smashed his radiator. Game over.

At the very end Harrison caught us up, but there was no point in moving over as we’d both have lost time – it was literally at the last corner. I later found out that he’d not slowed down after the Flying Finish (we didn’t slow down over it, but did brake for the next corner) and he’d nearly hit us! Can’t see the point of saving 0.5 seconds to get to the control, really, having seen a peugeot go off years ago doing the same thing and ending his rally….

The lovely people a the end control and car wash gave us a clap, which was ace, and also their last two chocolates which was a really nice thought! I was pleased, and I think Paul was too – not with the chocolate, but that we’d made it through without driving like a total wimp. Later I found out we’d cut a minute and a half off the first time, which is better. Probably could have cut another 30 seconds off easily too. But we were still in it, and with just 1 stage to go.

We arrived at Port Talbot 2 with plenty of time to go, and a (I think Finnish) spectator had a chat with me. Between his broken English and the fact that he was hammered it wasn’t the most in-depth conversation, but he said it was good to see some “normal” cars in it, and there should be more like me. He also noticed the blown sidelight, which was letting the side down on the Skoda’s reliability record. I blame German bulbs.

Someone had managed to write “Hoval Skiddo” on the back of every car, and someone had also written “Well done” in the dirt on the rear window. We weren’t there yet. I looked at the front tyres, and they were down to about 4mm of tread. Not good, but no time to change both fronts (or even ONE front, in fact), so in we went. I noticed into the first braking area that there was less grip, but it wasn’t terrible, just less than it should be. I tried to forget about it and carry on as usual, but there was always a nagging “don’t mess this up” voice in my head, which meant I’d brake just a bit earlier. Should have done so for the first square left that we came to as we nearly ended up off the far side there, but got it back together and carried on. It was still good fun, but I could feel that it wasn’t as quick as before as I definitely needed to brake a bit earlier and take a little more care into corners as the front was just pushing where I wouldn’t expect it. When we got to the jump…. I couldn’t remember what gear I was in before, or the revs! Gordon had just overtaken us and he braked a fair bit for it, so I took that as a cue and hit it reasonably well. The back went very light (it felt high, probably didn’t even lift off), and off we went once more. The rest of the stage was just a blur for me. No really bad errors, just being careful on the few ‘cares’ that were marked, mostly at the end of faster sections, although there are a couple of places where there are logs, rocks or badly-placed culverts which would mean game over. Near the very end there were some people riding on the edge of the stage and up on the grass on motorbikes, going WD, which I thought was bloody stupid, but we got to the end OK. I think we’d seen 3 cars off during this stage (all with OK notices), but I was mostly concentrating on making sure we didn’t join them.

We’d done the stages.

Time to go back to service, which was straightforward, and made sure we got a good jetwash from the Karcher boys, and then spoke to James from Motorsports News and some other reporters, which was splendid. Into service, there was just enough time to remove the WRC tracker and hand it in at the out control (10 minutes isn’t long when you only have the two of you to do all that), and then it was off to Cardiff, which handily had a nice long section time and no traffic, meaning we got there with about 15 minutes to spare, so we got out and had a chat with everyone around us.

It was a pity not to see Nathan make it to the finish, we’ve not seen what happened to him yet. Everyone else seemed pleased to be there, with cars in various states of disrepair. The Turkish womens’ Fiesta was immaculate – showroom in every respect. The skoda probably would have done if I’d made a better job of the paint on the bumpers, and didn’t have a cracked windscreen. Jocius’ evo looked…. well, I didn’t see a single part on it that wasn’t damaged in some way or another! We booked in, meaning we were almost there, and then I took the time to look around at the other cars, having signed someone’s COAT (this is a step up from paper stuff), and also a photo of N158UBD on WRGB 06, which was special!

Obviously results and times don’t really concern us. As anyone who reads this will probably know, I’m just a normal bloke who loved the idea of doing rallying. I’ve never claimed to be anything special behind the wheel, and I proved that the first time I did a forest event, and was going to give up (thanks to Steve Colville for not letting that happen). I’m much better than I was, but I don’t have any delusions of adequacy. So looking at results generally isn’t a great idea unless there’s someone in a similar position (on the Sunseeker we have the Beckett brothers to swap times with, and last year Dey Roy was about the same speed as us). So I had NO idea what had been going on, aside from Paul finding out during road sections that Loeb and Latvala had been having a really close run. I had no idea really about Mikko’s roll, or that Ogier had also rolled, so it was a surprise to hear it, and even more so when we looked at the car – aside from a bit of a ripple in the roof and some gaffa tape for the top windsceen seal, the car looked mint. What it must be to have a service crew and budget that can allow that sort of miracle! The rest of his car was a feast for the car junkie, and I took note of the nets that were in the sides at the back as I’ve always wondered where they magic their coats up from when they have to sit in a forest for a couple of hours.

We had a LONG wait for our place on the podium, so had a good chat and swapped stories with the Army boys and thanked them for the toolbox lid that had definitely got us to the end as the tankguard. Our tax ? well spent, I think.

We were last but one onto the podium, but there was still a fair sized crowd there, and I got out to give them a round of applause as their support can keep you going when you’re really tired. Which I was. This was helped greatly by being handed a box with an award in for Class A5, Wales Rally GB 2008. It’s like the last award, so it’s a thing of beauty both mentally for me and physically. A quick chat on the PA, thanking everyone for their support, and then off to Parc Ferme, where the cars have to be (untouched) in case of any protests or technical infringements. This happens in the millennium stadium, so it was easy to find and we got a finisher’s award each here too. Once we drove into the stadium (for the last time) it was empty aside from several million quid’s worth of WRC cars, and a few lesser beasts, and a little Skoda now.

We parked up, I took a bunch of pictures and Paul headed off to get the release document we’d need to get the car out later on (parc Ferme is closed until the results are final, a predicted time of 7pm and it was now 5pm). I took the last opportunity I’d have to get close to some WRC cars in the quiet and simultaneously marvelled at the engineering (Mikko’s car was nearly all carbon fibre, and was a masterpiece of engineering) and realised that such expense and specialisation is the exact reason the WRC is where it is today (this isn’t a good thing in my opinion).

We hailed a taxi to get the recce car (which handily had been parked in a housing estate in cardiff by a good, good friend of ours earlier on), and Paul drove us back to Swansea to pick up the van and trailer. It was funny as the recce car is obviously just a standard Felicia, which isn’t the most refined of cars – compared to my Focus it’s in another generation, and Paul’s just picked up a new 320D (the day before we left, in fact), which is another generation ahead again. But compared to the 5000rpm crusing of the rally car (if you want to simulate it, just leave your car in third gear on the motorway, you’ll be about right) it seemed refined and calm, even with the sumpguard bashing on the exhaust whenever you back off the throttle.

We collected the van and trailer from the service park, which was already almost totally deserted, and parked up at the J33 services, and Paul dropped me off at the stadium to pick up the car. I was hoping for a bit more of a look at the WRC cars, but most were already heading out, so I got the camera on and videoed them leaving – they sounded amazing, and were being driven quite…exuberantly. So much so that whoever was driving the Mikkomobile nearly hit the back of Wilson’s when he stopped!

In Parc Ferme there were now only about 5 cars left – Rossi’s was being trailered, Tony Jardine’s and a couple of the Turkish Fiestas, and the Skoda. I got in, started it up for the last time and headed out. Still had a few poeple taking snaps of the car as I went, and somebody decided to race me on a roundabout, so I le them go – no point in ruining an otherwise good day! The drive home was long and slow as it was very foggy, and as I got in I was nearly asleep, hence this being posted on Monday. As I type this, it’s MOnday morning, I have the van and trailer outside on the road, and the class award on the table to the left of me. I still didn’t sleep well last night because I am still hyper about it. 5 months of hard work has paid off. I have built a car which completed Rally GB (so maybe I can add the original build time and make it 10 months?), and had a good time in the process. It’s sad that it’s the last time I’ll be able to do it, but right now I’m not going to think about that, just got to unload, clean up and return the van today, and then work tonight!

I don’t want this to turn into the oscars, but I would like to say a few thank-yous:

Paul – for being a good mate, being a bloody good navigator and also the foil to all my dodgy personality traits. I’m never sure if he thinks finishing this is an achievement, but hopefully he does, and realises how much he’s made it happen. His positive nature when things have gone wrong (like the first engine blowing up) has helped me get on with it rather than thinking it’d all gone down the pan.
Ian – service crew and all round top bloke. He was a star on the way to Banjul, and the same in Swansea.
The marshals – There are HUNDREDS of these people who give their time to allow motorsport to happen – for many of them this is their participation in the sport (some compete, some don’t), and they are always a pleasure to speak to. This year many of them have been reading this (and a couple telling me off for not getting Saturday’s blog up before they went to bed!), and I’d like to thank each of them for all the work they put in. Without them the rally would not only not run, but even if it did it wouldn’t be as much fun. At no point has anyone who has marshalled made us feel like also-rans or no hopers (i’m always expecting someone to come out and just go, “come on, Jones, the games’s up. Go home!”, quite the opposite in fact. Sorry if I forgot everyone’s names (in fact I don’t know most of them), as well, and I hope that none of my comments are misdirected as being anti-anyone (aside from whoever decided the road section timings after the changes to Friday’s stages – they were too short given the conditions, in my opinion, and even that’s not anti-THEM, just that I feel they made an error of judgement, but I know I’m not privy to the whole process, and it was a difficult situation)
My friends who have supported me by saying “Chin up” or it’ll be OK when everything’s been going wrong, particularly Julie – I didn’t believe you were right until Sunday afternoon, but you were.
Finally, my Mum. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I know you shouldn’t mention a woman’s age, but she is 70 years old, and how many women of that age would help with changing a gearbox? She has done, amongst many other things – fitting engines (putting crucial bolts in while I’m holding everything in place), etc.,etc.,etc. Whenever I’ve been too pushed for time to get things sorted or bought, all I’ve needed to do is leave a list, and by the time I get back from work, it’s been done. She even took the time to go into Kwik Fit to sound them out about fitting the rally car tyres and took the mickey as they said the tyres “would break the machine”.

So, where now? I have no idea. Rally GB 2009 isn’t an option because we’d need a HANS device each, new helmets and possibly new seats. I can see a time where National A rallies will also require them, but at present that would mean an extra ?1000+ each just to do Rally GB, and it’s a real strain to do it anyway, financially. It’s a pity as the Skoda still has 2 years of homologation left on it, but there you go. At the moment I’ve got a car that needs:

Suspension
Tank Guard
Windscreen
Clutch
Engine Rebuild
and a bunch of other little things!

One last thing for today: There have been 4000 people a day reading this. I’m honoured, I hope it’s been interesting, and I’ll put up pictures and videos later on, just thought I’d post this now while WRGB 2008 is still fresh in people’s minds.

Another bad night’s sleep, and then time to go get the car. I’d been outside to get the now dried mud off of my race suit (and gave up with the jacket I’d put down when putting the tank guard back on before Walters) and it didn’t seem that cold. But it was – the car was iced up solid, which didn’t bode well as Resolfen had been icy already. When we got to Parc Ferme most of the cars had already gone, with only one left to go after us. The car was iced up, but started on the button, and I warmed it up during the 10 minutes we had before checking out of the Parc Ferme area – de-icing the windows and so on before leaving for the service in control. Morning service is just a quick affair, really enough to pack the car and get going, so we put in the camera and food and so on, and then it was time to go.

We needed to put fuel in on the way out, which was done, and then off to Resolfen, which is fairly local. The road section took longer than it should have done as there were several really slow people on the road, and we got there with only 25 seconds before our due time – Paul had already got everything ready, so we were in and ready to go fairly quickly – not enough time to run the camera or anything like that, alas. I was relived when I asked one of the start marshals and he said there was no ice in there as he’d broken it all up with a JCB the night before and it had all melted. Good news indeed. Off we went into the stage, and soon I remembered why I spend months spending all my spare time and money getting the car ready for this – the magical feeling of driving through the forests. Granted, we’re not going at the pace of Latvala or Loeb, but we’re going quick enough for it to be good fun. Finally it was a chance to see how the car really went, and it went pretty well – the close ratio box transforms the car, meaning you’re always in the right gear, and once I’d got the hang of it, I was taking corners a gear higher than I was before, which was good but meant a bit of a re-calculation in places.

Because of the super-rally rules, we have a number of people who are miles quicker than us starting behind us today – and today’s unlucky chap was car 83, an R3 clio. Who was quick. Quick enough to have caught us by the square right across the open section (maybe 1/4 way into the stage), but handily where we could move across and let him go without too much loss for either of us. The next bit of the stage is fairly quick, and he was miles quicker than us, and disappeared fairly quickly. But we were going OK, and the stage was fairly smooth for the most part and the notes were working well – I think the extra details I’d put in were really helping, rather than leaving everything as visually done, calling each corner meant more confidence in what was going to happen, and a slightly higher speed as a result. By the time we got to the top of the stage, we’d already re-passed car 83 as he looked to be changing a wheel, and then it was time to see if the JCB man had been good to his word and really cleared the ice.

He had – the 600 yard run uphill was now a flat out thrash, and the crowds up here were really big – I guess people were making the most of the sun, and we managed to at least be giving it some beans in fourth by the left turn at the end. There’s then a section which has some 1 and 2 corners and goes downhill, and is really quick. Quick enough for the car to be on the power in 5th, which is probably as quick as we’ve ever been, and it seemed weird to need to put it down 3 gears to make the next corner! After this there was a more shaded section which I took easy as it could still be a bit icy, but it wasn’t bad at all, and then into the quarry section where you can probably really give it heaps if you have balls of steel. Mine aren’t, so I was only giving it a couple of beans, but we were still flat in fourht in places, which was quick enough. The final section of the stage is much tighter (and new for this year), and mostly went well aside from some sections that were into the sun with the track in the shade, meaning I couldn’t see what was happening. Rather than crash I took it easy, or put one hand to block the sun, but given my car control it was probably a stupid thing to do… but it worked for the most part. The end of the stage came up after car 91 had passed us (although I thought our car was knackered afterwards as there was a smell of oil, but it wasn’t us), and stupidly I went through the water splash after the flying finish… meaning we were completely steamed up at the end and on the road section, neccessitating a wipe of the screen which would come back to haunt us later.

The road section to Halfway is pretty long, and took us through some scenic countryside, but with some roads that were quite hard to keep the speed up safely – there were a couple of dodgy moments with others coming the other way, but all good in the end, and we got to the stage with 8 minutes to spare, so I got out, had a stretch and took some photos. The driver of car 83 came over to thank me for moving over, and I told him we’d get out of his way as soon as it was safe every time he caught us… which would be on every stage! From here Halfway looked good – dry and sunny – so hopefully the run through would be OK throughout.

The first part of Halfway is open land, with fast, flowing tracks, but a few surprises for the unwary – there are boulders on the edge that even clipping would mean end of rally, and hitting them hard would mean end of car. Some are in odd places when running this way round, so I made sure that I didn’t hit them! As ever, 83 caught us fairly quickly, and I gave him space as I didn’t want any more damage to the windscreen – he was chucking up a bunch of stones as he went by, and the star crack in our screen was growing slowly, but seemed OK at the mo.

The second half of halfway is a more traditional forest stage, with quite a few dropoffs but a lovely stage overall. It had cut up in places, but most of it was good. What wasn’t good was the sun – where the stage was in the shade, again, we couldn’t see much, and where I’d wiped the screen after steaming up had made visibility a lot worse. I’m sure I looked really cautious to spectators in these places as we had to take it easy, but I’d rather than than totalling the car. Where it was good, though it was really good fun – the calls were coming well, and the last section which is quite quick was again taken in 5th gear in places and 4th in all the rest. Good fun, and once more I remembered why I’d made all the effort. In places the hits were hard and the front end was bottoming out with massive bangs reverberating through the shell, but most of it was good. I’d forgotten the little bridge at the bottom of the stage towards the end, and it was funny seeing how many birds were in the stage tracks – I guess the worms are getting dug up and they’re having a meal!

There was no time to do anything as we were off to Crychan straight away, and into the stage, which we were told was a bit icy in places, and it certainly was. We moved off line to let 83 through, and nearly lost it as it was very slippy off-line, but I carried on, agian with some issues with icy sections, and also the sun being a problem in the tighter areas – I was getting a bit used to driving one-handed, just wished I could do it as well as Richard Burns does! The end of the stage seemed to come up very quickly, which was quite a surprise. There’s a long section of forest track to take down to the road, and near the end we saw Jamie Smith’s Impreza with the bonnet up, looking like he’d hit something, but we didn’t have time to stop and ask or help, alas – the road section back to service was tight for time, and being held up by traffic didn’t help matters. We had to stop for fuel as suddenly it seemed to be losing a lot, and I thought we might have a leak. I looked underneath to find…. NO TANKGUARD! It was completely gone! The tank looked OK, though, so we fuelled up and went. I got Paul to call Ian to see if he could get hold of some metal sheet or plastic to make something up and gave him some rough dimensions.

We got to service with a couple of minutes to spare, and went through the usual routine of being jetwashed off, moving to near the arrival control and then chatting to various people, including James from Motorsports News to find out what had been going on as much as anything…. and then into service. We found Ian had not only set up the gazebo and service area perfectly, but had a SELECTION of items to make a tankguard out of that he’d scavenged. There was one (a metal panel, from an army box) which couldn’t have been more ideal if it had been measured and cut to size. Within 10 minutes we’d put some bends into it to put it over the exhaust, drilled holes for cable-tie mountings and bent the front edge up to avoid catching the rocks. Perfect. The rest of service was routine as the car was running OK, aside from needing a LITRE of oil, which worried me, but no time to think too much about it, time to go. Big thanks to the Armed Forces Rally team for their generosity on this part.

The run out to Resolfen 2 was difficult because the time was tight, we needed fuel and the station was busy, but we made the best we could of it, and got to the stage arrival with 20 seconds to spare, long enough to get helmeted up and in in time, and then we were into the stage quickly. Once more it was a good run, although a LOT more cut up than before, and we got caught by car 83 in the same place again. Previously on this stage I’ve always bent front wheels by heavy rocks in a certain section, and we made it through here without damage. A couple of pages in the notes further on, I just thought “Yes! We’ve made it without bending a wheel” when BANG….we did it again. The characteristic Bang Bang Bang Bang was there again, and after a quick check of how far to go we decided to keep going rather than lose 6 minutes in the stage changing the wheel. Usually the banging gets less (and indeed drops to nothing after a while), but this must have been a big one as it didn’t get that much less all the way round. I don’t think we went as well as before as the cut-up state of the stage and me thinking “we might make it to Cardiff” was coming into play. We got caught by #84 (the female Turkish Crew), but no-one else. Again the sun was a problem in places towards the end, but this time I didn’t steam us up when we came out. We made it out to the road and then changed the wheel, which was AGAIN the left front – every single time it has been, so maybe there is something to the old thing about always hitting the navigator’s side of the car!

Off to halfway with the long road section, and got there with a couple of minutes to spare. The stage run started out OK, but with the cut-up nature of it it was tougher in places (albeit nothing like Myherin!). 83 made his way past a bit earlier this time, and then we were across Dixies. I decided to give it a bit more on the way down from here, and couldn’t avoid a pothole on the left and BANG! I’d done another wheel….. no time to stop, and again it wasn’t getting any quieter as we went, so we just kept on with it. The stage had cut up in places more than I expected, and there were a few moments on the way down to the bridge, but mostly it went well, and still the end section was good with the 1 and 2 corners taken in 4th and 5th.

No time to change the wheel, it was off to Crychan 2. It was starting to feel cold and nasty again, with some fog here and there, and we needed the pod lamps on as we went. We got caught by 83 and let him past on what looked like a decent section, and it was icy and slippy, and we nearly stuck it in a ditch as a result! Even when on line here it was slippy – it’s amazing that when you’re at speed it seems OK, but as soon as you’re going slower it seems more dangerous than when you’re going quickly. Relatively speaking. The rest of the stage was good, but there were several “moments” as there were some sections that seemed to be icing up a fair bit, and I wanted to get to the end, which was done after what seemed like a much longer time than before. The wheel was still banging like hell as we came to the end of the stage, and had to get going quickly, fuelling up in the same place and then needing to really thrash it to get to Cardiff in time – so much so that we didn’t have time to change the wheel before the regroup before the millennium stadium.

We were told by the CLO that we couldn’t change the wheel while in regroup, so we had to leave it, and went inside for some free drinks, use of the loo and watching some of the other cars do the millennium stage. Some of them were giving it heaps (Gassner Jr in particular), others were taking it a bit easier, but soon enough we had to go and give it a go. I set the camera ready to record, but it was playing up and there was no time to sort it out – we were in and ready to go. As we set off… BANG BANG BANG as we went, and then jumped into the Stadium which was dark and really atmospheric. On the first lap as soon as we turned right I felt a problem – the left front obviously got pushed off the rim and started to go flat, so it was a bit dodgy on the right turn (fortunately only one a lap), and the rest was just good fun, and I tried to get it a bit sideways on the turn by the arch – I nearly did on the last lap at the flying finish. The stop control is inside the stadium and they big you up to the crowd. I was pleased to see a LOT of people there (way more than in 06), and even more so to hear them clapping, so I gave them a clap in return – many thanks to everyone who did that.

Then we were off again, but needed to change the wheel, which was done in the street just outside. It took a while (during which I managed to give myself a massive blood blister), and it wasn’t helped by some wise-acre giving it the “you’d be no good in F1” routine as it took about 4 minutes to change – a massive crowd had gathered by this time too. But then I doubt they do it with hand tools and a Skoda jack….

The road section back to service was done in good time, without needing to fuel as the car cruises so well and uses little fuel, so we made it with minutes to spare (which was nice), but it did involve taking a few liberties as the town was rammed and the times were very tight. We then had a nice relaxed service – Ian taking care of the few things that needed doing, having a really nice chat with three young guys who wanted to get started, and seeing that both wheels had been REALLY heavily dented – both are completely scrap as the dents are about 5 inches across (being flat now instead of curved) and we finished service early, and booked into Parc Ferme. My car was in the same row as Loeb’s car (which looks fantastic close up – it’s crazily trick), but we didn’t get a pic of both cars in the same shot, so had to settle with me looking like a moron posing with it instead.

So, day 2, done. But apparently it’ll be -5 degrees tomorrow. This will be TRICKY.

Friday was a fairly early start, but seemed earlier as I’d not slept well, waking up half the night. We drove the rally car to service, and got everything sorted out and then off out for the start of the rally proper – TC0 at 7:40am. Into tyre marking (again meeting the nice woman who did our scrutineering), and then off out onto the road section. Which was a MASSIVE 150km with a bit extra on it, with 3h23 to do it in. This might seem like a long time, but it soon got eaten up. When we turned into the stage access road we had about an hour to go, but oddly there were quite a few who were running higher up than us who were parked at the side of the road, but we thought it would be better to get on with it – we’d had a text from a friend who was running radio saying SS1 would be run non-competetively, but still would have to be booked in and out, so we pushed on. The problem with running the stage like this is that we still have to traverse it (and in this case the iciest part of it), but without any safety cover or marshals, etc. And this soon became an issue because we found on an uphill section it was really icy – not something that had been the case when we had done the recce – and we soon ground to a halt – both wheels were spinning (LSD earning its keep), but going nowhere. Nightmare.

Directly behind us was Tony Jardine who gave it a good go at getting us going and pushing us, and we did get going again, but only about 50 yards uphill before we ground to a halt again, and the land rover boys came up to tow us. Hooked on the rope. And went nowhere. All four wheels spinning, and that was BEFORE taking up the slack in the rope. He eventually got going, with some wheelspin, and stones coming out, cracking our windscreen in the process! We eventually managed to get up the hill with some pushing and being on the right part of the road. The rest of it was taken carefully as it was slick and icy in places, with a couple of unintentioanl lockups. We made the stage arrival with 7 minutes to spare, so we’d spent about 40 minutes stuck. Many others were stuck behind us, as we saw those with much lower numbers turn up. Nice to finally meet Macjam from the forum at this point too!

Then we found out the stage was definitely being run non-competetively, which might seem like a good idea, but when you’re not given any more time than before to get to the next control and you can’t wear your helmets, it’s a bit dangerous if you ask me – the stage is being run that way because it’s unsafe, surely? Anyway, we ran through, and the end was as icy as hell – it’s an uphill hairpin right, and I nearly though we wouldn’t make it, and had to take a run up at the next few bits.

On the way to the end of the original stage, there was a downhill into a hairpin right and again it was icy, with some “camera vultures” waiting for us to screw up. Which I promptly did, fortunately there was an uphill section opposite us – if it had been a drop-off we’d have been off, simple as that. Carried on to the link section between this and Sweet Lamb, and crazily the section time was LESS than before hand, despite being longer. Paul made a small error (he added the original time) so we booked in late. Personally at this point I really didn’t give a monkey’s, I was glad we were there in one piece, but he wasn’t happy about it at all as he’s not a man who makes mistakes often! So, we arrived at Sweet Lamb ready to give our first go, but even getting going on this was difficult – it was already rutted as hell, and there was next to no grip. I took it easy as there seemed no point in killing the car this early on, particularly this far away from anything like help, so I guess it was the worst stage time ever. There was one point on a hairpin turn where it was cut up and rocky and took about 20 seconds to get the car going let alone move anywhere. Still, it was done, and off we went to stage 3, Myherin.

The times for this, again, were too short – the stage start had been moved about 7km into the stage, but we only had a few minutes extra to get there. I was pushing as hard as I felt was safe, and Paul was using the notes to tell me what was coming up. There was someone coming the other way in a Golf, and we had to take care there, as he didn’t seem to care about the conditions. There was some ice here, but not as much as before – mainly at the top of the series of hairpins at the start. As we got about 4k into the ‘original’ stage we could see in the distance there was someone coming the other way with a flashing light on it, and Paul told me to be careful as we were about to go behind a rock, and lose sight of him – we’d see him coming the other way soon enough. As we got to the top of the turn, some guys flagged us down and told us there had been an accident down the road, so we took it easy as we came round the corner, and saw something I don’t think I’ll ever forget – Car 86 (A Fiesta ST) had had a head-on collision with a Land Rover Discovery, and it was not a pretty sight – the front of the Fiesta was completely destroyed, and the Land Rover similarly smashed. A real mess. The Land Rover guys were OK, but the Fiesta crew had apparently not had their belts on, and were definitely badly injured. Obviously we stopped and tried to give assistance although there were already crew on the scene, but we made sure no-one else had a problem – other crews turned up and we explained the situation etc., and waited for advice. We were there for about 40 minutes during which time the Fiesta was cut apart to get the Nav out, and the scene taped off. I’m pleased to have been told later on there were no serious lasting injuries to the crew.

We were told to go back to the road and then make our way back to the regroup to remote service in – this was about 15 miles before we’d get back on the original road route, so we did it as soon as we could, but the quite circuitous route made this difficult to do in any sensible time, but eventually we all joined up with the others who’d been held up as well, and got booked into remote service, where we were pleased to see Ian, who’d apparently been hob-nobbing with Loeb’s service crew, etc, taking pictures and all sorts. By the time we got there it was chucking it down with rain and deadly miserable. Fortunately the only thing needed to sort on the car was a loose top mounting, which we did with the assistance of car 97’s wheel nut gun and a 25mm socket I had in the car. Apart from that all was well, but now that the fear/adrenaline of the morning had worn off, I was feeling a bit hungry, but only managed to eat an apple and some chocolate before setting off again – more tyre marking and then off back out to Hafren 2, which I was surprised was still running, given this morning’s situation.

The road timing was much tighter this time so we REALLY needed to get on with it, and having a few slow people didn’t help matters, but we got on with it as much as possible, bearing in mind we were expecting trouble on the icy hill again. This time I took as much of a run-up as I dared, but it was still touch-and-go in places. Another run of the stage followed, again without helmets, and again with some dubious safety, in my opinion – OK, in the stage we would have been fine, but on the “road section” to Sweet Lamb there was not a soul to be seen, and these were the more slippy parts of it. This time we made Sweet Lamb with about 5 seconds to spare, and off we went again. It was much, MUCH worse this time – it’s a real disappointment to have been to a near-mythical stage and to have driven it in a state that doesn’t seem to be fit for a digger in a number of places. I was amazed we got through it all, but we did, and again had a slippy and too-fast “road section” on the way out to the main road. Then we did the road and again the first 7km of the original Myherin to get to the start. We went past the scene of the Fiesta accident and were flagged down to a total stop (despite having been going slowly anyway), delaying us by 20-30 seconds or so, and then having to go faster to try to get to the stage in time. We handed our time card in with 6 seconds to go, but were told we were too late. Another penalty.

Finally we were going to get a chance to run Myherin, and I was hoping the ice would have cleared up. I needn’t have worried, as the worry of ice was replaced by the stage condition being much like that of a quarry, with rocks to match. Now the stage itself would be amazing, but the roads were incredibly cut up, and very, very rocky. We did what we could and actually got into a decent rhythm in the end, even managing to give it some in 4th gear on a series of 1/2 left/right bends, and soon enough we got to the ford, which was at Junction 12. We’d been warned the water was about 2 feet deep here, so I took it a bit easy, but kept some speed up and then gunned it to get it through.

I really, really thought I’d killed the car. You can tell when an engine has taken some water in, it dies and sounds, well, wet. And it really did. I put it in neutral and revved it, but it wasn’t keen. There looked to be about 5 cars there that had died, and some helpful people pushed us a bit, but it was making no power, and took 3-4 attempts to even get moving. THey pushed, I revved, and we just about got going, and tried to get up the hill. It would only pull first, but it WAS going…. and suddenly everything disappeared as the water that had come in everywhere meant the windows steamed up. I didn’t want to stop as I thought we’d never get going so I put the windows down and loosened my straps so I could wipe the screen as it was WAY too much water for the heater to disperse. Paul couldn’t see anything so I just asked for each corner, took it and then cued the next one. We weren’t going quickly, but we WERE going. There were several more cars out at this point, all on the hill going up, so I assume the water had got the better of them too. It took about 3 miles for the windows to clear enough for us to drive normally again, and in that time we saw MANY cars off, but we were still going. Some parts of the stage were OK, some were still rough and cut up, but we went OK, and suddenly the end was upon us.

However, the end wasn’t really. The rest of the stage was now a “road section”, and we had to run this quite quickly, and it was predictably icy, slippy and deserted. We saw a couple of cars off, including one at the point where I’d nearly lost it on recce, and the exit where Loeb’s recce car went off was also VERY dodgy. It seemed to take an age to get to the road, but we did it, and then the long road section to Walters, which was difficult again. We stopped for Fuel where some nice woman pointed out that there was “something loose” under the car. Turns out it was the tank guard, but time was tight so we decided to get to Walters first, and then worry about it. We did that with 6 minutes to spare, and in that time managed to get the tank guard cable-tied back in place (it was the rear that was loose, and cable ties were the original fixing ‘method’), albeit at the cost of me becoming immensely muddy despite sacrificing my coat to the mud a la Francis Drake.

Into the stage, and the downhill section before the main stadium bit was very, VERY slippy – the back of the car seemed keen to overtake the front, and it was only after we got back to service that I found out that it was here that Chris Atkinson had had a nasty accident at the same place, so I’m glad I didn’t lose it here. The rest of it went OK, but the difference it makes being in the dark is immense – things that seemed really easy in the daytime were difficult at night, and it being floodlit meant it constantly looked as if you were being caught or overtaken. The stage went OK, but by now I wanted not to kill the car, so I didn’t go mad ove the jump (unlike last year), and when we got caught by a C2 towards the end I deliberately went wide on the last corner to let him past.

The run back round for Walters 2 was quite long, and as it took 2 minutes to get our timecards back and we only had 8 minutes anyway, we were always going to be late. It was rough and slippy (no, really!), and we were a minute late booking in again, but by now it seemed irrelevant – better to be there late than not at all. The second run was a bit better – the slippy bit aside, everything seemed to be better, although I mistook one corner for another and was surprised when it went right instead of left, but otherwise all was good.

Now, the last road section back to service, which took a quite indirect route through town, and then along the A483 into service. We got jetwashed off, and then waited for the in control, and was pleased to speak to James from Motorsport news, and also Rob who is an organiser on the Sunseeker. Found out at this point we were 50th overall. Which is incredible but obviously means we’ll be in the way of much faster crews tomorrow, which is bad for both of us and them, but we’ll see….

Just going into service we saw Mikko Hirvonen’s car which looked a real mess, and didn’t want to run too well either, but we had our own concerns. The main one in service was the clutch as the cable was adjusted too tight, and let’s just say it took replacing the cable and the refitting it to sort it. Everything else was fairly routine – oil, water, checks, and so on. The car was running well and without rattles, which was nice. Back to the service out control, and we realised we didn’t know where Parc Ferme was, but there was a Ford behind us who apparently would do. I got Paul to get out to ask them where it was. He did this saying “where’s the Parc Ferme, mate”, and he said “follow us”. Only as he walked back to the car did he realise this was Mikko Hirvonen! So we followed Mikko to Parc Ferme, and then off we went.

Day one, done.

Ian arrived around 2, which was handy as we were just about to go shopping again. Once pleasantries were exchanged, we got everything sorted and decided to take Ian to the service park. While I wouldn’t say I was jaded about the whole WRC experience, it’s obviously a totally new box of frogs for Ian, and he was keen to get down there, so we stickered his car up and then set off down there. Unfortunately most of the ‘big boys’ had already gone (aside from those who had hurt their cars on the shakedown, I guess – Henning Solberg’s car seemed to be needing a fair bit of work), but he was still excited about it all, and Paul must have got pulled in as he bought a Rally GB fleece. I settled with a free copy of Motorports News, with a bit about us, which said our budget was less than the Subaru drinks bill (almost certainly true) and that I was “the ultimate privateer”. While I’m sure there are others who could rightfully take that crown, I’ll definitely quote it again!

A quick trip to Sainsbury’s for the food for the weekend and it was just about time to set off for the ceremonial start. This means a 50-mile drive to Cardiff, a bunch of rally cars in the town centre, and driving over a ramp, and then coming back. Which I wasn’t that excited about this year because I was absolutely knackered – the last couple of days had caught up with me – but obviously this would pass, especially after some food and a bit of chocolate, which kicked in on the M4 while we sat in traffic. There was a lot worse to come – the way into Cardiff was choc-a-block, and it took ages to get in there; we’d planned to get there for 6pm so we could see Loeb et al, but we actually got there at 6:41, precisely the time we needed to do to avoid a ?500 fine for being late. Many arrived after us, so I guess they’ll be out of pocket….

Then, the long wait for the start – there were FAR more cars there than should have been when we arrived, and the queue took a long time to move. In that time it was a chance to catch up with a few old faces and have a chat, and also see my friend Juliet who’d brought her two nephews and niece down which was nice to have a little fan club. The rain started coming down quite heavily for a bit, but overall the weather wasn’t too bad given that it’s nearly Christmas and we were in Wales. After what seemed like a long time we got to the start line, and then up onto the ramp. What amazed me was how many people seem to have been reading this blog. I originally started it to keep my sister and her husband up-to-date on what I’d been up to, and it seems that loads of people now read it – it was mentioned on the start line over the PA, and it just seems plain odd that people I’ve never met read this and keep up with it, but there you go. I’d like to thank anyone who has read this and enjoyed it, anyway, I don’t want it to turn into an Oscar speech, it’s just nice that people take some interest, and I guess see a bit more inside what happens when some idiot from Bournemouth decides to play at being a rally driver.

We were then off, down the ramp and out, except, of course, we hadn’t done our belts up so we stopped around the corner and were mobbed by some 12-year-old boys who wanted autographs. Now, when this first happened (on the second time we did the Sunseeker) I said “Oh, don’t be silly”, but now I just sign them. Not ‘cos I think I’m famous or anything, but if that’s what they want, then cool. Maybe one day they’ll do whatever rally is on in the future, and they’ll say “well, that bloke in the Skoda did it”, in the same way the people in the Beetle doing the RAC was my inspiration.

The drive back to Swansea was punctuated by Paul getting Bulletin 3 (handy having the Internet on his phone), which now shows that tomorrow’s route has been severely revised; SS1/4 (Hafren) was originally 19km, it’s now down to 3km. SS2/5 (Sweet Lamb) is down to 4k from 6k, and SS3/6 (Myherin) is down from 35km to 18km. These are MAJOR reductions, and mean major changes – Paul is reworking the paperwork as I type this, as we have to work out where the new starts are (some are given as distances from junction numbers which we would have noted on the recce). This means a revised schedule, and thankfully also means more sane average speeds are needed (particularly on Hafren which was the one I was really worried about as a 62kph average speed in those conditions seemed borderline as we usually average only 75kph on a good day). I can’t help but feel that this will have repercussions, but it has been stressed that this was taken for safety of the competing crews, which means that rescue access was probably impossible. However, we did do the whole stages on recce, and given that (a) I have to pay for and do ANY repairs on the car and (b) Clair said she wouldn’t be happy if I killed Paul I was prepared to drive them as quickly as I found to be safe, rather than with abandon. Not that I’m crazy, I’m just a normal bloke who wanted to go rallying, but I went OK the other day when the stages were good.

So, there’s a lot to be done before tomorrow, but I really, REALLY need to get a good night’s sleep – I’m very tired, and this isn’t a good way to start any event. We have a 150km road section and our start time is 07:41. There is one upside to tonights trek to Cardiff and back – at a constant 50mph (didn’t see any point in tanking the car), it did the 100 miles on 14.5L of fuel, which is 31mpg. Looks like the mapping on part throttle we did will pay off, as the road sections will at least be doable without too many refills (it was doing around 10mpg before). Not sure about the stage consumption, but we’ll worry about that tomorrow. Although calculating it from a 3k stage will be hard. Let’s hope it’s all thawed out up there anyway.