Skoda Rally Blog

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

Officially.

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

Ian and Al - service crew extraordinare!

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

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

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

So, here goes…