Skoda Rally Blog

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.

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!

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:

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!

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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…