Skoda Rally Blog

Sunday, the last day of Rally GB 2008. Four stages to go, but we’d been told it would be cold. And they weren’t wrong. We got up early as we needed to clean up the house and pack up (as we were leaving today), and I went out to see that the cars were solid with frost – it was really cold – probably colder here than it had been at any point in our stay. Great. I warmed the car up so we’d at least have a frost-free trip, but by the time we got everything done, packed and ready, we didn’t get to Parc Ferme until about 3 minutes to go. No real rush, but not ideal. A massive thanks to the marshals there who (on grounds of safety, M’lord) had scraped the ice from the windows on the Skoda. On the way out one of them had some de-icer and sprayed the screen and gave it a squeegee off. Fantastic support, and typical of all the marshals we’ve met throughout the weekend.

Into Service, Ian had already got everything set up, but there wasn’t much to do, just load up the car with camera, food and crew stuff, check the fluids and then we were off to the service out control and once more to the tyre checking people. Most of the time we’ve had our tyres checked by the same crew, who’ve been a good laugh and very supportive, but of course we’d broken our own record by changing two wheels so now we’d have used a total of 8 for the event. Tyre checks were made much more pleasant by one of them being the lovely scrutineer trainee who’d checked over the car – she was always chatty and had beautiful eyes. Anyway…..

…. off out to Rheola. For once we had plenty of time, so sat down the hill a bit, and drove up slowly to the control as I wanted to spare the clutch – there had been a couple of times where I’d smelled it and I felt that any unneccesary stress could lead to it giving up, so caution was a good idea – I spent the rest of the day looking for level areas to stop on rather than inclines. We were told that it was slippy and compacted throughout, and had an ice warning to sign, for 500 metres after J22, which was near the bottom of the stage.

Rheola starts with a fairly fast downhill section, and then a couple of tighter turns and then a hairpin right. Usually this hairpin is cut up really badly by the time we get to it, but it wasn’t at all. The surface rocks had been cleared, but the road itself wasn’t damaged at all, showing just how cold it had been. It wasn’t mega-slippy, but nowhere near as grippy as it would normally be (and indeed as it was on Recce). Off up the hill, and it was the same everywhere – no ruts to hook into at all. Once we got out into the sun (a tight left at the top round a tree where there are usually lots of spectators) it was softer, and the next section of the stage was mostly exposed so it was softer, a bit cut up (but not as bad as we’d expect) and good, but still slippy and icy, always in the shade. The bit at the top (where the diggers get parked) is usually terrible, but it wasn’t bad – despite being in the sun it wasn’t too soft, and made a nice change, although there were still rocks about, and I took care round a few to try to avoid beating the tank guard off). Down into Walters Arena and it was OK but the first part of the descent (a long downhill that ends in a 4 left) was worrying at first – it wasn’t slippy, but where it had been regraded it was washboardy and sounded like something had failed but I realised in a second or so what it was – it sounded like some of the roads in Mauritania, and at Paul’s request I gave it a bit more over the jump, and it was OK (although I’m sure not spectacular enough for everyone else!) and I was surprised not to have been caught yet – Paul said there were cars behind, but they were a long way back. The next section is a number of faster turns and then a long downhill right into a left and then a 4 right into the tree section. The downhill was OK, but as soon as we got in the shade it was icy – slush on top of ice – and we went very wide on a couple of turns. At this point I totally lost confidence; this coupled with the sun making it hard to see until you were right in a corner in most cases meant I really went off it, and then we came to the section we’d been warned about. The bit that worried me the most was the downhill section, about 80 metres down with a 3 right with a big rock inside which is then bumpy and goes into a 3 left through a gate and another gate. We got caught here as I took it easy – it was very slippy – but we let one car through then another – I didn’t realise it was 2 of them, Nathan O’Connor and Gordon Nichol. The rest of the stage was slow as I’d really lost it, I was worried at every corner even though there was no need really – in the sun it was OK and at lower altitude it was also OK. Got caught by David Harrison as well. I was really at the lowest I’d been now. Let both of us down.

Once we were out on the road things were a bit quiet, and Paul had a word. He was right – I’d been crap and I knew it. As he said, we don’t want to go out, but if you’re being cautious it’s almost more dangerous, so I spent the rest of the road section geeing myself up and trying to get back the confidence that I felt yesterday. The test would be if I’d keep it up when we started Port Talbot – the start crew told us it was a bit slippy in there but with no sheet ice. This was good, so off we went.

And it went well.

Really well.

In fact, I’d say this was the best I’ve ever driven. Obviously if you look at the times, we’re miles off everyone else, but I don’t give a monkey’s about that. We have a car that started the event with 80 horsepower from an engine that has been sat in my shed for a couple of years that was called into service at the last minute. It’s used 2 litres of oil in 2 days, and has a driver who has to temper the desire to have a good time with the realisation that if I trash it, I’ll have to repair every last bit of damage, and foot the bill for everything. But it went really well anyway – the stage is much better this way round as you have some tighter stuff to get you in the swing of things, and then it opens out later on. Before that though, there’s a valley to be crossed where you drop right down to a little bridge and go back uphill for a LONG time (which is much nicer than going downhill on a long straight, for me), and the back of the car was bouncing around all over the place here, but I kept it going. I took it easy in the hairpins as I didn’t want to break a driveshaft (the only mechanical issue we’ve had with the cars has been this), but everywhere else I think I gave it enough to get a real buzz – there were a couple of bits where the car just lifts off a bit, and I even needed to brace my right knee against the cage padding on some corners to keep completely still in the seat – my legs were moving about otherwise. This was wicked, and a total contrast to the stage before. Next there is a section of ‘fast’ 1 left and right corners – they’re not visible in sequence so good notes and trust in them is needed, but I remembered it being fine on recce so I gave it some, and ended up pushing hard in 5th, which was a good feeling. At the end of this section there’s a 2 right that you can hook and we did that too, and it was just spot on. At the jump I took it a bit easy as the back of the car goes really light and I didn’t want to mash the front like I did last year in Walters, but it was OK. I made a note of the gear and revs for next time, and then back into another fast section between some trees. This was spot on again, great fun. Lots of grip, pushing in 5th, fantastic. There’s an open section once more with some more 3 corners and some culverts to avoid, and then a last section with 1 and 2 corners left and right before a couple of tight ones and over the finish.

Before the stop control Paul turned to me and said “Now’s THAT’s how to drive the f***ing car”. I was happy, ‘cos I’d not let him down this time. G’work!

Back to service, just a check over as all seemed well, and Ian had packed up as he needed to get going. He’d been a legend throughout the weekend, and I couldn’t have picked a better man to service for us – he’d combined mechanicing, scavenging, fronting his way close to Citroen to get some great pics, being a top motivator and damn funny and even making me “power shakes” and warming my gloves before the starts in the morning. I’m glad he had a good time as I was worried he’d be bored, but how often do you get to service in the WRC and nose round the service park? Once in a lifetime, I think, if that, for most. We set off, and so did he, once we made sure we had the van keys!

A last time through the tyre check, and then back out to Rheola. This time it was going to be different, I’d give it more, as I was feeling more confident. There were places to take care, but not to be as cautious as I had been. I needed to remember that Crychan 2 had been icier than this and once we got in a rhythm and told the car what to do, we went OK. If you go off the boil or give up, then it’s over. We arrived in good time, and saw that car 88 was behind us (he’d obviously had a few nightmares), in an Evo, so I went to speak to him (checking he spoke English) and told him if he caught us we’d move as soon as it was safe to do so. He seemed surprised we’d even mentioned it!

Rheola 2 was a much better job – We got caught more quickly by Nathan this time, but I wasn’t worried about that as we were definitely going better – the stage was STILL not badly cut up for the most part (if this is what it’s like running near the front then it must be fantastic fun, it was like a new stage for us), and this time everything seemed better. The arena was more fun (although I over-cooked it on one of the shaded corners near the end as THAT was still icy), but soon after there is a crest which goes into a 3 right. I was probably going too quickly (or rather would have been), but there was a marshal there giving us the “calm down” gesture so I did, and was sad to see Nathan’s car off on the left. Couldn’t see whether it was beached or a mechanical problem but obviously we had to worry about our own issues, and cracked on again). We got caught by Gordon but don’t think we held him up too much, but the shaded section after the long downhill corner was slipper than before if anything – a couple of times we nearly went off despite me doing the “right” thing and keeping lock and power on. If I’d not done that we’d have been off for sure! The post-J22 section was taken easier and was still as slick as hell, so I was glad to have avoided either going straight on, hitting the rock, or the gates. Heard later that this claimed one of the Land Rover boys who just hit it and went straight off at about 5 mph, and smashed his radiator. Game over.

At the very end Harrison caught us up, but there was no point in moving over as we’d both have lost time – it was literally at the last corner. I later found out that he’d not slowed down after the Flying Finish (we didn’t slow down over it, but did brake for the next corner) and he’d nearly hit us! Can’t see the point of saving 0.5 seconds to get to the control, really, having seen a peugeot go off years ago doing the same thing and ending his rally….

The lovely people a the end control and car wash gave us a clap, which was ace, and also their last two chocolates which was a really nice thought! I was pleased, and I think Paul was too – not with the chocolate, but that we’d made it through without driving like a total wimp. Later I found out we’d cut a minute and a half off the first time, which is better. Probably could have cut another 30 seconds off easily too. But we were still in it, and with just 1 stage to go.

We arrived at Port Talbot 2 with plenty of time to go, and a (I think Finnish) spectator had a chat with me. Between his broken English and the fact that he was hammered it wasn’t the most in-depth conversation, but he said it was good to see some “normal” cars in it, and there should be more like me. He also noticed the blown sidelight, which was letting the side down on the Skoda’s reliability record. I blame German bulbs.

Someone had managed to write “Hoval Skiddo” on the back of every car, and someone had also written “Well done” in the dirt on the rear window. We weren’t there yet. I looked at the front tyres, and they were down to about 4mm of tread. Not good, but no time to change both fronts (or even ONE front, in fact), so in we went. I noticed into the first braking area that there was less grip, but it wasn’t terrible, just less than it should be. I tried to forget about it and carry on as usual, but there was always a nagging “don’t mess this up” voice in my head, which meant I’d brake just a bit earlier. Should have done so for the first square left that we came to as we nearly ended up off the far side there, but got it back together and carried on. It was still good fun, but I could feel that it wasn’t as quick as before as I definitely needed to brake a bit earlier and take a little more care into corners as the front was just pushing where I wouldn’t expect it. When we got to the jump…. I couldn’t remember what gear I was in before, or the revs! Gordon had just overtaken us and he braked a fair bit for it, so I took that as a cue and hit it reasonably well. The back went very light (it felt high, probably didn’t even lift off), and off we went once more. The rest of the stage was just a blur for me. No really bad errors, just being careful on the few ‘cares’ that were marked, mostly at the end of faster sections, although there are a couple of places where there are logs, rocks or badly-placed culverts which would mean game over. Near the very end there were some people riding on the edge of the stage and up on the grass on motorbikes, going WD, which I thought was bloody stupid, but we got to the end OK. I think we’d seen 3 cars off during this stage (all with OK notices), but I was mostly concentrating on making sure we didn’t join them.

We’d done the stages.

Time to go back to service, which was straightforward, and made sure we got a good jetwash from the Karcher boys, and then spoke to James from Motorsports News and some other reporters, which was splendid. Into service, there was just enough time to remove the WRC tracker and hand it in at the out control (10 minutes isn’t long when you only have the two of you to do all that), and then it was off to Cardiff, which handily had a nice long section time and no traffic, meaning we got there with about 15 minutes to spare, so we got out and had a chat with everyone around us.

It was a pity not to see Nathan make it to the finish, we’ve not seen what happened to him yet. Everyone else seemed pleased to be there, with cars in various states of disrepair. The Turkish womens’ Fiesta was immaculate – showroom in every respect. The skoda probably would have done if I’d made a better job of the paint on the bumpers, and didn’t have a cracked windscreen. Jocius’ evo looked…. well, I didn’t see a single part on it that wasn’t damaged in some way or another! We booked in, meaning we were almost there, and then I took the time to look around at the other cars, having signed someone’s COAT (this is a step up from paper stuff), and also a photo of N158UBD on WRGB 06, which was special!

Obviously results and times don’t really concern us. As anyone who reads this will probably know, I’m just a normal bloke who loved the idea of doing rallying. I’ve never claimed to be anything special behind the wheel, and I proved that the first time I did a forest event, and was going to give up (thanks to Steve Colville for not letting that happen). I’m much better than I was, but I don’t have any delusions of adequacy. So looking at results generally isn’t a great idea unless there’s someone in a similar position (on the Sunseeker we have the Beckett brothers to swap times with, and last year Dey Roy was about the same speed as us). So I had NO idea what had been going on, aside from Paul finding out during road sections that Loeb and Latvala had been having a really close run. I had no idea really about Mikko’s roll, or that Ogier had also rolled, so it was a surprise to hear it, and even more so when we looked at the car – aside from a bit of a ripple in the roof and some gaffa tape for the top windsceen seal, the car looked mint. What it must be to have a service crew and budget that can allow that sort of miracle! The rest of his car was a feast for the car junkie, and I took note of the nets that were in the sides at the back as I’ve always wondered where they magic their coats up from when they have to sit in a forest for a couple of hours.

We had a LONG wait for our place on the podium, so had a good chat and swapped stories with the Army boys and thanked them for the toolbox lid that had definitely got us to the end as the tankguard. Our tax ? well spent, I think.

We were last but one onto the podium, but there was still a fair sized crowd there, and I got out to give them a round of applause as their support can keep you going when you’re really tired. Which I was. This was helped greatly by being handed a box with an award in for Class A5, Wales Rally GB 2008. It’s like the last award, so it’s a thing of beauty both mentally for me and physically. A quick chat on the PA, thanking everyone for their support, and then off to Parc Ferme, where the cars have to be (untouched) in case of any protests or technical infringements. This happens in the millennium stadium, so it was easy to find and we got a finisher’s award each here too. Once we drove into the stadium (for the last time) it was empty aside from several million quid’s worth of WRC cars, and a few lesser beasts, and a little Skoda now.

We parked up, I took a bunch of pictures and Paul headed off to get the release document we’d need to get the car out later on (parc Ferme is closed until the results are final, a predicted time of 7pm and it was now 5pm). I took the last opportunity I’d have to get close to some WRC cars in the quiet and simultaneously marvelled at the engineering (Mikko’s car was nearly all carbon fibre, and was a masterpiece of engineering) and realised that such expense and specialisation is the exact reason the WRC is where it is today (this isn’t a good thing in my opinion).

We hailed a taxi to get the recce car (which handily had been parked in a housing estate in cardiff by a good, good friend of ours earlier on), and Paul drove us back to Swansea to pick up the van and trailer. It was funny as the recce car is obviously just a standard Felicia, which isn’t the most refined of cars – compared to my Focus it’s in another generation, and Paul’s just picked up a new 320D (the day before we left, in fact), which is another generation ahead again. But compared to the 5000rpm crusing of the rally car (if you want to simulate it, just leave your car in third gear on the motorway, you’ll be about right) it seemed refined and calm, even with the sumpguard bashing on the exhaust whenever you back off the throttle.

We collected the van and trailer from the service park, which was already almost totally deserted, and parked up at the J33 services, and Paul dropped me off at the stadium to pick up the car. I was hoping for a bit more of a look at the WRC cars, but most were already heading out, so I got the camera on and videoed them leaving – they sounded amazing, and were being driven quite…exuberantly. So much so that whoever was driving the Mikkomobile nearly hit the back of Wilson’s when he stopped!

In Parc Ferme there were now only about 5 cars left – Rossi’s was being trailered, Tony Jardine’s and a couple of the Turkish Fiestas, and the Skoda. I got in, started it up for the last time and headed out. Still had a few poeple taking snaps of the car as I went, and somebody decided to race me on a roundabout, so I le them go – no point in ruining an otherwise good day! The drive home was long and slow as it was very foggy, and as I got in I was nearly asleep, hence this being posted on Monday. As I type this, it’s MOnday morning, I have the van and trailer outside on the road, and the class award on the table to the left of me. I still didn’t sleep well last night because I am still hyper about it. 5 months of hard work has paid off. I have built a car which completed Rally GB (so maybe I can add the original build time and make it 10 months?), and had a good time in the process. It’s sad that it’s the last time I’ll be able to do it, but right now I’m not going to think about that, just got to unload, clean up and return the van today, and then work tonight!

I don’t want this to turn into the oscars, but I would like to say a few thank-yous:

Paul – for being a good mate, being a bloody good navigator and also the foil to all my dodgy personality traits. I’m never sure if he thinks finishing this is an achievement, but hopefully he does, and realises how much he’s made it happen. His positive nature when things have gone wrong (like the first engine blowing up) has helped me get on with it rather than thinking it’d all gone down the pan.
Ian – service crew and all round top bloke. He was a star on the way to Banjul, and the same in Swansea.
The marshals – There are HUNDREDS of these people who give their time to allow motorsport to happen – for many of them this is their participation in the sport (some compete, some don’t), and they are always a pleasure to speak to. This year many of them have been reading this (and a couple telling me off for not getting Saturday’s blog up before they went to bed!), and I’d like to thank each of them for all the work they put in. Without them the rally would not only not run, but even if it did it wouldn’t be as much fun. At no point has anyone who has marshalled made us feel like also-rans or no hopers (i’m always expecting someone to come out and just go, “come on, Jones, the games’s up. Go home!”, quite the opposite in fact. Sorry if I forgot everyone’s names (in fact I don’t know most of them), as well, and I hope that none of my comments are misdirected as being anti-anyone (aside from whoever decided the road section timings after the changes to Friday’s stages – they were too short given the conditions, in my opinion, and even that’s not anti-THEM, just that I feel they made an error of judgement, but I know I’m not privy to the whole process, and it was a difficult situation)
My friends who have supported me by saying “Chin up” or it’ll be OK when everything’s been going wrong, particularly Julie – I didn’t believe you were right until Sunday afternoon, but you were.
Finally, my Mum. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I know you shouldn’t mention a woman’s age, but she is 70 years old, and how many women of that age would help with changing a gearbox? She has done, amongst many other things – fitting engines (putting crucial bolts in while I’m holding everything in place), etc.,etc.,etc. Whenever I’ve been too pushed for time to get things sorted or bought, all I’ve needed to do is leave a list, and by the time I get back from work, it’s been done. She even took the time to go into Kwik Fit to sound them out about fitting the rally car tyres and took the mickey as they said the tyres “would break the machine”.

So, where now? I have no idea. Rally GB 2009 isn’t an option because we’d need a HANS device each, new helmets and possibly new seats. I can see a time where National A rallies will also require them, but at present that would mean an extra ?1000+ each just to do Rally GB, and it’s a real strain to do it anyway, financially. It’s a pity as the Skoda still has 2 years of homologation left on it, but there you go. At the moment I’ve got a car that needs:

Suspension
Tank Guard
Windscreen
Clutch
Engine Rebuild
and a bunch of other little things!

One last thing for today: There have been 4000 people a day reading this. I’m honoured, I hope it’s been interesting, and I’ll put up pictures and videos later on, just thought I’d post this now while WRGB 2008 is still fresh in people’s minds.