Skoda Rally Blog

Friday was a fairly early start, but seemed earlier as I’d not slept well, waking up half the night. We drove the rally car to service, and got everything sorted out and then off out for the start of the rally proper – TC0 at 7:40am. Into tyre marking (again meeting the nice woman who did our scrutineering), and then off out onto the road section. Which was a MASSIVE 150km with a bit extra on it, with 3h23 to do it in. This might seem like a long time, but it soon got eaten up. When we turned into the stage access road we had about an hour to go, but oddly there were quite a few who were running higher up than us who were parked at the side of the road, but we thought it would be better to get on with it – we’d had a text from a friend who was running radio saying SS1 would be run non-competetively, but still would have to be booked in and out, so we pushed on. The problem with running the stage like this is that we still have to traverse it (and in this case the iciest part of it), but without any safety cover or marshals, etc. And this soon became an issue because we found on an uphill section it was really icy – not something that had been the case when we had done the recce – and we soon ground to a halt – both wheels were spinning (LSD earning its keep), but going nowhere. Nightmare.

Directly behind us was Tony Jardine who gave it a good go at getting us going and pushing us, and we did get going again, but only about 50 yards uphill before we ground to a halt again, and the land rover boys came up to tow us. Hooked on the rope. And went nowhere. All four wheels spinning, and that was BEFORE taking up the slack in the rope. He eventually got going, with some wheelspin, and stones coming out, cracking our windscreen in the process! We eventually managed to get up the hill with some pushing and being on the right part of the road. The rest of it was taken carefully as it was slick and icy in places, with a couple of unintentioanl lockups. We made the stage arrival with 7 minutes to spare, so we’d spent about 40 minutes stuck. Many others were stuck behind us, as we saw those with much lower numbers turn up. Nice to finally meet Macjam from the forum at this point too!

Then we found out the stage was definitely being run non-competetively, which might seem like a good idea, but when you’re not given any more time than before to get to the next control and you can’t wear your helmets, it’s a bit dangerous if you ask me – the stage is being run that way because it’s unsafe, surely? Anyway, we ran through, and the end was as icy as hell – it’s an uphill hairpin right, and I nearly though we wouldn’t make it, and had to take a run up at the next few bits.

On the way to the end of the original stage, there was a downhill into a hairpin right and again it was icy, with some “camera vultures” waiting for us to screw up. Which I promptly did, fortunately there was an uphill section opposite us – if it had been a drop-off we’d have been off, simple as that. Carried on to the link section between this and Sweet Lamb, and crazily the section time was LESS than before hand, despite being longer. Paul made a small error (he added the original time) so we booked in late. Personally at this point I really didn’t give a monkey’s, I was glad we were there in one piece, but he wasn’t happy about it at all as he’s not a man who makes mistakes often! So, we arrived at Sweet Lamb ready to give our first go, but even getting going on this was difficult – it was already rutted as hell, and there was next to no grip. I took it easy as there seemed no point in killing the car this early on, particularly this far away from anything like help, so I guess it was the worst stage time ever. There was one point on a hairpin turn where it was cut up and rocky and took about 20 seconds to get the car going let alone move anywhere. Still, it was done, and off we went to stage 3, Myherin.

The times for this, again, were too short – the stage start had been moved about 7km into the stage, but we only had a few minutes extra to get there. I was pushing as hard as I felt was safe, and Paul was using the notes to tell me what was coming up. There was someone coming the other way in a Golf, and we had to take care there, as he didn’t seem to care about the conditions. There was some ice here, but not as much as before – mainly at the top of the series of hairpins at the start. As we got about 4k into the ‘original’ stage we could see in the distance there was someone coming the other way with a flashing light on it, and Paul told me to be careful as we were about to go behind a rock, and lose sight of him – we’d see him coming the other way soon enough. As we got to the top of the turn, some guys flagged us down and told us there had been an accident down the road, so we took it easy as we came round the corner, and saw something I don’t think I’ll ever forget – Car 86 (A Fiesta ST) had had a head-on collision with a Land Rover Discovery, and it was not a pretty sight – the front of the Fiesta was completely destroyed, and the Land Rover similarly smashed. A real mess. The Land Rover guys were OK, but the Fiesta crew had apparently not had their belts on, and were definitely badly injured. Obviously we stopped and tried to give assistance although there were already crew on the scene, but we made sure no-one else had a problem – other crews turned up and we explained the situation etc., and waited for advice. We were there for about 40 minutes during which time the Fiesta was cut apart to get the Nav out, and the scene taped off. I’m pleased to have been told later on there were no serious lasting injuries to the crew.

We were told to go back to the road and then make our way back to the regroup to remote service in – this was about 15 miles before we’d get back on the original road route, so we did it as soon as we could, but the quite circuitous route made this difficult to do in any sensible time, but eventually we all joined up with the others who’d been held up as well, and got booked into remote service, where we were pleased to see Ian, who’d apparently been hob-nobbing with Loeb’s service crew, etc, taking pictures and all sorts. By the time we got there it was chucking it down with rain and deadly miserable. Fortunately the only thing needed to sort on the car was a loose top mounting, which we did with the assistance of car 97’s wheel nut gun and a 25mm socket I had in the car. Apart from that all was well, but now that the fear/adrenaline of the morning had worn off, I was feeling a bit hungry, but only managed to eat an apple and some chocolate before setting off again – more tyre marking and then off back out to Hafren 2, which I was surprised was still running, given this morning’s situation.

The road timing was much tighter this time so we REALLY needed to get on with it, and having a few slow people didn’t help matters, but we got on with it as much as possible, bearing in mind we were expecting trouble on the icy hill again. This time I took as much of a run-up as I dared, but it was still touch-and-go in places. Another run of the stage followed, again without helmets, and again with some dubious safety, in my opinion – OK, in the stage we would have been fine, but on the “road section” to Sweet Lamb there was not a soul to be seen, and these were the more slippy parts of it. This time we made Sweet Lamb with about 5 seconds to spare, and off we went again. It was much, MUCH worse this time – it’s a real disappointment to have been to a near-mythical stage and to have driven it in a state that doesn’t seem to be fit for a digger in a number of places. I was amazed we got through it all, but we did, and again had a slippy and too-fast “road section” on the way out to the main road. Then we did the road and again the first 7km of the original Myherin to get to the start. We went past the scene of the Fiesta accident and were flagged down to a total stop (despite having been going slowly anyway), delaying us by 20-30 seconds or so, and then having to go faster to try to get to the stage in time. We handed our time card in with 6 seconds to go, but were told we were too late. Another penalty.

Finally we were going to get a chance to run Myherin, and I was hoping the ice would have cleared up. I needn’t have worried, as the worry of ice was replaced by the stage condition being much like that of a quarry, with rocks to match. Now the stage itself would be amazing, but the roads were incredibly cut up, and very, very rocky. We did what we could and actually got into a decent rhythm in the end, even managing to give it some in 4th gear on a series of 1/2 left/right bends, and soon enough we got to the ford, which was at Junction 12. We’d been warned the water was about 2 feet deep here, so I took it a bit easy, but kept some speed up and then gunned it to get it through.

I really, really thought I’d killed the car. You can tell when an engine has taken some water in, it dies and sounds, well, wet. And it really did. I put it in neutral and revved it, but it wasn’t keen. There looked to be about 5 cars there that had died, and some helpful people pushed us a bit, but it was making no power, and took 3-4 attempts to even get moving. THey pushed, I revved, and we just about got going, and tried to get up the hill. It would only pull first, but it WAS going…. and suddenly everything disappeared as the water that had come in everywhere meant the windows steamed up. I didn’t want to stop as I thought we’d never get going so I put the windows down and loosened my straps so I could wipe the screen as it was WAY too much water for the heater to disperse. Paul couldn’t see anything so I just asked for each corner, took it and then cued the next one. We weren’t going quickly, but we WERE going. There were several more cars out at this point, all on the hill going up, so I assume the water had got the better of them too. It took about 3 miles for the windows to clear enough for us to drive normally again, and in that time we saw MANY cars off, but we were still going. Some parts of the stage were OK, some were still rough and cut up, but we went OK, and suddenly the end was upon us.

However, the end wasn’t really. The rest of the stage was now a “road section”, and we had to run this quite quickly, and it was predictably icy, slippy and deserted. We saw a couple of cars off, including one at the point where I’d nearly lost it on recce, and the exit where Loeb’s recce car went off was also VERY dodgy. It seemed to take an age to get to the road, but we did it, and then the long road section to Walters, which was difficult again. We stopped for Fuel where some nice woman pointed out that there was “something loose” under the car. Turns out it was the tank guard, but time was tight so we decided to get to Walters first, and then worry about it. We did that with 6 minutes to spare, and in that time managed to get the tank guard cable-tied back in place (it was the rear that was loose, and cable ties were the original fixing ‘method’), albeit at the cost of me becoming immensely muddy despite sacrificing my coat to the mud a la Francis Drake.

Into the stage, and the downhill section before the main stadium bit was very, VERY slippy – the back of the car seemed keen to overtake the front, and it was only after we got back to service that I found out that it was here that Chris Atkinson had had a nasty accident at the same place, so I’m glad I didn’t lose it here. The rest of it went OK, but the difference it makes being in the dark is immense – things that seemed really easy in the daytime were difficult at night, and it being floodlit meant it constantly looked as if you were being caught or overtaken. The stage went OK, but by now I wanted not to kill the car, so I didn’t go mad ove the jump (unlike last year), and when we got caught by a C2 towards the end I deliberately went wide on the last corner to let him past.

The run back round for Walters 2 was quite long, and as it took 2 minutes to get our timecards back and we only had 8 minutes anyway, we were always going to be late. It was rough and slippy (no, really!), and we were a minute late booking in again, but by now it seemed irrelevant – better to be there late than not at all. The second run was a bit better – the slippy bit aside, everything seemed to be better, although I mistook one corner for another and was surprised when it went right instead of left, but otherwise all was good.

Now, the last road section back to service, which took a quite indirect route through town, and then along the A483 into service. We got jetwashed off, and then waited for the in control, and was pleased to speak to James from Motorsport news, and also Rob who is an organiser on the Sunseeker. Found out at this point we were 50th overall. Which is incredible but obviously means we’ll be in the way of much faster crews tomorrow, which is bad for both of us and them, but we’ll see….

Just going into service we saw Mikko Hirvonen’s car which looked a real mess, and didn’t want to run too well either, but we had our own concerns. The main one in service was the clutch as the cable was adjusted too tight, and let’s just say it took replacing the cable and the refitting it to sort it. Everything else was fairly routine – oil, water, checks, and so on. The car was running well and without rattles, which was nice. Back to the service out control, and we realised we didn’t know where Parc Ferme was, but there was a Ford behind us who apparently would do. I got Paul to get out to ask them where it was. He did this saying “where’s the Parc Ferme, mate”, and he said “follow us”. Only as he walked back to the car did he realise this was Mikko Hirvonen! So we followed Mikko to Parc Ferme, and then off we went.

Day one, done.