Skoda Rally Blog

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!