Skoda Rally Blog

This evening was the ceremonial start for Rallye Sunseeker 2011, which has replaced the traditional Friday night stages in Bournemouth Gardens since last year; obviously I didn’t get to it last year as I was out of action, but this year was my first experience of it. On the face of it, it’s a chance for the public to get close to rally cars that will be competing tomorrow, and also for sponsors to be seen by a wider section of the public – there are lots of people who are interested but won’t be able to spend the day in a forest watching cars, and this was evident tonight.

We arrived a bit before our due time and queued up, with Gary Hayter appearing just behind us; his terratrip had broken so it was handy for us to be able to tell him which iPhone app would do the trick instead! We had a chat with the others in our class – the Becketts in the Skoda Favorit and Richard and Andrew in the 1275GT Mini, and had a good laugh. The mood down at the Quay reminded me of the queue on the barrage for Rally GB’s saturday evening stage – everyone was chatty and there was an air of excitement. The crowds were HUGE – I really wasn’t expecting anywhere near as many people to be down there; when we arrived it was difficult to move in some parts of the quay, and this lasted the entire time; there seemed to be a fair wait and it did look as if we would be waiting around a lot longer than our original due time, but once the cars got moving it went smoothly; even though we were last but one over the ramp (we would have been last but it looked like car 70’s driver had gone AWOL and they appeared when there was no chance of them overtaking us!), the crowds were still solid – driving up to the start itself the crowds were very deep, with people asking for autographs and saying hello, and the commentator keeping things moving with each car taking about 30 seconds while the mayor held a flag over the windscreen in true ceremonial style – he was very chatty and enthusiastic which was much appreciated by us as normally by the end people have had enough!

We drove off through even more excited crowds, and back home – quite a different experience from doing the two seafront stages but still a good PR exercise, I’m sure. Tomorrow will be completely different, however, and it’s time to see how well we can go; I have heard reports that some of the stages are really rough this year, with some tricky sections as well, so it will certainly not be easy for anyone!

Today sees a couple of important things for tomorrow’s Rallye Sunseeker 2011 – having got documentation out of the way last night, scrutineering needs to be done, and then there is the ceremonial start at Poole Quay this evening.

I woke up reasonably early and got all the stickers on the car – this was not to my usual high standards, and I’m blaming thin vinyl for my poor efforts.  Next up was getting some tyres changed, and the chaps at Kinson Tyres were as obliging and efficient as ever, so after that it was time for noise test at Canford Arena, which was passed easily enough, but I noticed that the throttle was sticking – it was difficult to get a precise opening, which is really crucial when trying to get the engine at 4500rpm, and obviously will be when driving the car in anger as some precision is needed in mid-corner to avoid either going hideously slow or off the road!

Scrutineering was down at Oops! near Poole, and I followed Craig Breen’s fiesta most of the way down there until he went in completely the opposite direction, so either he was lost or he wasn’t going there anyway; either way I got there in plenty of time and got the car scrutineered, which went OK apart from the electrical cutoff T-handle breaking when I tested it (I’d removed it all last night and oiled the cable, checked it all worked fine and again this morning, and then it breaks THEN.  Typical!), which I’ve now replaced.

So, technically all ready to start, but still a few things to do – sort out the idle speed (which had risen due to the throttle stop screw working loose), sort the throttle pedal/cable, and also the intercom extension which got broken in Rally GB – handily the UK importer of the connectors is in Poole, so that was easy enough – thanks to Claire at Pambry Electronics for her help today, much appreciated.

I got back, got the idle speed sorted, and found that both throttle pedal and cable were to blame, so lubrication seems to have helped there a great deal, and the intercom was fixed soon enough.  Time for lunch and CRACK!  I’ve broken a tooth.  Which isn’t ideal, but at the moment it doesn’t hurt too much, and handily I have the dentist this afternoon anyway (rated right up there with scrutineering and MOTs for me in terms of dislike), so hopefully he can patch it up.

Just about ready to go...

This evening’s start is at Poole Quay, and we are due at 18:54 and will be out of there by 20:06; hopefully the weather will hold up as it was nice earlier but is looking increasingly grey; I don’t fancy standing about in the rain for an hour, but apparently tomorrow is looking good.  We start at a rather relaxed 10:12am so should have a nice easy morning setting up at Canford Arena (well, what there is to set up, anyway!) and hopefully a smooth and rewarding day on the stages.

Today was a mapping session booked at Triton Motorsport, having dealt with Andy before I knew we’d get a good job done.  Unfortunately my prolapsed disc has come back with a vengeance, leaving me unable to stand up without the aid of morphine (this entry is being brought to you courtesy of a dose of said substance), so obviously there’s no way I could do that, let alone the other things the car needs.

Which leaves me finally realising that there is no way I’ll be ready for the Sunseeker, even if the car was.  For obvious reasons I’m gutted about this, the last year or so has just been one disaster after another, and given that it’s been 5 months since all this started, it looks almost impossible that I’ll be able to do Rally GB 2010, aside from any other considerations (such as no longer having a job).  I’d like to say a massive thanks to the organisers of the Sunseeker as they have been extremely understanding about the situation, and were very supportive of my efforts to try to compete in my favourite event.  Hopefully next year….

So, with yesterday out of the way, it was time for the forest stages, which are the main event, really, on the Sunseeker. After we’d finished and got back last night it turned out that the stage had a second stoppage with a nasty accident on the seafront, with the crew thankfully largely OK, but leading to the cancellation of Stages 1 & 2 for those who hadn’t run it (they all get nominal times, so they were mostly on equal times for the start of day 2).

Went to Canford Arena about 8:30, got the car ready with new forest tyres and the lamp pod off, and checked everything over, and went to chat to a few people we’ve met on various events, but soon enough it was time to get in the car and head off. And as soon as we got going there was a knocking noise – sounded like the wheel was a bit buckled, but it wasn’t bad (it must have been on a rear before), and it soon stopped once we got going and on the road section, which was only short to the first stage of the day, Stage 3, which is on Uddens.

This may be short, but it’s a great stage – the first part is fairly simple but the tracks are really high quality. The middle is a bit muddy and rough, but then the end is a flat-out thrash. And I felt it was an opportunity to give it a good go straight from the off. The first proper corner I got exactly right – the back of the car was a bit out of line, and we got through nice and quick, and took this same speed into the next set of corners, which all went well – I think we may even have looked good at one point – until the tight square left after a bridge, where we got stuck a couple of years ago. Got round that OK (if not mega-quick), and then into the muddier, rough section. The car still felt good here, and then a couple of narrow posts to go through (which I always take a bit easy as it would be such a stupid place to end things), but it went well. Made a mess of the last tight corner (again through posts), but the rest went well, particularly the last long section – the new box worked really well, the ratios meaning it was pulling all the way. The end result? A 3:44.1, a full 0.7 seconds faster than Barrie in the Proton. THIS was what we wanted – some tight times and having a proper battle.

Off we went on the road section and saw a stricken Evo by the side of the road. Got to the next stage (Ringwood South) with a couple of minutes to spare, and all was feeling good.

Off we went, again the gearbox making things a pleasure. It was a bit loose (felt like one of the rears was a bit low on pressure), but nothing serious to worry about. Got to a point where there’s a set of posts in the ground (which I used to be scared of, originally!) and into a square right, and heard a noise like a wheel bearing going. I thought we’d keep going, and changed into third to power out of the corner and…

Nothing.

No drive at all. The gear lever wouldn’t move, the car was just coasting, and we pulled over to the side of the road. I said “Gearbox”, and that was about it. Got out, and had a quick look to see if it was something like the selector lever having been jammed in neutral by a stone. I wasn’t prepared for what I saw:

The diff had exploded. Obviously this was why we had no drive, but it also meant game over for this year. The reality of it hit me, and I was gutted. The last few other competitors came past soon enough, but then it really hits you – you’re out. All the work you’ve put in means nothing, and nothing is going to get you any further competitively. It’s over. And so damn soon. Didn’t even get to do Ararat or Somerley. The car was just getting going. As were we.

After a while, the (very nice) recovery crew came to take us to the stage exit, which was done smoothly enough (although odd as I kept steering as we went, with the wheels off the ground, silly boy), and we left the car there and had to get a lift (yes, from my Mum!) back to get the trailer, etc. In all, 3 hours later, everything is packed up at Service and all put away here, the car is back here and I’m sat in my living room. The repair bill will probably be about £1000 (a new diff is £650+VAT, and hopefully the gear kit is not totally destroyed), but I’ll need to find the source of the problem – did the diff just explode, or did something else kill it? Anyway, all that will be found eventually, and I’ll decide what I’m going to do.

Retiring from Rallies is a part of motorsport – no matter what you do, something can go wrong. We’ve only ever retired due to mechanical failure, and this was a freak occurrence – it wasn’t something I could have predicted (it was all working perfectly until 100 yards before it died), so I guess that’s the only positive I can take from it. Paul is, of course, his usual optomistic self, saying that it could have been much worse – we could have rolled the car 3 times or hit a tree, and that’s true, but right now I feel beaten up over it, and can’t face the idea of spending that much more money on the car, but the problem is once you’ve used a car with such a setup (close ratio box and LSD) then going back just isn’t an option – it really transforms the car completely. The crappy thing is that at the moment I keep thinking “we should be doing Stage X” – tomorrow it won’t seem so bad but right now it’s galling, especially given the perfect conditions today.

The Sunseeker traditionally starts with a pair of “spectator stages”, in this case run through the Lower Gardens in Bournemouth, and then along the undercliff drive to Boscombe pier. This is only 1.6 miles, and is run twice, in reverse seeding order with the second run ‘interleaving’ between the first-run crews who are doing the stage for the first time, at 30-second intervals, meaning the spectators have something increasingly quick and good to watch, rather than having a quick car and it being all downhill from there.

This leaves us with the unusual situation of being nearly first on the road (we’ve been first before), which leaves Paul on his toes as there are not many people in front to follow, although this year there were some crews in front of us (Military Land Rovers and one other car), so we weren’t first on the road. The route to town is always a bit frustrating as it takes two of the most traffic-filled roads on a Friday night, so it’s always a bit “will we, won’t we?” to see if we’ll be there on time. Fortunately we were there on time, and had a bit of time to get out of the car, check tyre pressures and say hello to a few people. I also managed to get my helmet stuck in the back of the car (with it on!) as I was setting the camera running. Quite embarrasing, but all done OK. Then, the stage itself.

If you don’t know Bournemouth Gardens, it’s has a wide footpath with small metal railings on either side. Lots of people call the stage “Mickey Mouse”, but it’s somewhere that you could get it properly wrong, as it’s quite tight in places, but also with a good run down to the first bend proper, and I decided I wanted to go under 2 minutes on both runs this year, so I gave it some down to the first corner, and when I braked there was a moment where I thought we wouldn’t stop in time as the pads weren’t warmed up properly, but we made it OK, and then to a left/right chicane and under the pier approach (which is always slippy due to the surface and the sand) and then onto the seafront. It’s nearly a mile to go there, but with some bends (as part of the road) and three chicanes to negotiate. Last year they were very tight, and I nearly hit one, this year they weren’t as tight, but of course you only know that after the event (and hope they’re still the same when you come through again). The car ran well, and was into top gear towards the braking zones for the chicanes – geared perfectly for this. We got to the end and I was pleased that (a) Paul thought it went well, and (b) We’d done it in 1:57.8 – Nice.

Back round for Stage 2, this time queueing in a different place, we were told our arrival time was wrong by a somewhat misinformed marshal (who thought it wasn’t possible for two cars to be arriving in the same minute – reason being we’d gone in 1:57 and the car in front had done 2:06), but fortunately Paul knows what he wants, which is always good.

We then went towards the stage queue, and found the stage had been stopped. It was really warm down there tonight (relatively speaking – usually it’s bitterly cold) so we had time to get out and talk to a few people who we knew; it was probably a 15-minute delay while the stricken car (a Land Rover, apparently) was removed and the stage re-started. We slotted into the queue with the first runner in front of us being Geoff Bennett in his Warrior-powered Mark 2. We’d seen a few cars go off the line as we waited, and none of them really took off. Geoff changed all that – it was amazing watching how his car just hooked up and flew off. It’s no surprise that at the time I got home he was leading on SS1 – he did it in 20 seconds less than us, and I’d think it’ll take a properly quick car and driver to catch him there.

So we were up, just 30 seconds later. The lights went green, and away we went. I’d been trying to warm the brakes on the way round to SS2 but of course all that heat would have gone during the delay so I took it a little cautiously into the first turn, and got it just right in fact, and the rest of the stage went OK. There was a moment in the first chicane on the seafront when I outbraked myself on the way in and then missed a gear on the way out, but it went well overall, and the result was a slightly quicker time, a 1:56.4. Overall, not a bad job – mission accomplished, I think.

We then had to get back to service in 27 minutes, which sounds easy, but given slow Friday night traffic and a slightly long route, it left little time to get fuel (which we needed – we’re going to try to run minimum fuel at all times this year), but we just about managed it, got back to the control with a minute or so to spare, and when we booked in got a results sheet to show 3 cars were behind us at the moment, a right result for me. As I write this there are 4 cars behind us (a Subaru had a bit of a mare on SS2), which is unusual.

So, tomorrow is the “real deal”, with 11 forest stages. Our start time is around 9:30, so we’ll have to go and get the car ready, changing wheels and so on, but it’s looking like a good weekend, or a good start anyway!

This week has gone very smoothly – I’ve been driving the car as much as possible, as whenever you’ve done something major no matter how much care you think you’ve taken, something can come loose or something unexpected can arise. But that hasn’t happened – the car hasn’t missed a beat, which is great, and this sense of calm meant that I almost didn’t feel as if the event was taking place – so often in the past the week before the rally has been fraught (especially as it’s usually in half-term, so I’m usually off and doing the car that week), but not so this year – an unusual situation in itself, but one compounded by our scrutineering time being later than usual at midday.

We loaded up my car (which is acting as service vehicle) and headed off to Canford Arena, where service is for the weekend. There was some disarray there (we weren’t on the service area plan!) leading to a delay before we could get set up. I say set up, I mean “get a tarpaulin out and put some wheels down to stop it flying away, and then sticker the car up. Time was tight, but fortunately the stickers have all got smaller this year (credit crunch?) so they went on easy enough, even more so as there was little wind there – Canford Arena is quite exposed and there’s usually a fair bit of wind down there, but it was still and sunny. Noise test was passed easily (93 dB, a full 7dB under the limit) and then we headed off to the Littledown Centre for scrutineering.

As anyone who’s read this before will know, Scrutineering is my least favourite part of rallying. I’ve never failed it and always check the car before the event, but it’s the last point at which an oversight could stop you competing, and I’m always nervous. However, scrutineering at the Sunseeker is made into a bit of an event (with the Littledown sports centre being used for it, and the public coming to see the cars be scrutineered and rally radio being broadcast from there). There was no need to worry, we passed OK (although needed to cover the battery + terminal as the cover had got lost), and then parked my car up outside, next to Marcus Dodd’s Accent WRC – a nice bookend of the field, but one I didn’t get a chance to take a photo of as I’d been collared by Robin Bradford to be interviewed for the Bournemouth University Rally DVD project, so I spent about 10 minutes being interviewed about starting rallying, doing Rally GB and so on, and hopefully gave them something to actually use rather than a bunch of gibberish!

Then we needed to do documentation, which is usually straightforward (and even bag us a couple of chocolates, nice people that they are), and then had to wait around for another interview, this time with Alan for the Rallye Sunseeker podcast. Spoke to Barrie Purrett (#76 in his Proton) who said he has a very noisy front wheel bearing. Hopefully he can get it replaced or it won’t fail as that would be a real pity, he’s a top bloke and someone whose times I’d aspire to.

The waiting for the interview was made much more pleasant firstly by seeing Murray Walker (who is tiny) and Louise Goodman (who is a lot thinner in person than on TV), and some rather interestingly-clad women  who were wearing “Turbo Dynamics” skin-tight blue and white suits. They seemed to be attracting a LOT of interest from the many photographers who were there (one of whom we caught taking a picture of her bum!), but then I guess that’s why they were there!

The interview with Alan was fun, covering similar stuff to the previous one, and this time Paul got asked a few things (which he wasn’t too keen on as he thought he’d get asked something techinical!) and then off we went, home. By now my back was pretty sore, so I need to do some ice treatment and make sure I don’t do anything stupid. This isn’t helped by the fact that I managed to rip the rear mudflap off when leaving this morning (thankfully it was still there when I got back), so I have to fit that…. aside from that we’re ready to go – we will be setting off from MC1 around 18:35, so we’ll be down there from about 17:30. First car is arriving at the gardens around 19:00, so we’ll probably be on the start line for 19:05. Nice.

Usually I don’t sleep well when I’m rallying – I’m often a bit nervy but this year I was quite relaxed – everything was well prepared and the stages were all well known. So it was a surprise to me to wake up at 4am and not be able to get back to sleep for over an hour. Just the start I needed. But then it got worse – got a text from Paul saying he’d been throwing up all night and was very dodgy. Whether this was from the burger he’d had in service, or from the nerves of giving the ring to Clair, who knows. But it was a relief when he turned up at 8:40, and seemed at least able to sit in the car for a bit. We got to service with an hour to spare, said hello to everyone and then swapped to gravel tyres, and were ready to go. Totally forgot to remove the lamp pod, d’oh! This was pointed out on the control leaving service, but there you go. Just don’t crash!

Off to SS3, which is Ebblake, just a short drive from service. This is one of my favourite stages – it’s really good gravel, with some decent corners, a good thrash at the end, and a tight section in the middle (where I went off last year for a bit). While we didn’t go flat out, we did OK, and got to the end of the stage – at this point I was more worried that Paul would be throwing up (although we’d agreed to carry on until it was too much), so to find out that the stages felt better than the road sections was pleasing to me as well as him. On the road section afterwards it was a pity to see Geoff Bennett’s Escort by the side of the road, apparently with engine failure.

SS4 is Shannon 1, the section of forest south of Ringwood Forest, and is a tale of two different surfaces – it starts out with good gravel, but then develops into a long section of black, peaty soil which really grabs the car if you don’t tell it who’s boss. Each year I can see that I’ve improved as the first year here I found it quite scary in places with the car pulling all over the place. Now I just deal with it and get it to go where I want, and am making much better entries into corners, taking better lines and getting the car set up for the next straight. BUT there were some MASSIVE hits in this stage – really dodgy potholes that had the suspension going coil-bound and the sumpguard banging on the ground, so much so that the trip computer had a hernia and crashed. Oh dear, another ?200 on the bill. Saw a LOT of cars by the side of the road, including Gary Hayter’s Impreza, apparently with a dead engine. But the stage itself went better, carrying more speed through corners and trusting in my ability to get it back when it gets a bit lairy.

SS5 is Mount Ararat which at just over 10 miles is the second-longest stage on the event, and about 1/6 of the gravel mileage as well. It’s a real favourite of mine because it’s a chance to get into driving and keep a good rhythm, and the stage is nearly all good quality gravel with some interesting bits in it as well as some flat-out straights (which again this year I took without backing off, which is an improvement albeit a little one!). There are usually loads of people about on this, and it was no exception this year. Normally we get caught by whoever is behind us on this stage (indeed, 2 people on one run one year) but not this year – we made a really good job, with Paul calling the notes in his usual authoratitive and clear style (and pointing out any errors in them too!), and me driving the car harder than I had done before – there were a few moments where it was getting a bit too lairy, but I got it back every time, which gave me the confidence to push a bit harder. We got to the end and really felt it was a good job – the car was running well, and we were doing well, despite Paul still feeling ill.

SS6 was Somerley 1 – always good fun, this time in the “reverse” direction first, heading back towards Bournemouth from the rear of the estate. We had a fairly good run here, aside from me screwing up the acute right that is at the back section of the course, the rest went well. Heading through the main approach to the house is always a bit scary as there are logs on either side of the road, but this year I felt much more able to push on, and made good time through here. Paul reminded me of the decrease in grip on the tarmac section (reason being that I always forget I’m on gravel rubber), and we got through OK without any mishaps aside from a missed gearchange in front of everyone, apparently (thanks for pointing that out, Ian!), and off into the forest section again, which was great fun aside from the horrible “big chicane” towards the end of the section which I think is just a way for us to dig up a section of the grounds – it’s always a real trial here as it’s very cut up by the time we get there. The rest of the stage was just good fun.

Then it was back to service, which was a bit quiet due to Gary not being there and also Barry Purrett who’d withdrawn due to ill health – a real pity as Barry’s a really great guy and has been very handy to watch on the stages on the times he’s overtaken me – watching his lines into corners is very useful. Not a lot to do to the car, aside from clean the rear wheels out which had collected a lot of stones and were miles out of balance, check everything over and then find out that the air filters were splitting, and I didn’t want them to get sucked into the engine. A suitable replacement was sourced and fitted (a pair of Mr. Hayter’s finest socks, cable-tied to the bellmouths), and we were good to go. We found out that another B9 car had gone out, John Flippance (although he was behind us), meaning it looked like a 2-horse race for second in class awards between us and the Becketts in the other Skoda. At the moment we were ahead of them, gapping them on every stage, although the car still wasn’t running 100% – it has a flat spot at 6k and wouldn’t rev out consistently.

Off out to Wareham, firstly for Bere Wood, which is half good, half painful!

The first section is good forest track with great corners but demands care due to the amount of logs by the side of the road. The second section is much rougher and then develops into a tight farm track which means real precision, but it all went OK – it’s only about 1.5 miles so was over quickly, even in the Skoda! Well worth finishing as well due to the presence of Miss Pink at time card collection.

Next up, Lawson Clump, known as Gore Heath. This isn’t a favourite stage of mine as it’s SO soft, but this year the lack of rain made it a bit better; it still wasn’t great but at least meant we weren’t getting bogged down, and the last section of it is good – again, better quality track where the logging takes place and the road is actually maintained properly. All good so far…

There’s a short crossing of the road (with a policeman waiting there, no doubt to catch people who haven’t removed their helmets to cross the road) and then into Wareham, which is marshalled by my car club, so always means more chatter at the start and end controls. The stage itself had again benefitted from the lack of water in the area, meaning it was far more driveable than it often is – there were a few cars off here and there, but nothing to worry about, and a few people wondering about despite us being much louder than usual and hitting the horn a lot – crazy! At the end it was really rough, and the car was taking a LOT of hits underneath. We got to the finish control OK and drove off, and then BANG BANG BANG underneath. I was certain there was something loose, and when we got to time card collection I got out to find that the exhaust had broken all three mountings and was just banging about, despite being still connected. Mare. I cobbled something up quickly with the tow-rope holding the silencer in place and got to the next arrival control, and then made a more permanent cable-tie fix for the tailpipe, and set off while still settling into the car – it was that tight for us not to lose time. The stage went OK for the most part but was HIDEOUSLY poor condition. We’d been warned that there was a car off at one point, and to slow and avoid the water. And this was no joke – what looked like a normal puddle on the racing line now contained a Fiesta, sunk up to the half way mark. This was the same place that someone had a nasty accident last year and the stage was shortened as a result. The FC really should do better as this was a dry year – with the money that is taken for rally entry, they should be putting more into making sure this sort of thing doesn’t happen, I think.

But this soon faded into the distance as suddenly our universe became a very LOUD place. The front exhaust joint had slipped off, meaning we were running with just the manifold on, and it was too loud to hear anything – the intercom picked this stage to stop working, so I had to drive slowly and rely on hand signals from Paul. Disaster – we got to the end of the stage in the loudest car in the universe, but carried on to time card collection (up the road), and decided to carry on unless we were stopped – I felt I could refit the exhaust before the next stage. Paul begged to differ, as he was sure he’d seen the exhaust section fall off!

We got to a petrol station to put fuel in and discovered… Paul was right! The middle section of the exhaust was completely missing. No chance of a fix, no way of sorting it today. And the police up the road pulling someone over. Still, time for Somerley 2, I thought. We got there without the Police (amazing as I felt they’d hear us from Bournemouth) and when we got to arrival the marshals just said it sounded a bit sick. Which it was – it wouldn’t rev much above 5k, and sounded HUGELY loud. THe intercom only worked when I held the cable in one position so I had to use the velcro overstrap on the helmet to keep it in place, and we made a fair crack of the stage despite all this. There were a few cut-out moments where I couldn’t hear what was coming, typically where I didn’t know the stage too well, but we got through and then did the road section back to service.

Had a nice chat with James from Motorsports News, and was waiting to be stopped, something that wasn’t helped by the law turning up in a car, and I just hoped they’d pass before I needed to book in. Again the marshal raised an eyebrow, but we booked in, and that was that! We checked the car over, all well, so decided to pack everything up. I was convinced we’d be stopped from competing. We were loud – certainly not as loud as Chris Atkinson’s Impreza WRC was on rally GB, but as Paul said – if it was a Subaru, no-one would question it, but as it’s a Skoda…..

The service out control was where I was expecting an issue, due to the seniorority of the staff there. I was amazed when I was just asked if it was going to get any louder, and we passed on and out of service! We were going to get a crack at the last two stages, great news. Arrived at Plumley Wood with plenty of time to spare and took a picture of the Skoda ready to give it a last crack!

Again, this is a great stage, a near-total reversal of SS5, but a great chance to get into it at nearly 11 miles long. And it went well – really well considering the car was well down on power and Paul wasn’t feeling at his best at all – it had been a long, tiring day and he’d not slept and felt terrible as well. No major dramas, and nothing too scary to report – not many cars that I noticed off, but plenty of people still in the forests cheering everyone on (or waiting for an accident!), and a real feeling of achievement to get to the end. Just one more stage to go….

Just a quick hop across the road for Shannon 2, and again more raised eyebrows from the marshals and start crew when we rolled up with our little bundle of noise. The car wasn’t too happy about starting, but did so and off we went, although the intercom was really playing up now – I think about 50% of the calls needed repeating, but only a few were absent, fortunately not at dodgy moments. The stage seemed smoother this way round, the bad dips weren’t a problem where they had been before. The soft peaty section was very bad this time through, and there were a couple of moments popping out of the ruts and potentially into the trees, but it didn’t happen. The end of this stage is great as it’s good gravel and a last chance to give the car some, although it really wasn’t keen, poor dear!

And we’d done it. Well, the stages anyway. I was fully expecting to be told that a trip into Bournemouth wasn’t an option given the noise level of the car, but it wasn’t even mentioned. We waited in the holding control for about 30 minutes and then off to town – this had been done to reduce the queue on Richmond hill, and actually worked quite well. Glad to see some friends at the bottom of the hill (which I could handily coast down to save on the noise), was interviewed by the Echo and Rally Results magazine, and photographed a lot. As ever, some kids wanted the road books and a few pics inside the car, and unusally we had quite a few cars behind us! Finally got onto the finish ramp and was interviewed by Alan Hyde who does WRGB as well as the Sunseeker. The noise went down well with the crowd, which was handy as it REALLY sounded loud in the square….

So that was it. We’d finished the Sunseeker in R477 KRU, despite the lack of an exhaust (and power) for half the event. Back home, get the stuff, pack up and then off to the awards ceremony, only to find that because of a “clerical error” we wouldn’t be getting the award in the ceremony or mentioned in the results. 5 starters in B9, we were second, but there you go. Fortunately the awards weren’t presented by Jimmy McRae, otherwise I would have been gutted to miss out on that opportunity, but I guess it’s not all bad. The car’s a bit damaged, but not too bad, and we have a LONG time before Rally GB. Hopefully I’ll have all the issues ironed out by then, ‘cos that is definitely the last chance to do anything of that scale I’ll ever have.

Today has been very odd – a number of things have changed, making it quite unusual. Firstly, the scrutineering time and so on, and then preparation for the evening. And suddenly it was time to go down to Canford Arena and get going, but it was still really quiet there – a lot of people missing (including Gary Hayter – we were later to find out he’d had ECU failure earlier and spent the day sorting that out!) and it just didn’t seem “right” somehow, but we got into the car and ready to book in when…. a 15 minute delay. Apparently a spectator had fallen over and broken their leg meaning we’d have to wait while an ambulance retrieved them and the stage could go live. Which gave us a chance to adjust the harness straps, which was handy, and then off to Bournemouth. One of the demo 6R4s was broken down outside my house, so he’d made it all of 2 miles – nightmare. When we got to SS1 start queue, it was time for Burley to give Clair the engagement ring he’d picked up earlier, in front of a big crowd! Nice to see old and new faces, and give an interview for Globecast, again like a big kid, I was as ever OTT, no doubt!

And then into the stage. We’d been told it was a bit wet and sandy and it certainly was. VERY tight in the chicane coming onto the pier, and then very sandy and wet there and all the way along the seafront. The chicanes were as tight as ever, and a marshal in a high-vis jacket hiding in a shelter made it very difficult to judge one of the faster corners accurately, which was a real pain. The car wouldn’t quite ‘clear’ but went OK. Time wasn’t great – 2:01, but I didn’t bin it. Back round to the start of SS2, and then into that again. There was an Evo in front of us on the start line which put out a hideous cloud of crap when it went from the line, and we were off again! This time I got things closer to being right, which made us an extra 4 seconds, doing it in 1:57. However, a messy bit of writing from a marshal has meant we’ve been given a time of 2:17. As always, problems on SS1/2 with timing. Grrr!!!! I know marshals give their time to help, but they really should make sure they write clearly – for us it just means a bit of a target for tomorrow, but for some it might mean real issues. Anyway, at the end of SS2 I saw the Evo pulled over after the finish with steam coming out of the front, bonnet open. Oh dear.

Coming back was a bit tight for time – we needed to stop for fuel at a petrol station, and dawdling drivers elsewhere meant we could drive straight in. And leave everything for the morning – we have a 9:51 start time, so we may as well do everything then, only wheels to change anyway, and check everything over. I found out after getting home that one of the B9 cars (#92, a very quick Peugeot 106) has retired already, so there are now 4 in class, and second place is looking a possibility if we keep it together. IF.

Scrutineering at the Litledown is a really pleasant experience, despite still being scrutineering! It’s a really well-organised affair, and there’s lots going on there, and people are encouraged to come down to see the cars being checked over. Had the pleasure of being photographed by a couple of my students (Rob and Sean), so no doubt there will be some embarrassing photos of some point passed round school. Lovely.

Scrutineeering, no problem. Documentation, no problem – we’re well on the case there. Even managed to get my car parked next to the doddmobiles, not between them as I’d wanted but this is the next best thing!

… usually on the Sunseeker as a local crew, I have an early scrutineering time, meaning we have to get down to Canford Arena early (usually just as the crew are getting there, in fact), noise test quickly and then get down to the Littledown Centre for scrutineering. But this year it’s different – we’re in the last-but-one slot of 14:30, meaning a leisurely start to the day, but it also means that I have to sit around and wait for scrutineering and anyone who knows me will know I’m not exactly Mr. Calm at this time. Never mind…

There are big, big bonuses to doing the Sunseeker. One of the major ones is it being local – the event is much cheaper for me to enter as I don’t need to trailer the car anywhere, get accomodation and all the other stuff. The service area is 1.5 miles from my home, which is great. If anything goes wrong (and thankfully in the last 3 attempts nothing terminal has happened) I’m near home. But there’s one thing I’d forgotten about, and that’s seeing the ever-lovely Jemma Pink to get my stickers from. Unfortunately I had no excuse to make any more than a moment’s conversation. Perhaps next year I’ll feign a serious injury or something.

Anyway, the car passed noise test (at 95dB which is nice and throaty!), and I then came home to put the stickers on the car. Unfortunately my ordered-up stickers of “Jones/Burley” for the rear windows haven’t arrived, so at the moment I’ve left the big “Jones” in the rear window, but if Burley’s not happy with that, they’ll be coming off later!