Skoda Rally Blog

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

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

All tucked up in bed for the night!

Now that's a car park!

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