Skoda Rally Blog

Last time I attempted Abingdon, it didn’t go well. I’d only had the Ibiza up and running for a few months, and I’d never finished an event in it, a pattern which was continued when it expired about a mile into the event with a shattered inner CV joint.

This time I wanted it to be different. I’ve not done much on tarmac, and that has mostly been because in a fairly low powered car it’s not that much of an adrenaline rush – forestry is much better for that in a slower car. But far more importantly, I wanted to do what I’d originally planned, which was to complete an event with Tammie as my co-driver. Not because I think she’d ever be interested in the sport, but just so we’d have done it together at some point. So I’d cajoled her into it again this year, and it would also mean we’d have a second “trial run” with our trailer tent before we set off on a major trip in the summer to the south of France. Two in one – ideal!

We set off after lunch on the Saturday, and it took a couple of hours to get to Abingdon, and by the time we got there it was HOT. The bad weather we’d originally been promised had been and gone, and now it was a lovely summery day. The site was already really busy as there is a sprint on the Saturday, and we dropped off the trailer tent and Tammie and 3 kids went shopping while Sennen helped out with the rally car. Already unloaded, we went and bought some numbers, stuck them on and then went to noise, which went as well as ever (90dB, 10 under the limit) and scrutineering which I always detest no matter how nice the scrutineers are. This one was nice and friendly, and signed the car and camera off without incident. Time to relax!

Except, of course, it wasn’t because it was time to set up the trailer tent, which has a HUGE awning on it. Everyone was back with food and water, and 90 minutes later we had a place to stay for the night.

We went and got signed on which was straightforward, and later on dinner consisted of some pizzas cooked on the Safari Chef stove we’d bought. Had an interesting chat with some guys running a golf who were interested in the Ibiza as it shares so much with their car, so they had a good look around and went away with a few ideas of what to do with their car – they’re in a similar situation to me, running on a shoestring, so every little helps. The Ibiza is a really well built car with a lot of neat touches, and I know from previous experience how useful it is to see how others have approached a car’s build. Later on we went for a wander around site and caught some nearby fireworks, but everyone was pretty tired and it was time for bed – by 11pm on a Saturday night. Rock and roll!

Sunday dawned perfectly clear and bright, and it was clearly going to be a hot on. I got the van down to the service area and got a nice spot, and then took the car down with Eddie sat in it. He said it was really fast – mostly because it’s bumpy and he couldn’t see out of the windows, I think!
Back to the tent for breakfast, and then it started to kick in. Rally nerves. I’ve not had them for a while, and certainly not this badly. I was getting really anxious, but then I think it was because I didn’t want to suffer the same kind of short trip as last time. The kids were instructed with safe routes around site and then set up watching the complex, and we watched the first few cars through (the field was about 50 minutes’ worth so we had plenty of time), and then got the belts adjusted properly for Tammie and we were pretty much ready to go. Check everything over – all was well – and then suit up, and head off for the start of Stage 1.

There was a bit of a delay, which is always a bit confusing for a first time Navigator, as she had to get out and check with the control that we wouldn’t be penalised…

.,. but eventually we lined up on the stage start.  Tammie was watching the oncoming traffic for the merge – there was none – and then 5…4…3…2…1…GO! We were off! I took it easy off the line as I don’t see that much point in nailing it and breaking something, but we soon got up to speed. Tammie called the corners clearly and precisely, and the first thing was to get the brakes and tyres up to temperature. We headed into the complex, and she called everything OK, and soon we’d got past where we’d broken down last time, which was a start! Off out of the complex and onto the main airfield and the car went pretty well – it’s far easier to make sure you’re in the right gear when you’re on tarmac as you can consistently wring the engine’s neck until the redline; on gravel the revs are far more “up and down” as you lose traction, so the peaky nature of the engine wasn’t the handicap it can be on gravel. With the brakes and tyres up to temperature, they could be worked far harder, and really started to earn their keep. I didn’t trust them 100% yet, buy they certainly slowed us down OK.

It takes time to get the approach and exits to corners right, particularly in a new car (as it were), and also a new surface. When the maps are a little less precise than detailed pace notes it’s even more so, so some of the corners were a bit over-cooked (overspeed on the entry as DC would say), and others could be taken faster. Mental notes made, we headed off into the one section I didn’t remember from before, which took us off the main runways and onto some broken tarmac and concrete sections. On the maps they were just large looks but they were actually much more complex in reality, with some rocky hazards and potholes to try to avoid both to minimise damage and keep the speed up. In reality I’d spend the rest of the day trying out different lines to improve this section, and only come up with the “best” solution just before we reversed directions and therefore the knowledge became useless!

Tammie called the split – this was the one thing that I’d always told her was crucial, and round we went for lap 2. By this time all the other cars were well into the stage (we were 8 from the back), and we took it just like before, but a bit faster now we were in a rhythm. Everything went well, and on the next lap lines were improved a bit and confidence came back. I wasn’t thrashing the car, but it felt good and we went over the finish feeling like the job had been done well. Or more to the point, I did. I had a poorly navigator who was feeling pretty car sick and needed most of the service time to get over it. Not good.

What was also not good was that the catch tank was already full of oil – about half a litre of it – which I needed to drain out, and then top the engine up. This issue only presented itself on saturday morning, and I thought it was just a cumulative thing, not that it was a sign of impending mechanical failure. The car’s previous owner said that they had trashed the tuned head originally fitted to the car as it had breathing difficulties, and it looked as if that was back. There was no real way to fix it, and I just hoped the oil consumption would be consistent and mean we didn’t run out of oil, but either way I’d see how it went. I didn’t want a broken car, and nor did I want a broken girlfriend – either situation would mean a planned retirement for me. Sennen checked all the things I’d asked him to check (tyre pressures, wheel nuts, water and power steering fluid levels), and indeed did so for the rest of the day as well as helping with the drain procedure each time.

Fortunately by the time Stage 2 was due, Tammie had recovered, and we set off again. It went better than before, and we took about 30 seconds off the time of SS1. Tammie was again excellent, calling each corner with precision and authority, and reminded me not to go crazy on the rough section with just the right balance of control and competitiveness. But alas, as soon as we were out of the stage she felt terrible, and needed to lie down. She found this funny as she said she wasn’t scared and felt fine in her head, but felt sick and was shaking a bit by the end of the stage. I said to try to separate reading the notes (head down, so you can’t see the scenery) and looking out of the car (not reading the map at this point), and hoped that would help.

What had also not changed was the car’s drinking habit – the catch tank was full again, and there were signs of it coming out of the air filter.  Once more it drank half a litre. At least it was the same as before.

SS3 was upon us around the time Tammie started to feel OK, but it was a shorter stage layout, missing out on the section going down to the far end of the stage. Despite this, the timings meant we didn’t see anyone throughout it, other than right at the end of the first lap when someone else was splitting to go to the end and we went round again. Being a shorter stage, the car used a bit less oil (although still 350ml or so), and fortunately that combined with either getting used to it or travel sickness tablets meant Tammie felt OK-ish at the end.

SS4 was the “opposite” of SS3, removing the run through the complex and instead having two runs down to the far end of the airfield. This was a fair bit quicker, and off the line I could see Norman in his 205GTI on his second lap, so I thought I’d see if I could catch him. I got close, but never close enough to overtake, but could see his car had decent acceleration and most importantly really hooked it up out of the corners – the Ibiza is a bit lacking in bottom end and it really showed here. On the brakes we were way better, making up loads, but again never enough to be held up much, so I thought better of trying to be a hero/moron and just waited until the second lap to go as fast as I dared. Other than that, things were going well – tyres felt good (particularly amazing as they were old when I bought them in 2012!), and Tammie was good – didn’t miss a thing at any point. At the end of this stage she seemed fine straight away, which was even better.

There was a slightly longer gap between SS4 and 5, so I quickly got a “lunch” of a bowl of Sugar Puffs, once the car had been drained of the oil it had used this time. The consumption didn’t seem to be getting worse, so that was a bonus.

Into SS5, and another new layout. At the start we’d seen a yellow Escort Cosworth which Tammie said looked like it was made of Lego, and so it became known as the Legomobile for the rest of the day. It was putting out a LOT of smoke off the start line, and didn’t seem happy. We went into the stage soon after, and passed a few cars and saw the sick Legomobile towards the end of first lap, when we were catching it hand over fist. He went off (I assume to take a maximum) and we did lap two without too many issues. Once more back into service, repeat the draining procedure, but everything bar one thing was fine. And that thing was fuel. We had used a LOT – nearly the full tank I’d put in as I didn’t want too much messing about – so rather than use the (I think 2 year old) fuel in the Jerry Can, I decided to go to Abingdon to put some fuel in. Fortunately traffic was light, but it was HOT in the car, particularly waiting for the person in front to fill up, who then took a while browsing in the shop before paying. Still, I was back with about 10 minutes to spare before SS6 which was good

SS6 was the penultimate stage layout, and a reverse of the previous layouts saw a bit of a delay and some confusion with car positions as the lanes have to cross over (cars coming out of the stage start out on the right-hand of the road, but needing to be on the left hand for the passage control. Still, after a short delay, in we went… it was going fine until the car lost power. Gauges all looked OK, but I looked in the mirror and there was a huge plume of smoke behind us. I thought the engine had died and said so to Tammie, but it kept going OK and cleared in 100 feet or so, so I carried on, keeping a weather eye on the gauges, all of which seemed OK. This stage had a transition over grass which was a bit slippy but good fun, and the last time round I was catching a Micra right at the end and thought I heard an odd sound. I hoped it was him, not me, but as we split towards the end I knew it wasn’t. One of the marshals said the sump guard had dropped off (which seemed unlikely), but as we went down the road there was a road-speed related whirring noise, so something was clearly not right. The Passage Control people said they could smell burning. Oh dear.

Into service, and the problem was soon revealed. This was stuck in the back of the sumpguard and dragging on the road (and thankfully hadn’t damaged the front tyre):

Once removed, I went for a quick test drive and all was well. We might make it yet. Standard procedure (drain the oil tank), and off we went once more.

SS7 was the last new layout (SS8 is a re-run), and we went into it pretty positive. Tammie was now feeling OK throughout the stages, and while going in reverse led to her only mistake of the day (getting a bit lost at one point), she regained it quickly and did a marvellous job again. We overtook a fair few cars (some being lapped, some legitimate) and it seemed to go well, aside from another “Dick Dastardly Plume of Smoke” that was released at one point, and the oil pressure getting a bit low towards the end. As ever, drain the tank, top the engine up, check everything over, and hope for the best.

We headed into the last stage – SS8 with some hope that we’d actually finish. I wanted to do all the stages and get a proper finish, but didn’t want to kill the car doing so – being able to drive the car afterwards would be very useful, and seeing the cars waiting to be recovered out on stage meant there would be a fairly long delay before getting back, so that was also in my mind. But all these things get forgotten as soon as the lights go green and off we went. The first lap went OK, but I noticed some liquid on the screen at one point, and it wouldn’t wash off easily with the wipers. But the car went pretty much as before, so I kept going, but kept an eye on the oil pressure gauge. Towards the end of the second lap, just heading into the complex and having just overtaken a Micra, the gauge wasn’t reaching the pressure it usually would, and there was clearly a problem. I told Tammie and decided to take it easy for the last couple of miles – I put the hazards on in case anyone caught us, but really took it very easy on the engine, watching the pressure gauge as much as the road. It never got to zero, but it got close a couple of times. When we pulled up at the stop control there was smoke pouring out from under the bonnet, and at the Passage Control I stopped the engine and hovered over the extinguisher button, just in case. Once the damage declaration had been signed, I started up again and parked at the side of the road.

I got out and saw a complete mess – the car had lost a lot of oil, and it was over the bonnet, bumper and wings.

I suspected a failure of an oil pipe, but opening the bonnet showed that what had happened was the oil filler had come off! I guess this was my fault – I put it on last – and it meant the engine bay was a complete mess. The oil was dripping off everything, and thankfully looked mostly to be confined to the sumpguard, and my arm.

I got the trailer, got back to the car (which Sennen said had a couple of visitors saying things like “ooh, that’s a mess!” etc…), and got it loaded up. By now, oil had made its way into the cabin, so it was messy all round, but it was never going to be easy to clean up after that little episode…

Then it was off to pack up the trailer tent, which took about an hour, and we finished putting the cover on just as it started to rain. And it rained with a vengeance – I foolishly thought I’d get it hitched onto the car before putting my coat on, which was a big, wet mistake. Soaked in about a minute!

Still, that was that – Abingdon 2014 was done, and Tammie has finished a rally. The only one she’ll ever need to, but at least when I babble on about it in future, she’ll really know what I mean.

Having spent all of Monday packing away and cleaning up, I can see that the car will need some surgery; I put some oil in to allow me to move it about and it has decent oil pressure (4 bar straight away), but it was usually more like 6, so clearly that and the ‘heavy breathing’ issue means that it needs some work on it. However, I have a list a mile long of things to do, and money is tight at the moment. It’s looking pretty dubious that the car will be back out any time soon – in my mind I think that making the Sunseeker is the earliest possibility, and that would probably have to involve a secondhand bottom end; to build a decent bottom end would involve at least £1000 worth of parts alone, so it would probably be £1500 or so, and I just don’t have the money for that. Time for a lottery win, or a cheaper hobby.

Today was the Tempest Rally 2013.  It’s an event I’ve done several times before, but this year there would be a change, I’d be navigating for Ricky Aitken, who I’ve known for a few years – he navigates for Gary Hayter in his various cars, and has MOTed my cars on a few occasions.  When I saw him at the start of Rallye Sunseeker, Ricky said he was looking for a navigator for the Tempest to sit in with him in Gary’s 205, and it went from there.

We wanted to get to the event as the service area opened as it’s usually best to avoid the scrutineering queue, and usually something or other turns up that you want to sort on the car, so that meant a 5:15 departure from Ebblake Tyres in Verwood.  Fortunately Ricky had everything ready and loaded with the car on the trailer and the tow car already hitched, it just had to be driven out of the unit and off we went.

Off we go…

We got to the service area early, but there’s always someone earlier than you, and once unloaded we got set up in the service area, at the end where hopefully there would be plenty of space.  We got through scrutineering quickly and without any issues, which is always nice, but it’s always a bit more relaxed when it’s not my car that’s being examined!

Good to go.

Next to us was a Mitsubishi Evo which looked incredible – all carbon fibre, WRC wings, etc.  It sounded like a race motorbike too.  Lovely.

Getting ready to go.

The service area was getting busy by this time, but we still had a couple of hours before we’d be off (at 9:57), so we made some last minute adjustments including the drivers’ seat position which was a bit far back, and got everything else we thought we’d need into the car.  The last thing to do was a bit of a discussion about the day’s aim (to finish!) and how far I should go in terms of egging him on or holding him back if I thought he’d gone AWOL.  We decided on a fairly easy approach, which suited me fine!  We saw Tony Hawkins in his BMW which he’d mentioned had a misfire on Facebook the night before, and alas it still had it, as well as reverse lights permanently on!  Always nice to see Tony, and he’s always full of enthusiasm, so I hoped the misfire wouldn’t ruin his day.  We had a quick chat with the crew in car 59 who were running a 205 but one place in front of us.  However, theirs was a 1.9 with an MI16 engine and a pair of twin 40s on it, so it probably had twice the power of the bog stock 1600 in our car.

Soon enough, the service area started to thin out, and it was time for us to go, having triple-checked we weren’t going without the vital stuff (helmet, road book, time cards, pace notes), and off to our first stage, SS21, Warren 1.   If you’re wondering, the Tempest is divided up into 2WD and 4WD events, with each event getting first run at at several of the stages, and all our stages were in the 20s.  Warren is a fair distance from service, so we had a chance to get comfortable and get prepared for the stage, and we got there in good time and got ready to go.  The weather we’d been promised was miserable, but it was actually fairly bright and not currently raining, so off we went.  It went pretty well; we certainly didn’t set the world on fire, but this was Ricky’s first time driving in a rally, and only the second time competitively (previously he’d done a sprint), so it was definitely a case of shakedown.  The car was working OK, which was good, and the notes flowed OK;  Ricky’s used to “6 fastest” notes, which takes a bit of mental adaptation for me, as I’m used to a 5 or 6 corner being severe, whereas it’s now a 1 or 2 which needs attention, so I’d highlighted them in case I forgot this, but I needn’t have worried; once you get going your brain takes care of the switch quickly, like switching from LHD to RHD and back.  There were no major dramas, and the car behaved OK, and we seemed to be getting on OK in the car.  Good stuff.

Stage 2 was SS22, Pavilion 1, and we only got there in time – there were some delays on the road section due to road works, and while we had some penalty free lateness to use, we’d always rather get there in time, which we just about managed, so it was straight to the start and off we went.  Pavilion was pretty rough; there are a few places where the stage makes a detour to create a ‘large chicane’, maybe going off into the woods and then back onto the gravel track.  The first of these was pretty tight, but fortunately the car has an upright handbrake, so it make easy work of it.  On one of the longer straights we were going pretty well and suddenly there was a HUGE pothole that wasn’t in the notes, and also wasn’t visible until it was too late, and we hit it going pretty much as fast as we could.  The back of the car flew up into the air, having taken a big hit on the way in.  Once Rick got the car back in shape, we pressed on, but something was broken.  The dashboard had broken off!

The part that covers the clocks and provides the air vent had broken clean off on the impact, and was loose.  I couldn’t reach it to hold it in place when strapped in, so we carried on through the stage.  The car seemed otherwise unhurt by this impact, and we carried on. Other bits were rough and each time we hit something else, the dashboard slipped into a more awkward place, but fortunately didn’t stop Ricky from driving the car OK.  We got to the end of the stage, relieved that nothing else had broken, and Ricky took the now completely detached section and chucked it in the back of the car, as we had to shoot off to SS23, Rushmoor.

I say shoot off, we had to wait while we got the timecard back from a couple who seemed to be having a bit of a matrimonial dispute!  Once they’d finished, off we went.

Rushmoor Arena is next to the service area and gives a good viewpoint to anyone in service as well as general spectators.  In the past the transitions between tarmac and gravel/soil have been treacherous, claiming victims of the unwary, so we noted this before the start.  The other unusual thing about it is that it has merges and splits as you do two laps; this isn’t something that happens on many multi-venue events, but Ricky’s done lots of single-venue events as a navigator so they shouldn’t be too strange.  Off we went, and fortunately the merge was clear so we were free to go at the first corner with abandon.  Once again the handbrake did the trick and round we went.  The transision was much better than in previous years, and the stage hadn’t cut up as much as I remembered in the past, which was good.  The notes were pretty good, aside from the “split right” actually being a “drive straight on”, but I guess you can’t please everyone…. one person who wouldn’t be pleased was  the driver of the Mk1 Escort which was now minus a wheel, parked up on one side of the stage.  We got round the first lap and found the merge thankfully clear (indeed, didn’t see anyone else on the stage aside from the beached Escort), and on the second lap headed off into the woods again for the quick blast over the finish, a near jump through gate posts.

The drive back to service was short, but there was a bit of a wait as there was a regroup control on the way in – these are designed to get the event’s cars all back in one “lump”, to allow for the slower cars at the back of the field being slower and to get everyone back at one minute intervals.  During that time we assessed the car (all seemed well aside from this!)…

Not the worst part of a car to lose.

…and chatted to the others around us about how their day had been going.  We got a results sheet and while the times weren’t stellar, we were still going and having a good time.  It would have been foolish to expect anything more, in fact!

Into service, we checked the car over and there wasn’t really anything to do – everything was as it should be, so we got ourselves ready for the next run, having noted that already there were a few victims – the service area was already thinning out, and quite a few cars hadn’t made it to this point, only a third of the way through the event.

Ricky, working hard.

Once everything was done, it was time to go, so we set off to SS24

Out we go

SS24 was Pavilion 2, and it had cut up fairly badly already – the start was quite “washboard”, and despite being only 150M to the first corner, it seemed to take an age to get going – the ground was so rutted and washboarded that the poor Peugeot just couldn’t get us going.  Fortunately after the first corner it wasn’t as bad, and we made a better stab of it this time; the tight bits were taken well by Ricky, and we knew where the pothole of doom was waiting for us and took appropriate avoiding action.  About half way through the stage the car felt odd – it just felt very loose and spongey; Both of us noticed it, and initially thought we may have a puncture, but carried on through the rest of the stage.  One heavy braking point was quite dicey, but at the end of the stage Ricky checked the car over and all was well.  I’ve had a number of times I’ve been convinced that a car has a puncture, but 90%+ of the time it’s not been the case.  I’d have to add this into that group as well, although I’ve never felt it as a navigator before!

SS25 was Ash 1.  Ash is a stage which I’ve never really enjoyed.  It’s a long fast run for the first part, and then has a square left at the end of an uphill section that has caught many out in the past, but this year there’s a chicane just before it, so it’s unlikely someone would launch their car into the shrubbery at this point.  When we got there it was apparent that something wasn’t right; there were lots of cars there at the stage start, so it was clear there had been a delay.

Waiting for news and Ash 1

It later transpired that there had been a couple of fairly big offs, one of which we were warned about as a large black hole had developed on the stage and thrown Julian Wilkes off at considerable speed:

We also later found out that Pat Flynn had also had a big off here.  Fortunately both crews were OK, which is always good news.

The cars coming round for their second run started to appear and queue up, and while we were waiting to go into the (now re-started) stage, they headed off, so we concluded that Ash 2 had been cancelled; the delay meant we weren’t far off the starting time for the second run, and given the stage’s usual reputation and what had clearly happened to two crews, neither of us were particularly sad about that.

Into the stage, it was OK on the first section, but once we got to the danger areas, it was clear what had happened; the stage had cut up considerably, not surprising given the rain leading up to the event, and the crash areas were passed fairly gingerly.  The rest of the stage actually went pretty well, with a couple of small moments but nothing to write home about.  Once we got to the passage control at the end, it was confirmed that we should head off to Longmoor, not re-run Ash, and off we went on the longest road section of the event at around 25 miles.

When things go wrong on a rally, it’s a true test of the organisation of the event; competitors shouldn’t be penalised when there’s not enough space to get into a holding area, and there was quite a glut of cars present when we arrived.  This was well dealt with by the crew there and the organisers, so although there was a bit of a delay for us, it wasn’t a problem.  We had a chat with a few of the other crews while we waited, but soon enough it was time for Longmoor.

Shooting the…

This is quite different from the stages used on the Longmoor Loco (which I did with my Sister in the Ibiza), it uses the perimeter road round the camp, and is fairly long at nearly 6 miles.

The start is a long, long, long right turn, and then you’re into a mixture of mud, concrete, tarmac and gravel.  There are some really good parts to the stage, and some interesting and demanding sections too, mixed with areas which are covered by trees and pretty slippy.  Plenty of parts were noted as being slippy in the notes, and they turned out to be even more so, but Ricky did a good job here, and we were near the end of the stage without any real dramas.  There’s a long (700) straight towards the end, and at one point I saw Ricky looking down, it turned out he was checking what gear the car was in as it’s not easy to feel from the lever’s position!  I was slightly concerned when it happened, but there you go.  “85” he commented as we passed that speed, and then braked for the chicane at the end.  Soon enough, we’d finished the stage.  Ricky was pretty pleased, and so was I.  The sun was out, the car was happy and we’d had at least one run of every stage.

Next up, a 40 minute wait at the remote service area next to the stage – this facilitates the running of the event with back-to-back runs of the same stage and avoids a pair of long road sections.  However, it does seem quite at odds with the usual ‘always busy’ feeling that you get on most multi-venue events; usually when you set out you are then busy all the time, but here there were a few gaps (there would have been similar between Ash 1 and Ash 2 if 2 had run).  Either way, we parked up, checked everything on the car and goofed about until it was time to go back in.

Remote “service”…

Longmoor 2 started the same as the other run, with the long right hander, and the stage ran a bit better for the most part – when you’ve seen a stage once the notes mean more and there are pointers to help you out that you’d never be able to put in written notes.  Ricky pushed a bit harder, and the stage seemed a bit more slippy than before.  There’s an open section where you go over a big crest and need to be in the middle of the road, and we weren’t quite central, and paid the price.

Over the crest itself was OK, but as we went down the far side, we ended up a bit (about half a car’s width) off from where we should have been, and took to the verge as a result.  Our biggest moment, but Ricky got the car back on the grippy bit of the road soon enough, and we kept going.  Just like on the TV when the moment is put behind them, and they just carry on.  The next section was in the trees, and pretty slippy.  We saw a couple of cars off, one was (I think) a 205 which was heavily buried, the crew were out and OK, but the car didn’t look like it’d be going anywhere for a bit.  Caution was taken but still giving it some fair stick, and braking points were taken nearer the corners, particularly at the end of the long straight.  Once again, soon enough, the stage was finished, and Ricky was really happy.  Good work.  Now we needed to get back to service.

On the way back, the terratrip decided to pass out for a while, but seemed OK.  We were making good time, and got back to the regroup with 7 minutes to spare.  Well, 7 minutes until I checked my backup stopwatch, it was actually 4!  Time to turn the terratrip off, as it wasn’t measuring distance all day, and couldn’t be relied on for time either!  Into service, and time to check the car over again, and put the light pod on.

Lights on, ready to go.

All went nicely, and everyone else was packed or packing up.  We set out for the last two stages, the first of which was under a mile away, Rushmoor 2.

Rushmoor 2 was much like 1; the stage hadn’t cut up as much as in previous years, and now knowing the “split right” was a straight, it was plain sailing.  What wasn’t, however, was the light pod which moved around a fair bit, and the lights went off several times during the stage – seemed to be a loose connection, but difficult to tell.  Still, good stuff, and despite a couple of little issues, we finished pretty quickly, getting a bit of air at the end.

There was now just one stage left, Warren 2, so we set off, and got there in reasonable time, again going through some roadworks before getting there, but by the time we got there  it was dark, and we’d need the lights all the way.

Must get a better camera.

The start of the stage was properly cut up, and this continued throughout.

There’s something special about rallying in the dark.  I’ve always liked it, and yet there are things that I don’t like about it at the same time.  Because you’re doing it late in the day, you know there’s a sense of jeopardy; that all your work so far could still go down the drain – the finish line somehow seems more distant because of this.  Stages tend to be second or third use by this point, so they are generally well used and cut up.  If there have been lots of powerful cars there, they will often be really rough at the start and transitions into or out of tight corners.  Cameramen lurk at many tight corners, and you can be momentarily blinded by a camera flash at an apex of a corner.  People in high-vis clothing can be seen for miles, and sometimes appear out of your line of vision.  Sometimes a stage layout is easier to work out when you can see reflective barriers or marshals a mile away.

Warren 2 proved to have all these and more.  The stage was pretty rutty, but Ricky was on a bit of a mission, and we went pretty well, when we weren’t being vibrated to death by the stage.  The back was pretty loose because of the rough nature of it but there were no serious moments in terms of losing the car.

What was serious was about half way through the stage I thought I saw a spark under the steering column, but kept reading.  And then it was there again, and much worse.  Clearly Bonfire Night had come a bit early to car 60, as there was a sparkler going off under the dashboard.  We lost the lights momentarily, and then the battery light came on.  We kept going to the end, but as soon as we did, Ricky turned the lights off as it looked like the car wasn’t charging.  OK, it was only an 11 mile road section again, but if the battery wasn’t up to snuff, it could well die before we got back.

We got the timecards sorted out, and then headed back, tailing traffic as much as possible, and using sidelights where it was possible.  I turned everything off inside the car that I could, and used my phone as a light for the road book.  There was another delay at the road works, and we were worried that we’d need to turn on the (very high current draw) cooling fan, but fortunately we got going soon enough.  Car 59 got lost in front of us, but we followed another one back to service, and we’d made it, with gauges sagging as the battery went flat, and one spotlight missing that had dropped off in Warren 2.

One eye missing!

Tempest 2013 – done!  Car was pretty much in one piece, driver was happy, just a case of loading up and going home.  Ricky has a few things to sort out on the car, but nothing too serious, and many would settle for that at the end of the day.

A few times in the past I’ve navigated for Ray Read in his Audi Quattro; most of the time he has a regular navigator and mechanic, but Stuart was away on holiday and Ray wanted to do the event, so I got a call a while ago, and sat in with Ray for the day.  Regency stages is a fairly new rally and held at Bath and West showground, near Shepton Mallet.  An early start to the event’s timetable meant a 5am start for me, and a fun-filled cross-country drive to get there in time for scrutineering which opened at 7:15.  I got there around that time, met up with Ray and got set, and realised we’d not been to noise test (it’s been a while!), so by the time we’d tested, we were in a huge queue of cars, but eventually we got all checked out and all was well.  It’s so much more relaxing going to scrutineering when it’s not my car that’s being examined!  Once that was done, the paperwork was out of the way and we were ready to go, aside from one thing – it was now raining lightly, and the nearest thing to suitable tyres Ray had were a pair of super soft tyres that had been cut as intermediates, so these went on the back of the car, and we had dry tyres on the front.

Ready to go!

Stage 1 was a testament to correct tyre choice (or lack of choice).  The quattro is a vicious, violent beast when it’s all hooked up properly, but the complete lack of grip meant that the launch off the line was far less aggressive than normal, and as soon as we needed to brake for the first decent-sized stop it became apparent that there wasn’t much grip – the car squirmed a great deal, and this went on for most of the first lap round the stage.  On the second a lock-up and avoiding action meant a fair chunk of time was lost, and while we didn’t hit anything of significance, we were certainly slow; we later found out we were in the way of car 7 for half of one lap (sorry!), but it’s impossible to see anything in Ray’s mirrors, and there’s no chance of hearing anyone’s horn as the car has a solidly-mounted gearbox which means at speed the helmet’s sound protection is much needed – without, it would be deafening, as the entire car resonates with the gearbox and engine’s vibration.

Seat for the day.

Stage 2 was much the same, although a small improvement was had (about 20 seconds), and we caught Dave Boden in his Sierra Cosworth; the stage is very tight (only really a car width throughout), and I’d just said to Ray that I wasn’t sure where we could pass him when Dave went off the track, so we tried to nip by, although we also got a bit sideways, and for a while it was Strictly come rallying until we got it together and got away.  We were running as car 12, so fairly early on the running order, and when we got back to service we heard rumours that a spectator had been hit out on the course, but nothing concrete was forthcoming, so we got ready for stage 3, and queued up for the stage arrival control.

A sad reason to queue.

As soon as we queued up it was apparent that the rumours were true – no cars were running, and soon enough we saw the Air Ambulance circling and then landing and then other emergency service vehicles appearing by road.  A couple of hours went by before we were given another briefing, when we found out that several spectators had been hit, and the area was closed off as an investigation was taking place by the HSE and Police.  Fortunately (and importantly) we were told that none of the injuries were life-threatening, which was the only good news we’d had for a while.  We were told there would be a re-route of the event to avoid this area, and that the rally would re-start, but no time was known at this point.

We had lunch and sorted out issues with the spot lights we’d need for later (the last 2 stages were due to run in the dark), and then waited, chatted, went for a walk and eventually were told we’d re-start the event at 3:30.  We arrived for Stage 3 at 3:45, nearly 4 hours later than originally scheduled, and by this time it was dry.

Sunshine!

What a difference being on the right tyres makes.  The launch off the line was now the violent shove that I was expecting, and the rest of the stage followed suit – the tyres got warmed up in a couple of corners, and then the braking was just as rough.  Ray kept it pretty tight for the most part, keeping clear of the kerbs and keeping it neat where possible, but the car is fast and it’s the kind of thing you’d need to experience to really understand.  There were a few little issues here and there, but for the most part it was a clean run, and far more like we’d expected, aside from a smell of rubber after we’d overshot a slippy corner and hit a cone.  The result was much better – 13th for the stage and much closer to the other cars, clawing back a fair bit of time that we’d lost in the other stages.  The other ‘result’ was that half the stage had been taken with a cone wedged into the wheel arch (on Ray’s side), which had eventually left us, but that was the smell of rubber explained!  The wheel arch had taken a fair bit of damage as a result, though….

Broken Wing!

Stage 4 was a re-run of the same layout, and saw a decent improvement of 15 seconds over the previous run, and 6th position for the stage, much more like it.  Smoothness pays off for sure.  Back in service, a few things were checked but the car was holding up OK, other than a bit more gaffa tape being needed to hold the wing together, as it was falling apart!

Stages 5 & 6 followed a similar pattern – a decent first run and a better second run, and we’d moved up the running order a bit.  The only issue on stage 5 was clipping a kerb on the inside of one of the turns with the back of the car – we felt a little ‘kick’ out and wondered if we’d have an issue, but fortunately the car kept going OK to the end of the stage.  Measurement back in service showed that the rear was a bit toed-in on that side, so it needed adjusting by Ed and Ash, who did a sterling job in very little time.  Stage 6 was a re-run of the same, and an improved time was had, with no kerb action either!

Sunset and Quattro

It was going well, and time to put the lights on as the last two stages of the (now shortened) event would be in the dark.  We put the lights on, and headed out to the arrival control, and on the way I asked where the map light was… and was told that there wasn’t one!  Oh dear.  It had been removed during some work on the car, and not replaced!  Most rallies are during the day, so it doesn’t make any difference, but this one wasn’t, and there was no way we could do anything without some sort of fixed light; even with a torch there would be no way I could hold that and navigate as it’s definitely a two-handed job in a car as quick as the quattro – it’s really easy to lose your place, and the constant banging around also means I’d need to re-place my headset mic several times a stage or Ray wouldn’t be able to hear.  Fortunately there was a short delay which gave us time to cobble up a torch cable-tied to the roll cage which just about did the trick.  By the time we started the stage it was pitch black, and quite a challenge – not only was this in the dark, it was also the first run of the stages being reversed; in the original plan we would have done two stages in the light with it reversed, but getting your bearings on a couple of the more tricky junctions in the dark meant a few seconds lost here and there, but overall it was pretty good – there were a few times we were blinded by the lights of cars heading towards us, and the lights were pretty poor meaning it was difficult to be totally committed (made worse by one of the lights packing up as soon as we started the stage!).  One issue, though, was that on the first lap we got a bit close to a building and a hay bale (I was expecting us to hit it), and on the next lap…. we saw a bumper in the road, which was ours!  We tried to avoid it, but later found out that we actually caught it but flicked it out of the road, so that was handy!

Back into service, we tried to get the bumper back but the stage was still live so it would have to wait (we had heard a marshal had retrieved it to safety), so off we went again, and as with the rest of the day it went better; smoother and more accurate and able to push in areas where we now knew where the junction would be, and a few seconds quicker than stage 7, and importantly we’d moved up a place overall as a result of a good time for us!

Looking at the results, we were 9th overall (Ray wanted to be in the top 10 at the end of the day), and 5th in class.  Aside from Stage 1, all the other times were top ten throughout the day, which was a good, consistent result.  A good day out, and a lot of fun.

Next week…. Rallye Sunseeker!

Today was an unusual rally for me – it marked a number of firsts.  The first time I’d drive the Seat in anger, the first time my sister had ever done any navigation, and the first time I’d done the Longmoor Loco stages.  So, how did it go?

Well, it all started yesterday, getting everything loaded up.  When I got the Seat it had a number of spare tarmac tyres, which originally gave me the idea to do the event.  While they were a medium/hard compound (X06), I thought it was worth a try anyway, so had them all put on rims, along with some X16 compound (much softer) tyres which had been cut down the middle, notionally to be used as wets.  Or at least intermediates.  With the van borrowed from Mark, the loading began, with the spare tyres I had (including some winter tyres, just in case of, well, snow I guess), a selection of tools in the toolbox, obligatory tarpaulin to service on, and a jack.  Not a lot really, but then it was just a small event and hopefully the tools would be unnecessary.  Hopefully.

Longmoor is about 75 miles from home, so we set out early as we needed to arrive for around 7:15 or so – this was done easily enough as the roads were pretty deserted, and the drive was painless enough, although I could see my sister was a bit nervous about what was coming up.  The unloading procedure was a bit odd, needing to unload the rally car from the van and drive it to the scrutineering area, while taking the van separately.  Vicky wasn’t confident to drive either rally car or van, so I had to take the rally car over, and then jog back about a mile to get the van.  By which time it was light (and Vicky then said she would have driven!), but we got everything set up OK and then headed off for scrutineering, which took place in a long tunnel-like building with the cars queueing up in it.  This would have been nice if it wasn’t for someone leaving their car running; I’d think in such a building any cars would be a bit headache inducing, but with a selection of badly-mapped cars idling richly on race fuel, it was not something I’d want to stand in, so we stayed clear until it was nearly our turn.  Scrutiny went well, so off we went to get set up.  I say ‘set up’, I really mean ‘get a tarpaulin out and park the car on it’.  I’m no stranger to having less equipment than everyone else, but I’d forgotten how much gear people have – quite a few had full on setups with race transporters as well as full service crews.  And then there was me, my sister and my Mum!  Anyway, we got all the paperwork finished off and then had a fair old wait before our start time, so took the opportunity to walk some of the course.  This reassured me (as I could see the parts of the stage which looked like they might be trouble on the maps), and seemed to disturb Vicky as it was now getting very real.  But I was happy enough; the weather was OK and I even saw the sun at one point.  We got suited up and watched the other cars go round (as the service area was right next to part of the stage), and soon enough it was time to go.  We got strapped in, and off we went – I was a bit nervous due to the car, tyres and lack of practice on tarmac (not a surface I would ever say I was amazing on anyway), but I think that paled into insignificance to Vicky, who seemed pretty nervous now, despite my reassurances that it’d all be fine.  We got booked in and waited to take to the first stage, which happened soon enough.  Once we’d gone from the start, Vicky did well to call the corners as we went, but it hit me.

I’d brought a knife to a gunfight.

Not in terms of the car – it showed straight away that it was quality.  But the tyres, oh the tyres!  They were shocking.  To be fair it was clearly too cold (about 5 degrees C) for them, but even so, they were terrible.  The back of the car was all over the place; when I got to the third corner I was already on opposite lock, thankfully easy to do with the 2-turns lock-to-lock quick rack, but it needed no encouragement to hang the back of the car out at all.  The brakes were also hard work – they needed WAY too much pressure on the pedal to get them to do anything and this combined with the slippery tyres meant I had no confidence that the car would stop;  I can remember years ago doing Caerwent and being able to hit the brakes on the Skoda hard enough to give me bruised shoulders, but there was no chance of that.  On the second lap round we got caught by someone on their third lap, but moved out the way quickly enough, and then it was apparent just how much time we were losing when we followed him round; on the straights it was fine, but into corners I had to brake way too early.  On one of the chicanes I lost the back of the car so it was really close to the limit.  However, stage 1 was completed without any mishaps other than driving around like a newborn deer on an iced-over lake.  Vicky seemed pleased but a bit ill after all the sliding about, so we headed off to service and checked everything over.  I dropped the tyre pressures, and found that the fronts were at least warm – the rears were stone cold, so clearly a lot softer would be the way to go if you had a range of tyres as many others did.  The piles of tyres people turn up with aren’t just for show.  But the problem with this is that each tyre is £150 in the size I am using.  So that’d be £600 just for a set on another compound which would not last that long either!

Stage 2 was a re-run of stage 1 and went well for the most part; Vicky was doing a good job again, and I was getting a bit more confident with the car as although it wasn’t great, it was predictable – although it seemed there was less grip than Stage 1 this could just have been perception rather than fact.  I over-cooked it at one point and locked up heading off the road, thankfully into a ramp rather than a kerb, but took ages getting the car into reverse, and longer getting it back in first again.  In addition I tried using the handbrake on some of the tighter corners.  Or rather the wrong handbrake!  I have got so used to it being the normal one in the Skoda that I didn’t use the hydraulic one.  It didn’t work well!  Braking down for one of the chicanes the back of the car tried to overtake the front (something my Mum commented on later on!) Other than that it went OK; clearly on totally the wrong tyres we were never going to go fast, but I’d already given over to that, and was having fun.    Once we were in service I decided to make a change to the car and put the softer-compound ‘wet’ tyres on the rear, in the hope they would warm up a bit and give some grip – I didn’t want to spin into a wall or similar.

Stage 3 was a new layout, with some sections different, and once we got going and the back end got some heat in the tyres it was a bit more fun to drive.  The correct handbrake was used this time, and it worked a treat; not only for the two tight turns which were clear candidates but also for a couple of others to move the back around – not something I’d have wanted to do earlier on.  There was still not a lot of grip to be had, but the car seemed good other than that.  It has a quaife diff in it which get a lot of grief from many rally drivers because they are gear-based and don’t offer the ultimate grip that a plate-type diff does, but I have to say that I found it very driveable; even with the minimal grip on offer today the car never span all the power away on the inside wheel and it was always predictable and progressive; not something I’ve always found with a plate diff.  At the end, however, it was apparent that Vicky was not doing so well – she’d been feeling quite ropey all morning, and each stage seemed to make things worse; she’d lost her place a couple of times on this stage and that was why.  I advised going for a walk away from all the generator and car fumes which seemed to help a bit, but she was still unwell… The car was running quite hot too, but it would appear that the automatic fan isn’t cutting in, so I left the manual one on for the rest of the day which seemed to help out while queuing.

On the way to Stage 4 I mentioned that I’d known several people who were experienced suffer from sickness in the car, and that people I know have had to quit because of it, so we took the stage and gave it a good go.  Vicky called all the corners as they should be, and even though the rain had just started it seemed to go OK.  We could see we were clearly quicker than some of the cars which we were catching (although again losing lots on braking areas) who were on other laps.  Once Vicky had called the last split (turning right to go to the stage finish) she went quiet.  I nearly made a joke as she hadn’t called the last corner, but it was obvious what it was as we’d used it 3 times before.  However, once we went over the finish I turned to her and realised why she’d been quiet – she was really ill!  She gave the timecard over, and I said to get ready to get out of the car, and once the timecard duties were taken care of she did just that, and went to be sick – thankfully she’d not done it in the car, and I took everything off her in time so she got out without issue.

I drove back to service and she appeared a few minutes later, much worse for wear.  It was clear that there was no way we could continue, and to be honest given that the weather was changing for the worse and I already had no grip it was clearly time to go home, so we packed up, loaded up and went, having handed in time cards, for the third time on an SV event that I’ve done, and only (I think) the sixth retirement while I’ve been rallying.

There are many elements to rallying, and many things that can go wrong – most of the time we talk about bits on the car failing or tyres not being up to scratch or whatever, but the crew is just as important, and can also fail, and that’s what happened this time (through no fault of her own).  I think the combination of and extremely tight and twisty course and navigating duties was just too much; Vicky spent all the rest of the day looking like death warmed up, and apparently the journey home in the van was enough to make her feel like throwing up a couple of times, so clearly we made the right decision.  During the slippery Stage 1 I thought it was possible I’d be going home without a car, so it wasn’t the end of the world, and it goes to show something that I’ve never really given much thought to – not everyone is cut out for doing rallying, for a variety of reasons.  Still, it was fun while it lasted, and once the brakes are sorted on the Seat I’m sure it’ll be a riot on the Sunseeker.  I’m applying the Burley mentality of looking at the bright side of things – the car is fine and goes well, and no-one died! Alas, there are no pictures of the event as it was on MoD land with a strict camera ban in place.  It’s a pity as it would have looked great in places.

So, the three elements?  Well, the Seat is definitely going to be a good car when the brakes are working well and it’s on gravel.  Longmoor Loco?  A great event – tight and twisty, and I can see that if it was icy it would be a massive test of car and driver.  My sister?  Well, she knows how to keep sick in until she leaves the car, and that’s a top skill!

I don’t think it can ever be a good sign on the morning of a rally when you get a text saying “Hi Darren, No Camper, Bring Tent”.  Particularly so when the rally is in Mid Wales in April and rain is forecast.  But that’s how Friday started, so I got my camping gear out before I went to work, and after work came home, had lunch, packed everything into the car and then set off for Welshpool for the Plains.  I’d done this last year with Tony in his 205, and this year he’d bought a BMW 325 from Pat Flynn as he wanted to do the BMW challenge and he’d really got on well driving RWD when he’d been to Sweden for Pat’s Ice Driving course (something I want to do at some point…).  However he’d only got the car a couple of weeks before, and it was only MOTd during the week, so I was expecting there to be a few things to do here and there.

Due to the M5 being closed and it being a Friday afternoon, it took over 5 hours to get to the trailer park near Welshpool, and coincidentally I arrived just as Tony did, so we parked up and unloaded the car.

The Beemer Arrives!

Two things were apparent – firstly that the car looked like it had had a hard life (turns out it’s been used a LOT, both for rallies and rally cross), and secondly…. there wasn’t a passenger seat!

Wot no seat?

This, apparently, was all covered though as Tony had arranged to borrow one, we just had to fit it before scrutineering.  We did, however, have a third crew member in the car:

The third man.

This would be interesting as we only had half an hour to get to the Woodyard, get the seat, fit in and get scrutineered! We managed all this, borrowing the seat from another Darren Jones (with his very tidy newly-prepared 325), although as soon as I saw it was a Motordrive one I feared the worst (their stock seats are NARROW, and I am W-I-D-E), and this was confirmed once I sat in it – it was very tight.  Still, nothing else to be done – the seat got bolted in and we passed noise and scrutineering without issue, handily.

After having a chat with another BMW crew (John O’Gorman and John Rutter), and examining their very high ride height and stiff setup, we set off for town to do all the paperwork, and while chatting found out that a couple of rooms had become available as a crew had to go home, so John O’Gorman phoned the hotel to check if they were free (they were) and if we could take them.  He handed the phone to Tony who was just about to give them some details when John changed his mind and decided that he’d take the hotel rooms and we could go to the B&B that he had booked instead; he’d not been to the B&B but fancied the Hotel over it.  Fair enough, we had somewhere to stay and it was raining and getting a bit cold.  We headed off to the pub, had a chat (hearing some hilarious stories of the two John’s rallying antics) and found out that the pub was where they were now staying.  I neglected to tell them that while I’d been in the loo there was a cockroach on the floor, and wondered how bad the B&B would be… particularly as it was getting late, so we headed off to the Woodyard to pick up Tony’s stuff, and then to the B&B.  Or we would have, had the Johns not broken down and wanted us to come get one of them, so we went off again to pick one up and drop him at the woodyard.  We found the B&B (handily it was on the main road and had a clear sign), and couldn’t believe our luck – it was lovely!  John O had definitely robbed himself here; we had a good night’s sleep and a great breakfast; I wouldn’t be staying another night but Tony needed to get a new trailer tyre which would be on Sunday morning.

Saturday started out bright and sunny, a pleasant surprise given the doom-laden forecast I’d heard all day Friday!  We went to get the car (we’d left it in the woodyard), to find that it had been moved as we’d left it in part of the stage, which was now set up!  We said Hi to a number of people including Pat and the Johns, and then headed off to the trailer park to get set up – turns out Tony didn’t have a spare for the car either – he had wheels, and he had tyres, but none together.  We put a wheel and a tyre in the boot, got the harnesses set up and also a borrowed helmet net (which was too far and too narrow to be usable when in the car, alas!), found out that the trip meter was stuck on Calibrate (and therefore not usable!), and also that I’d forgotten my digital watch, so I’d need to use my analogue one.  So, well prepared all round then!  Next to us was Paul Bird’s WRC focus, and the contrast was massive – not only in the car, but the team – there were (I think) 6 people working on the car at one point!  If only!

Compare and contrast, folks!

We set off for the pre-start holding area, and were just parking up when Tony realised the rally plates weren’t on the car.  So we went back to the trailer park and put them on, along with the compulsory RWD challenge stickers, which I placed to help cover up some of he car’s scars… then we set off, drove round town for a bit, and then into the start proper, outside the Town Hall.  Tony did some chat, and then off we went, filling up on the way and having a quick chat with an American tourist who was quite bemused by it all.

Filling up

The road section was about 25 miles, with an hour to do it, so no pressure and we got to the stage with time to spare, so we pulled over for a break a short way before, and found a Focus WRC parked up, which then needed a front tyre changed.

Look at the suspension travel!

I was going to check the pressures, but Tony didn’t have a gauge, so that was that!  We got ready and headed into the first stage.

Reading the notes on this was something I was worried about because Tony wants numbers with 6 fastest, and I’ve been used to them being 1 fastest, so all the numbers were reversed in meaning; I was worried I’d see a 1 corner and not be concerned about it, which would be BAD, so I’d highlighted them.  As it happens I needn’t have worried at all – after the first few bends it was fine.  We were told there were a couple of cars off early in the stage – one was hanging precariously on the inside of a hairpin, the other just parked by the side of the road.  But the main issue was grip, or rather the lack of it – the car was all over the place – so much so that I really though we’d go off – the front wasn’t gripping, the back wasn’t gripping, we were like a newborn deer on ice.  Although it was only a short stage (about 3 miles), it seemed to take a long time, but we got to the end OK, and off to the next stage start.  Fortunately there had been a delay, so we had about 10 minutes to wait.  I borrowed a tyre pressure gauge from someone and let some air out as they were more like 35 PSI all round aside from the left rear which was at 29.  Hopefully we’d have some more grip now!  I also got a chance to help out a crew who were doing their first event who asked about timing (as we’d been booked in and given a provisional start time for the stage which we’d clearly miss, he was worried about this, so I explained that it was OK, which he finally believed!) which was nice.  By now the queue was clearing, so in we went.

The BMW really does get off the line quickly compared to all the FWD cars I’ve been in, and that allied to the smooth 6 cylinder engine made for a fun start.  Almost straight away I could feel the car had more grip, and as we got into some 3 and 4 corners, the car seemed to turn in better and slide about a lot less.  This was GOOD.  Tony seemed much happier with the car, and was enjoying sliding it about all over the place but in a controlled manner – I’m sure it looked pretty spectacular from outside the car, as it seemed a number of times we were at about 45 degrees to the direction of travel.  When we went over big bumps at first I thought I’d pressed the horn button by accident, but in fact it was the rear tyres rubbing on the arches.  Overall the car seemed to be behaving itself pretty well, and the low ride height wasn’t an issue as the stages were smooth for the most part.  We’d definitely gone quicker and more importantly it had been a lot more fun in the car; Tony was happy at the end and felt it was much better like this.  I thought it would be nice to go a bit lower on the pressures but as we didn’t have a gauge handy or any way to pump them up if we’d gone too low, I thought better of it.  However, coming out of the control, Tony said we had a puncture.  I asked if he was sure, and he was.  We stopped by the Johns’ chase car, and were told all was well, so we carried on.  I’ve had this quite a few times, being convinced something on the car was broken when it was fine, I guess it’s just the way your mind works in these situations.
Stage 3 was Dyfi East, and went much like SS2 – overall not bad, with Tony getting used to the car, although there were still a few areas which needed work – tight hairpins still were very slow, and Tony still needed to change from his old FWD style of getting all the way round on the handbrake; easier said than done when an error will lead to an off down a steep bank, so he erred on the side of caution although I think this was one of the biggest differences in time between us and the other crews in front; on the fast bits we were going pretty well so I think the time lost was more about braking points and getting hairpins right than anything else.

On our way in again.

SS4 was Dyfi West, and again it went OK.  Over the last 4 stages I was surprised at the number of cars that were off – there seemed to be a LOT of them, both from driving errors and mechanical issues, but fortunately we’d not had anything major in either respect; the gearbox was sounding a bit noisy sometimes, and there was an odd knocking noise coming from somewhere, but it had been there most of the day and Tony said it had always been there, so nothing to worry about too much.  We headed off on the hour’s drive to service, which gave me a chance to release myself from the vice that was the seat I was in; by the time we got to service I was convinced I’d be crippled and as bad as I was in 2010, but once we got to service and I had a chance to wander about, I was OK after 5 minutes – a relief for me, for sure, but I spent as little time in the car as possible when booking into service; it probably looked like we’d had an argument!

Service consisted of… well, not a lot really.  The guys looking after the Johns had a look at the car while Tony and I went to get some hot food, and we got the tyre changed onto the rim by the Pirelli chap, and then we just had a chat – nice and relaxed when your car is working OK!

Service out, all ready to go again.

Booking out of service was slightly fraught as we were waiting and then I realised I’d thought we were out on 47 when we were out on 46, but thankfully we were right by the control with 15 seconds to go when I realised this.  What wasn’t so good was the next road section to Hafren – the times had been altered because of a change to the refuelling zone (now inside the service rather than outside), giving us 18 minutes to do 8 miles.  Which sounds easy enough, but the access road to Hafren was a long single-track one, and we met someone coming the other way which used up some time, and the road book wasn’t clear as there was one place which looked like the junction we should come off at but it wasn’t there.  Anyway, we made it with about 30 seconds to spare once we’d got ready to go in, so not the end of the world, but we had to drive a lot quicker than you’d expect given those numbers.

SS5 Hafren went well – I’m really gutted that the camera didn’t work, in fact; I’d not had time to change the SD card which was showing full (I should have checked it in service but forgot!), so we didn’t get any footage of it, but the camera iris setting is way too open anyway, so you don’t see much with it when it’s mounted back on the cage, alas.  Anyway, it went well for the most part – there were some bits which weren’t too great, with braking being a problem in places (not the car, just timing it right), and hairpins once more. There were some sections of 5 and 6 corners that we were really flying on; fast enough to make me worry about it, in fact, so probably as fast as I’ve been on gravel unless the “I’m not driving multiplier” had kicked in.  At the end of the stage Tony was happy with it, and so was I, so we headed off for the last forest stage of the day, a re-run of SS2, Gartheiniog, via a holding control where we swapped stories with some of the 205 crews.  By now the weather was looking to be on the turn, and indeed by the time we got to the stage it was getting grey and feeling like rain.  A couple of minutes in, it did just that; the rain came down and suddenly the grip dropped right off – the car was sliding much more than before, and running off line onto the loose gravel was a very bad idea as the car just lost all grip at that point, so I spent a fair bit of the stage reminding Tony to watch his line and taking more note of the cautions which littered the notes.  About 3/4 of the way through we were disappointed to see that John O’Gorman’s car had gone off – they were both out of the car and fine, but we later found out they’d rolled.  A bit more care was taken in a few places, and a couple of places we would definitely look like we were showing off as Tony got the back hung right out when we came out of some slower corners, and soon enough the end was in sight.  Now it was just the road sections and Woodyard to go.

Another hour’s road section and a long wait for a holding control on a farmyard (where I got told I was nuts for being a navigator by a woman there who then said ‘Well, drivers are worse, mind’. “I usually drive”.  ‘Oh, both feet in then.”, and then off to the woodyard for the last stage of the day.  Although it was only 1.85 miles long, it was 5 pages on notes; compare that with the 8.98 miles of Hafren with only 12 pages then you’ll see how busy it was in there.  There’s one section you do twice, and then head into the rest of the yard; most of it went OK (although the car was having a hard time getting grip in places, it made much lighter work of it than the 205 did last year), Tony got a bit over-exuberant on one corner (coincidentally right where we’d left the car the night before and it had been moved from), and we slid sideways into a log; fortunately just slowly so nothing bad happened, and the rest of the stage was a bit frenetic but passed without incident other than us laughing a lot at the end.

Logshine

Top stuff, and just the run down to the finish in a car park in Welshpool to go, which was fine aside from a spectator’s car in the woodyard holding us up for a few minutes – once that was done, we got to the car park, booked in and we’d finished!  Another good effort by Tony, with things clearly needing doing for next time, both in terms of the car and targets for driving, but all good, really.

We went back to the trailer park and as Tony was going to use the BMW to get the trailer wheel sorted I set off home – getting home in a much more suitable 3 hours now the roads were empty.

Next up could well be Swansea bay, but we’ll have to see…

Some more photos from rallyday, this time from Chris Horner at www.mccrash.co.uk

Rallyday 2009 by mccrash.co.uk

Rallyday 2009 by mccrash.co.uk

Had a couple of pictures sent through by Chris Fairweather – if you want to see more of his work, go to www.clf-photography.co.uk

RallyDay 2009

RallyDay 2009

Today I took the opportunity to sit in with Tony Hawkins in his Audi Quattro.  A fair while ago I sat in with Ray Read in his Quattro at Longcross, and sadly that led to a DNF after the turbo killed itself.  Tony had a chequered history with his quattro (first event was a DNF when the engine blew up, and second was a finish), this being his third event he was hoping just to get some more time in the car and get used to it a bit more.  I’d not met him before today (this is becoming a pattern!), but spoken to him on the phone a few times, and arranged to get to Longcross around 7:30, having heard that the normal service area was currently a movie set.  And this was true – there was a mock coliseum set up in the middle of it; I don’t know what film it was for, but it looked impressive.

Film Set at Longcross

However this led to a problem – the service area was at the top of the hill, meaning that the big hills would not be used in the stage layout, and also I thought this may lead to less than ideal stage layouts overall.

Often if you’ve not met someone before it’s hard to find them in a service area.  This wasn’t the case with Tony.  He’d told me the day before he was intending on bringing “a lorry” to the service area.  And he wasn’t wrong – it was a full-on artic and trailer, so quite easy to find.

Tony's Quattro. With an Artic as Service Barge.

Said “Hi” and then found out he’d forgotten the keys, so we had to wait until they turned up, and then got the car out and all sorted, and headed off for scrutineering; his least favourite part of rallying as well as mine.   Mostly it went OK, aside from an issue with the seat belt mountings not being right (both top belts were on one mounting), and eventually we found an original mount for the other belt, which was much better than the eyebolt bar that was at the back of the car and didn’t seem too safe to me.

Quattro from the front.

... and from the side. With my name on it.

Next to us Ray had been having problems with his car, and had ended up having to disconnect the air flow meter to get it to run properly, and was going to see how it went, and take a view on it after stage 1 – he was 3 places ahead of us, seeded at number 9.

Soon enough it was time to go, and as soon as we got going, I had a revelation.  You know when you’ve finally got round to doing something you’d been putting off for a long time and then thought you should have done it ages ago as it’s so much better?  That’s what happened to me the first time I used the intercom with my nice new Peltor Helmet.  The difference is staggering, nothing less.  The helmet stops the outside noise getting to you by a significant amount, and the quality of the intercom is incomparable with the OMP one I’ve been using – no background noise, and much better quality; you can just talk normally and it’s perfectly loud enough, despite the car being quite noisy inside.

Got to the stage start, booked in and got ready, having discussed how to call the corners; each driver is different and everyone has their own system; with the stages on maps we can at least see what we will be encountering and discuss everything beforehand, and this was good.  We got off the line quickly (the car is not slow), and down to the first “bus stop chicane”, and got down to the chicane to see an unwelcome sight – Ray’s Quattro at a 45-degree angle, having hit a post on the way into the chicane.  Ray and Stu were out of the car and OK, and we took it slowly as we went through, but it’s never good to see a mate out, especially that early.  Going round the rest of the stage saw us get used to each other, and Tony to the car.  One big problem was the synchro on second gear is on the way out, and hurried gear changes don’t work at all well.  And of course second gets used a LOT, so it would need to be looked after or another DNF would loom…  The stage went reasonably well, there were a few moments as Tony was getting used to the brakes, and also a great moment going round a hairpin with the car sliding first on the brakes, then the handbrake and then the power – he got it right first time here, and it felt great, even though I don’t think it was the quickest way to do it! On the last lap the intercooler pipe popped off, leading to no boost pressure and not a lot of power, but we finished the stage without any other problems.

Into service, there was quite a delay for some crews coming back – I think that Ray’s incident led to no more cars starting after us, so we had to wait for all of them to clear the stage before we started again, having re-attached the intercooler pipe and checked the rest of the car over, everything else looking OK.

Intercooler pipe while being fixed.

Stage 2 was a re-run of the previous stage, and this time Tony was a little more confident, particularly on the snake – there are two blind crests there which it’s counter-intuitive to go fast over, even if you are being told to keep going, until you’ve seen that it’s OK there.  We cut over 30 seconds off the stage time this time, and it felt much more like it particularly in the corners on the snake where the car was starting to a) work hard and b) understeer like a Quattro.  The hairpin wasn’t as neatly done this time, and there was one time when the gearbox wouldn’t play ball, so keeping it in second was the order of the day for this from now on.

Back into service, everything seemed fine with the car, and there was a quick turnaround for Stage 3, despite it featuring a reasonably large change leading to taking the snake the other way round.  This went well again, and Tony was seeming far more confident in getting the car round the corners, although again it was getting to the point where there was a fair bit of understeer – not only in the snake, but also going into some of the chicanes – there were a couple of moments where it only just started to grip in time, but it must have looked good from the outside.  Stage 4 was a second run through exactly the same stage, and again we shaved a fair bit of time off the SS3 time by being neater and more committed in the newer sections.

Now it was time.. for lunch!  After Rallyday’s trials yesterday I was pretty tired, so I took the opportunity to take a nap for 20 minutes, and I noted in my rear view mirror that Tony was having his ear bent by someone as I dropped off.  I woke up 22 minutes later, and guess what?  Same guy, still talking!  Sometimes it’s good to be a navigator!

Stage 5 saw the direction round the outside track reversed, and new start and finish points, so all the chicanes would be different and need different lines throughout, as well as a very short merge before the first chicane, which made it difficult to get dead right, but it went OK, and round we went.  By now the tyres seemed to me to be past their best, and there were quite a few moments where the car understeered for a long time, and eventually gripped again, meaning that each chicane would take us nearer the edge of the road.  We were still quick, as the lap setup of the stage meant you sometimes ran with someone faster than you for a while – we were running with number 7 (a new-shape Impreza) and round the outside we were keeping up for the most part.  We dived off into the snake while he went round the outside, and we were about 5 seconds behind him when we re-merged.  On the next lap something similar happened with a Mk.2 Escort, and this time, he emerged from the snake at much the same time as us, showing just how much time we were losing in corners.  The stage went well, though, and with no major issues other than the lack of grip.

Back into service, it was time to change tyres.  Unfortunately Tony only had 2 decent spares, so we put them on the front, and went off out for Stage 6.

This one may be worn out.

This one soon will be.

Immediately there was a huge difference – on the first chicane the back of the car drifted (as the front gripped) and hit the boards – the car was quite imbalanced now but would at least get the front where you wanted.  Care was needed into the next couple of chicanes to get the braking right and not lose the back, and other than that it went well – once Tony had adapted to it the car went where it should do (for the most part), and we did some rather show-boaty work in a couple of places due to the lack of rear grip.  Not fast, but good fun, for sure.

Back into service, and a check over the car revealed very little needed, so we went back out again after fuelling the car up, and it was time for Stage 7, the last change of layout of the day.  As we went into the chicane there was a lack of brakes; I’m not sure if it was just that the tyres were cold, but what is for sure is that we hit the chicane, and quite hard.  The car seemed OK and to have 4 wheels though, so we got on with it, and I soon noticed that the front right wing (which had taken the chicane impact) was lifting up at speed – I was hoping it wouldn’t break off, as it was well above bonnet level when we got up to top speed (around 110 on the speedo, more, I’m told, in reality), but it seemed to be just bending as it went.  There were a few moments on this stage, one as we came to the chicane where Ray had ended the rally (but in reverse), and some others going into other chicanes, mostly.  The snake was feeling good by now, with the extra grip working well, and Tony confident enough to get the car airborne over the bigger hill.  The end of the stage was a new section, a square left into a square right and then a long straight.  The left went well, but the right… involved a bit of handbrake, and we span.  Which would have been totally innocuous, if it wasn’t for the very deep U-shaped gutter just to the side of the track, separating the road we were using with a differen tarmac surface.  As we went into slow motion, I expected a bang.

And it came – a really hard, heavy BANG and it sounded like a chassis-bender; it was a really, really hard impact, as it was going sideways through the suspension where there is obviously no springing.  Tony gave it some beans and round it came and… into the opposite gutter, but a lot slower.  We got pointing in the right direction and to the finish.  We checked the car still went straight (it seemed OK), and got back to service.

Looking at the car, it was in a sorry state.  The front wing was finished, with a massive split right above the wheel, and the front corner all broken up,  as well as a number of other splits and cracks.  This picture doesn’t do the damage justice – bear this in mind when you buy a car on eBay from pictures only!

Broken Wing, having tried to fly on the way round.

And the back left wheel had clearly sacrificed itself to save the rest of the car as the rim itself was split really badly.  Not good as these are genuine Quattro Sport wheels, and quite rare.

Audi Quattro Sport wheel. Now junked.

Tyre was still up though, but needed to be changed, and alas only for one of the ruined fronts from earlier.  The other side showed signs of damage, but we decided it would be better to keep a slightly damaged wheel with a serviceable tyre than a perfect rim with a knackered one.  The wing was repaired with nuts and bolts and gaffa tape, and away we went for Stage 8.  While not wanting to take it easy, a finish and another signature was on the table.

The stage start went well, and off we went, through the first three chicanes, everything was fine.  We went round a right-hander into a left hander for the right-entry chicane, and the back of the car stepped out.  Right out – it was quickly beyond the “save it” point, and into the “hope this doesn’t hurt too much” point.  We hit the chicane (which was made of tyres, a cone and several pallets) sideways at around 50, I’d guess (we were doing over 100 when the brakes went on), and then span sideways off the track.  I’ve got used to this sort of thing, and for the most part it’s no problem at all, and having seen all the super-calm navigators on the TV, I decided to play my part, and once we’d come to a halt (backwards, facing about 45 degrees up the track), I checked Tony was OK, we re-started and I said just to gently get the car back on the track.  But it wasn’t to be – we were buried in some very deep, soft gravel and quite a way into the bushes – the car was already on its floor, and it was game over.  Marshals were giving the universal “it’s over” signal (like having your neck cut), so we got out, and then got out the way – some people weren’t taking much care despite four waving marshals and a stranded audi, so all 6 of us thought it would be better to be elsewhere, and went there.  Once the stage was finished, the recovery crew came round and pulled us out (and it took a surprising amount of effort, mostly because we took half a tonne of fern and nettles with us), and then we drove back to service to find Tony’s family a bit worried as obviously we’d been long overdue and neither of us had a phone.  Pictures of the stricken Audi are here, big thanks for the Marshals who sent them – Maggie, Mike & Meg Dixon & Pete Thorogood!

Someone see a chicane?

A slightly buried Audi....

So, another Audi at Longcross, another non-finish.  But a damn good day – hopefully Tony will get the car sorted out and back to its snarling glory soon enough for Smeatharpe in October – there wasn’t much damage other than cosmetic stuff, really, and maybe I’ll get a chance to break my Longcross Audi curse at some point.  But not today.

Today was one of the biggest rally shows in the country, Rallyday, which is at Castle Combe race circuit.  I’ve been before (in 2005, I think), and it’s a rally-based car show; there are lots of rally cars there, and owners of the rally cars who book time can get a number of runs on the track and also on a short rally stage as well; a chance to see a lot of rare and classic rally cars as well as some road versions of rally cars too.  I’d booked the clubman package which gave four runs round the track, two runs on the stage as well as parking in the main show area.  But it also meant getting there fairly early, so a 6:20 start was called for.  The trip up would give a chance to do more map logging as well, and went fairly smoothly for the most part.

Until the gear lever fell off!  Was stopped at some traffic lights, and I went to put the car in gear, and the lever dropped about 6 inches.  Oh dear.  I got it into first, pulled over and watched the passing traffic run over the bits that had just fallen off – a bracket and a bolt.  Got them back, and got the car to somewhere safe down a side road and then put it back on with some pliers and a bit of deft cable-tie work to cover where the other bolt should be.  Worked well, and got to the circuit only 10 minutes later than I wanted to, but suffered the usual traffic queues there where there are people trying to get in the wrong car parks, etc., but this year the entry to the paddock was much better organised and we went almost straight in, and found where I should be with the Bournemouth Car Club people, including Ray and his Audi.

As soon as I parked… I moved as I wanted to get noise tested, and handily that went smoothly, and parked up again.  Then it was time for the drivers’ briefing, which was… a little wearing.  It went on WAY too long for what needed to be said (keep left, don’t overtake on braking or in a corner, don’t straddle the pit exit line, and what the flags mean), but thankfully got hurried up by one of the women there who knew we’d be late for the session.  Got back to the car, got in and went round to the queue for the course entry.  You have to have covered arms and legs for this, so I had to put on my coat.  And also something that I treated myself to (partly money from my Birthday presents) – a new Peltor G78 Pro Rally helmet.  This is quality – it’s so quiet compared with the old helmet, there’s really no comparison.  You’d never get away without an intercom with one of these on, it’s that good.

Waiting to go on track.

A couple of minutes’ wait and we were on the track.  Now, I’m still running the engine in, and in addition it’s got very short gearing – it’s geared for about 95 in top at 7000rpm, which makes for a very frenetic drive on long straights of tarmac – you’re in top very quickly, and then just revving along, although I’d set a rev limit of 5500rpm, so that was about 70 or so.  Obviously everyone else was quicker, but interestingly not in the corners, aside from Ray and Dean in his GTM Honda.  I’d put forest tyres on as I didn’t want to kill the only tarmac tyres I have (and they’re needed for the full 3 miles of the Sunseeker stages 1 & 2 each year), so I had a very un-grippy car.  The bonus of this is that it made the corners good fun – as if you were going 20-30 mph quicker.  And I was having a good time; keeping an eye on the gauges as we went, it all seemed fine, and 5 laps went quickly – back to the paddock to park up.

Like Babylon 5, really.

Had a chat with the guys from Bournemouth Car Club who were there, and soon enough it was time for the next session; someone asked if they could sit in with me, and once I’d told him it would be very s-l-o-w he was still keen, so he went to sort out his helmet and I picked him up in the queue where I saw Chris Morford from Rallye Sunseeker – he looks after their website amongst other things, and it’s always nice to meet someone you’ve had contact with, but never met; it’s also sometimes weird as you have no idea what they’ll look or sound like.  I also finally got to meet Jon Price from the britishrally forum and Cymraeg Scoobie club, who have been kind enough to sponsor me, and arranged to meet up later.  Chris wanted an interview, so I gave one, although I talked utter drivel.  The reason for this was because the car had started to run a bit lumpy, and I feared that the head gasket was a bit dodgy; the car had suddenly got hot and then cooled down, as I’d found out that the fan wasn’t cutting in.  Not good, but went out for the session anyway; it went much as the first; I’m not sure my passenger was getting the ride of his life (quite the opposite) but he seemed pleased enough to have blagged his way onto the racetrack, even when Ray, Dean and Mike Stewart came past at light-speed.  However, on one of the corners I actually had to brake as a Subaru was going so much slower than I was (worrying), and Geoff Bennett’s escort looked to have expired (later found out to be a short as the starter had come loose, and the battery wasn’t happy!).

Back to the paddock, the car wasn’t ticking over like it did before.  This wasn’t a good sign, although it wasn’t running that badly.  The water level was fine, and everything else checked out so I just left it and went for a wonder.  Saw lots of cars, some old, some new, some classics, some up-to-date stuff, and in another field a whole load of show cars – all sorts of Fords, Subarus and Evos, amongst others – many of them with very clean engines and polished bits here and there.  Not my bag, but the crowds were massive, so clearly I’m in the minority here.

The weather was really good; probably too good as it was getting a bit too hot.  The next track session wasn’t booked until 4:30, and I didn’t fancy waiting that long; although I’d had a lot of people come and speak about the blog and the car and so on, only had a few people sign up, although it was good to meet Mark after such a long time, and Jon and the Cymraeg Scoobie crew came over, stickered the car on the boot and took a few pics – it’s always really nice to have such support from clearly nice people, so that pretty much made my afternoon!

I decided that I’d do one run of the Sparco Rally Stage, which was just a little stage set up for one car at a time (finish where the start was, with a few interesting corners on it), and also decided to put the “helmet cam” from the snowboarding on the roof to get a different view.  This went well.  But the car didn’t – by the end of the stage it was overheating.  I was not happy; got back as soon as possible (no thanks to someone in a Subaru blocking the road and having a chat for a minute), to find a very hot car, and… no water in the tank.  Oh dear.

A quick check found that the hose that comes off the water pump at the back of the engine had…er… come off – not sure whether this was due to pressure building up, or operator error.  I got it back on (not easy as it’s really inaccessible), and then re-filled the engine with water.  Left it for a few minutes to settle, and then started it.  It seemed to be running on about 3 1/2 cylinders – it’s definitely missing, but not completely.  So I thought it was time to make my excuses and leave.  Got as much water as I could in my Tesco’s bottle, and headed off.

The car ran as well as I could expect; in fact aside from it feeling a bit rough and not wanting to tick over, you wouldn’t think there was anything wrong with it; got home without any problems, and despite having the advance timed out of the top end, it’s willing to pull up hills and overtake without problems.  But it’s definitely in need of some attention, probably a new head gasket if not a complete sort out of the liners (which would mean sump off and pistons out) – but I won’t know until I do some testing, and tomorrow I’m navigating at Longcross in an Audi, so that means nothing will be found out until then.

Given that Rally GB entries close in a week and a half, this is…. not good.   Not unachievable (there is another option in the form of a spare, running engine that I can re-cam and re-head), but not ideal.

Today was the 2009 running of Fat Albert Stages, which is based at Keevil Airfield in Wiltshire. This is a good event for two reasons – firstly, it’s a very well-run event and features a good combination of high-speed sections (which are on the main runway area, long straights with some chicanes and so on) and a section which is extremely tight and technical and makes demands on car and crew. The second reason is that it’s only 55 miles away, so it can all be done in a day. But this does mean getting up at about 5 to manage this, and then there’s an hour’s drive to get there (although for some reason TomTom said it would take 1:45, which was a bit strange). Got there dead on time at 6:45, and found that Mike had left my pass with the Marshal there, as agreed.

It’s always a bit weird turning up to an event to navigate with or drive with someone you’ve never met before – you have no idea really how things are going to go on a number of levels. Fortunately I needn’t have worried about this – I found Mike easily enough (in the queue for scrutineering) and checked everything out – the car seemed fine, and luckily I fitted in the seat OK, and we got to know each other while waiting for the car to be scrutineered, which it passed without problem. It was then just back to the service area to check if the intercom adapter I’d made up (Mike’s intercom is a different make and each uses different connections) worked, which it did, and then wait around for the start times to be posted.

Mike's 1.6 205, ready to go

Events like this have a wide range of cars entered, from things such as the Furzelands’ WRC Subaru, right down to the lowest-budget rally cars you could imagine, and everything in between. On the first few events I was amazed at the diversity of machinery that was present, but after a while you get to accept that people decide to run all sorts of different cars, for all sorts of different reasons, and looking at a results sheet doesn’t really tell the tale; a single cc-based class can have a madly-tuned hothouse flower competing with a totally standard road-spec car, but that’s the nature of the beast. But it’s not often you get to see something like this:

Not something you see every day.....

An Aston Martin. There were varying opinions from people I spoke to throughout the day, some saying that they “don’t belong” in rallying, others who loved it. I can’t see the problem, and it certainly looked and sounded different to the usual cars, and that’s saying something.

Anyway, the stages. Mike hadn’t been rallying much for the last few years, and this was his third event this year, and he was happy just to go out and get back into it, plus sitting in with someone new it will always take some time to work together, so a “fair” pace was what he was after to start out with, and we managed that – there were no real dramas at any point, although it became clear that Mike is no stranger to the handbrake, and damn good at it too – he really got the car launched sideways in places where needs be, and made it look smooth and fast from where I was. The braking areas needed to be honed down, for sure, but for the most part it went well; the car is only a standard 1600 engine with twin 40s on, so it’s not a high-powered screamer, but it went well enough, touching nearly 100 on the longest straight.

Stage 2 was a repeat of stage 1, and we went a bit quicker. There was a corner which was a long 45 degree one which tightened towards the end, and the first time round the car felt a bit light on the way in; I thought it felt a bit too quick on the entry. And half way through it turns out I was right – the back stepped out, and we were going sideways. We were doing about 70 when this happened, and typically we drifted into the line of cones; it was interesting seeing them come sideways at the car, and we then hit one which had a wooden sign in it, with a sizeable bang, and came to a halt. It took a few seconds to get the car going again, and by this time the next car was coming along at quite a pace. We’d moved the cones that showed where the stage was, and as a result they ended up coming quite close to us, and we were facing them at this point. Fortunately nothing untoward happened, and with them out the way we could get going, which Mike did quickly. Despite having spun and taken time to get the car running again, we managed to go one second quicker; I’d think we lost about 15 or so with the spin, so that wasn’t all bad. Unlike the side of the car:

Cone + 205 + sideways = this.

Stages 3 and 4 were slightly altered runs of 1 & 2, and they went well; different lines and speeds were tried on various corners, and it was coming along quite nicely; paring down braking points until they were pretty much there and trying to get back up to speed on “the corner of woe”, and everywhere else trying to keep it neat and tidy. We caught a slower car in one place and he very kindly moved out of the way (car 91), so thanks for that, and in general it went well; it was sunny now and getting a bit hot in the car by the end of the stage, but all good fun.

Stages 5 & 6 featured another change to the layout again, and they went well too; the car was behaving itself well, and the second run was quicker than the first. There was a fun moment where the car that had witnessed and passed our spin on stage 2 span in front of us (there’s a bump mid-corner), so I guess they knew how we felt; Mike had thought I’d been a bit too cautious about the speed over that bump but given what happened there it looks like I was right!

Then it was lunchtime, with a break while the stage layout is changed (they are run in the reverse direction in the afternoon), but the break became a lot longer when a glider had to perform an (apparently emergency) landing on the airfield, leading to a 40 minute or so delay. Once we got going, it was good fun; the reversed layout had a few surprises (one of the sections was new, and wasn’t really clear on the map so the first time through was a bit interesting at speed), but seemed to be a lot quicker; there was a downhill straight where the car was topping 100 before a hard braking area and a chicane for a handbrake turn, and a few times this was taken right on the limit with the front of the car just starting to push before gripping and turning us round.

Stage 9 was a small modification again, and I made a right mess of it; I looked at the wrong corner, called it and then took us through a plastic barrier. Mike and I both thought someone had dragged it into the way, but they hadn’t; he deftly spun the car round and we carried on for the rest of the stage, with the calls being punctuated by apologies by me. Dammit! Fortunately no damage was done to the car by this small off, and Mike was quite happy with the outcome, saying it had been a laugh anyway! Stage 10, the last of the day was a re-run of 9, and we got it right throughout, and it went well pretty much everywhere.

All in all, a fun day, with good stages and organisation, fun with a new crew and nothing serious going wrong. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday, and we’d finished 45th out of 90 starters, with 52 classified.