Skoda Rally Blog

Another bad night’s sleep, and then time to go get the car. I’d been outside to get the now dried mud off of my race suit (and gave up with the jacket I’d put down when putting the tank guard back on before Walters) and it didn’t seem that cold. But it was – the car was iced up solid, which didn’t bode well as Resolfen had been icy already. When we got to Parc Ferme most of the cars had already gone, with only one left to go after us. The car was iced up, but started on the button, and I warmed it up during the 10 minutes we had before checking out of the Parc Ferme area – de-icing the windows and so on before leaving for the service in control. Morning service is just a quick affair, really enough to pack the car and get going, so we put in the camera and food and so on, and then it was time to go.

We needed to put fuel in on the way out, which was done, and then off to Resolfen, which is fairly local. The road section took longer than it should have done as there were several really slow people on the road, and we got there with only 25 seconds before our due time – Paul had already got everything ready, so we were in and ready to go fairly quickly – not enough time to run the camera or anything like that, alas. I was relived when I asked one of the start marshals and he said there was no ice in there as he’d broken it all up with a JCB the night before and it had all melted. Good news indeed. Off we went into the stage, and soon I remembered why I spend months spending all my spare time and money getting the car ready for this – the magical feeling of driving through the forests. Granted, we’re not going at the pace of Latvala or Loeb, but we’re going quick enough for it to be good fun. Finally it was a chance to see how the car really went, and it went pretty well – the close ratio box transforms the car, meaning you’re always in the right gear, and once I’d got the hang of it, I was taking corners a gear higher than I was before, which was good but meant a bit of a re-calculation in places.

Because of the super-rally rules, we have a number of people who are miles quicker than us starting behind us today – and today’s unlucky chap was car 83, an R3 clio. Who was quick. Quick enough to have caught us by the square right across the open section (maybe 1/4 way into the stage), but handily where we could move across and let him go without too much loss for either of us. The next bit of the stage is fairly quick, and he was miles quicker than us, and disappeared fairly quickly. But we were going OK, and the stage was fairly smooth for the most part and the notes were working well – I think the extra details I’d put in were really helping, rather than leaving everything as visually done, calling each corner meant more confidence in what was going to happen, and a slightly higher speed as a result. By the time we got to the top of the stage, we’d already re-passed car 83 as he looked to be changing a wheel, and then it was time to see if the JCB man had been good to his word and really cleared the ice.

He had – the 600 yard run uphill was now a flat out thrash, and the crowds up here were really big – I guess people were making the most of the sun, and we managed to at least be giving it some beans in fourth by the left turn at the end. There’s then a section which has some 1 and 2 corners and goes downhill, and is really quick. Quick enough for the car to be on the power in 5th, which is probably as quick as we’ve ever been, and it seemed weird to need to put it down 3 gears to make the next corner! After this there was a more shaded section which I took easy as it could still be a bit icy, but it wasn’t bad at all, and then into the quarry section where you can probably really give it heaps if you have balls of steel. Mine aren’t, so I was only giving it a couple of beans, but we were still flat in fourht in places, which was quick enough. The final section of the stage is much tighter (and new for this year), and mostly went well aside from some sections that were into the sun with the track in the shade, meaning I couldn’t see what was happening. Rather than crash I took it easy, or put one hand to block the sun, but given my car control it was probably a stupid thing to do… but it worked for the most part. The end of the stage came up after car 91 had passed us (although I thought our car was knackered afterwards as there was a smell of oil, but it wasn’t us), and stupidly I went through the water splash after the flying finish… meaning we were completely steamed up at the end and on the road section, neccessitating a wipe of the screen which would come back to haunt us later.

The road section to Halfway is pretty long, and took us through some scenic countryside, but with some roads that were quite hard to keep the speed up safely – there were a couple of dodgy moments with others coming the other way, but all good in the end, and we got to the stage with 8 minutes to spare, so I got out, had a stretch and took some photos. The driver of car 83 came over to thank me for moving over, and I told him we’d get out of his way as soon as it was safe every time he caught us… which would be on every stage! From here Halfway looked good – dry and sunny – so hopefully the run through would be OK throughout.

The first part of Halfway is open land, with fast, flowing tracks, but a few surprises for the unwary – there are boulders on the edge that even clipping would mean end of rally, and hitting them hard would mean end of car. Some are in odd places when running this way round, so I made sure that I didn’t hit them! As ever, 83 caught us fairly quickly, and I gave him space as I didn’t want any more damage to the windscreen – he was chucking up a bunch of stones as he went by, and the star crack in our screen was growing slowly, but seemed OK at the mo.

The second half of halfway is a more traditional forest stage, with quite a few dropoffs but a lovely stage overall. It had cut up in places, but most of it was good. What wasn’t good was the sun – where the stage was in the shade, again, we couldn’t see much, and where I’d wiped the screen after steaming up had made visibility a lot worse. I’m sure I looked really cautious to spectators in these places as we had to take it easy, but I’d rather than than totalling the car. Where it was good, though it was really good fun – the calls were coming well, and the last section which is quite quick was again taken in 5th gear in places and 4th in all the rest. Good fun, and once more I remembered why I’d made all the effort. In places the hits were hard and the front end was bottoming out with massive bangs reverberating through the shell, but most of it was good. I’d forgotten the little bridge at the bottom of the stage towards the end, and it was funny seeing how many birds were in the stage tracks – I guess the worms are getting dug up and they’re having a meal!

There was no time to do anything as we were off to Crychan straight away, and into the stage, which we were told was a bit icy in places, and it certainly was. We moved off line to let 83 through, and nearly lost it as it was very slippy off-line, but I carried on, agian with some issues with icy sections, and also the sun being a problem in the tighter areas – I was getting a bit used to driving one-handed, just wished I could do it as well as Richard Burns does! The end of the stage seemed to come up very quickly, which was quite a surprise. There’s a long section of forest track to take down to the road, and near the end we saw Jamie Smith’s Impreza with the bonnet up, looking like he’d hit something, but we didn’t have time to stop and ask or help, alas – the road section back to service was tight for time, and being held up by traffic didn’t help matters. We had to stop for fuel as suddenly it seemed to be losing a lot, and I thought we might have a leak. I looked underneath to find…. NO TANKGUARD! It was completely gone! The tank looked OK, though, so we fuelled up and went. I got Paul to call Ian to see if he could get hold of some metal sheet or plastic to make something up and gave him some rough dimensions.

We got to service with a couple of minutes to spare, and went through the usual routine of being jetwashed off, moving to near the arrival control and then chatting to various people, including James from Motorsports News to find out what had been going on as much as anything…. and then into service. We found Ian had not only set up the gazebo and service area perfectly, but had a SELECTION of items to make a tankguard out of that he’d scavenged. There was one (a metal panel, from an army box) which couldn’t have been more ideal if it had been measured and cut to size. Within 10 minutes we’d put some bends into it to put it over the exhaust, drilled holes for cable-tie mountings and bent the front edge up to avoid catching the rocks. Perfect. The rest of service was routine as the car was running OK, aside from needing a LITRE of oil, which worried me, but no time to think too much about it, time to go. Big thanks to the Armed Forces Rally team for their generosity on this part.

The run out to Resolfen 2 was difficult because the time was tight, we needed fuel and the station was busy, but we made the best we could of it, and got to the stage arrival with 20 seconds to spare, long enough to get helmeted up and in in time, and then we were into the stage quickly. Once more it was a good run, although a LOT more cut up than before, and we got caught by car 83 in the same place again. Previously on this stage I’ve always bent front wheels by heavy rocks in a certain section, and we made it through here without damage. A couple of pages in the notes further on, I just thought “Yes! We’ve made it without bending a wheel” when BANG….we did it again. The characteristic Bang Bang Bang Bang was there again, and after a quick check of how far to go we decided to keep going rather than lose 6 minutes in the stage changing the wheel. Usually the banging gets less (and indeed drops to nothing after a while), but this must have been a big one as it didn’t get that much less all the way round. I don’t think we went as well as before as the cut-up state of the stage and me thinking “we might make it to Cardiff” was coming into play. We got caught by #84 (the female Turkish Crew), but no-one else. Again the sun was a problem in places towards the end, but this time I didn’t steam us up when we came out. We made it out to the road and then changed the wheel, which was AGAIN the left front – every single time it has been, so maybe there is something to the old thing about always hitting the navigator’s side of the car!

Off to halfway with the long road section, and got there with a couple of minutes to spare. The stage run started out OK, but with the cut-up nature of it it was tougher in places (albeit nothing like Myherin!). 83 made his way past a bit earlier this time, and then we were across Dixies. I decided to give it a bit more on the way down from here, and couldn’t avoid a pothole on the left and BANG! I’d done another wheel….. no time to stop, and again it wasn’t getting any quieter as we went, so we just kept on with it. The stage had cut up in places more than I expected, and there were a few moments on the way down to the bridge, but mostly it went well, and still the end section was good with the 1 and 2 corners taken in 4th and 5th.

No time to change the wheel, it was off to Crychan 2. It was starting to feel cold and nasty again, with some fog here and there, and we needed the pod lamps on as we went. We got caught by 83 and let him past on what looked like a decent section, and it was icy and slippy, and we nearly stuck it in a ditch as a result! Even when on line here it was slippy – it’s amazing that when you’re at speed it seems OK, but as soon as you’re going slower it seems more dangerous than when you’re going quickly. Relatively speaking. The rest of the stage was good, but there were several “moments” as there were some sections that seemed to be icing up a fair bit, and I wanted to get to the end, which was done after what seemed like a much longer time than before. The wheel was still banging like hell as we came to the end of the stage, and had to get going quickly, fuelling up in the same place and then needing to really thrash it to get to Cardiff in time – so much so that we didn’t have time to change the wheel before the regroup before the millennium stadium.

We were told by the CLO that we couldn’t change the wheel while in regroup, so we had to leave it, and went inside for some free drinks, use of the loo and watching some of the other cars do the millennium stage. Some of them were giving it heaps (Gassner Jr in particular), others were taking it a bit easier, but soon enough we had to go and give it a go. I set the camera ready to record, but it was playing up and there was no time to sort it out – we were in and ready to go. As we set off… BANG BANG BANG as we went, and then jumped into the Stadium which was dark and really atmospheric. On the first lap as soon as we turned right I felt a problem – the left front obviously got pushed off the rim and started to go flat, so it was a bit dodgy on the right turn (fortunately only one a lap), and the rest was just good fun, and I tried to get it a bit sideways on the turn by the arch – I nearly did on the last lap at the flying finish. The stop control is inside the stadium and they big you up to the crowd. I was pleased to see a LOT of people there (way more than in 06), and even more so to hear them clapping, so I gave them a clap in return – many thanks to everyone who did that.

Then we were off again, but needed to change the wheel, which was done in the street just outside. It took a while (during which I managed to give myself a massive blood blister), and it wasn’t helped by some wise-acre giving it the “you’d be no good in F1” routine as it took about 4 minutes to change – a massive crowd had gathered by this time too. But then I doubt they do it with hand tools and a Skoda jack….

The road section back to service was done in good time, without needing to fuel as the car cruises so well and uses little fuel, so we made it with minutes to spare (which was nice), but it did involve taking a few liberties as the town was rammed and the times were very tight. We then had a nice relaxed service – Ian taking care of the few things that needed doing, having a really nice chat with three young guys who wanted to get started, and seeing that both wheels had been REALLY heavily dented – both are completely scrap as the dents are about 5 inches across (being flat now instead of curved) and we finished service early, and booked into Parc Ferme. My car was in the same row as Loeb’s car (which looks fantastic close up – it’s crazily trick), but we didn’t get a pic of both cars in the same shot, so had to settle with me looking like a moron posing with it instead.

So, day 2, done. But apparently it’ll be -5 degrees tomorrow. This will be TRICKY.