Skoda Rally Blog

This year’s schedule is a lot easier than previous years, meaning that we were only had 3 “local” stages to recce, and then Cardiff. I’d not realised the length of some of them – 30km, 27km and 20km for Resolfen, Rheola and Port Talbot. Rheola is the same as last year, whereas Resolfen was longer, and Port Talbot in reverse. The stage wouldn’t open until 10:30, and we got there a bit early to find a short queue waiting, and they started the cars going in in groups of 5. One of the marshals gave me news that I wasn’t too keen on – they’d been told that it was actually more treacherous than Myherin was yesterday, and that most of it was very icy; there was one section where people were apparently unable to get up as it was snow that had melted and re-frozen and was just ice. He said “you’ll be OK in a 4WD” and then looked at the car as I did. “Have you got knobblies on?” – fortunately the answer was yes, but I wasn’t feeling that confident now! I walked about a bit on the road and it seemed reasonably grippy, despite being icy. Maybe it’d be OK, and they were just chinese whispers.

Off we went in a group of 5 cars, with us in the middle of them. Although most of the first part of the stage was in the shade, the grip seemed OK, and we made decent progress. Where it was in the sun it had melted and the grip was just fine, and this was a lot better. A bit into the stage there were a few slippy moments but it was still all OK really, until we got to something that always worries me – three people stood near a corner, which obviously meant there was some chance of a problem. And there was – zero grip, it was very icy, and a touch of the brakes stalled the engine and I couldn’t restart it. We yawed to a halt, fortunately without hitting anything, and I got going again, and the car behind seemed either to make the same mistake or just to decide to take the line we were on, so I got out of the way. From then on it seemed OK, and I just took it reasonably carefully in the places that looked bad. No more dramas, and a happy crew. Well, until I went over a big stone and beat the sumpguard in – result, one vibey car!

We came round a 3 right and saw the car in front of us had stopped, and had a big queue in front of it. Clearly there was a problem, so we pulled up, and got out. The guy in front (from car 69) was making sliding about gestures with his feet, which was about right – what we’d been driving on was really, really slippy and yet it’d seemed OK in the car at the time. While we were waiting I took the opportunity to get out of the car and have a stretch and take a picture or two while Paul put “Pacific State” by 808 state on the ipod, and this was really surreal, but unfortunately didn’t last long, we were off again.

Strangely there didn’t seem to be any reason here for the delay (I was expecting either the previously mentioned sheet of woe) and we just went on our way.

The top of Resolfen is a plateau which is quite exposed, and the track makes its way around most of it. This was sunny, clear and still, and I wasn’t expecting what happened next – there were quite a few cars here, and the only other car we’d seen which was in “our league”, a G-reg Peugeot 309, pulling into the traffic, where it was a 600 yard or so straight, with a slight incline, and I mean SLIGHT! As soon as we were on it, I thought there was trouble afoot, and there was – the 309 seemed to be slowing a lot, and so did we. The Skoda isn’t a grunty car by any stretch of the imagination, and it was wheelspinning all over the place. It was hard to keep even walking pace up, and the car behind us (I think Tom Cave, but not sure) got very close as clearly he had an LSD in his car (looked like a serious recce car to me), and we were unable to get going properly. I couldn’t stop to let him past and had to just worry about my progress and let him worry about his. Apologies Tom, there was nothing I could do here. It took an AGE to get up here, while a couple of 4WD cars just nipped past like there was no problem at all (there wasn’t for them, of course). Eventually we made it up the glacier and turned onto a less treacherous track. The next section of the stage was very slippy too (although not as bad), and being downhill is always a little trickier. We had an EVO a short distance behind, but there was nowhere I could stop without being in danger of getting stuck, so I kept going. He kept his distance and on one slow corner (where I’d had a bit of a slide) he was completely sideways, so he hadn’t got too much grip either.

A long descent led to the end of the familiar part of the stage (as it’s extended from last year’s route), and the new section was a mixed bag. Good beacuse it was at lower altitude and therefore not iced up solid, but some parts of it looked to be very low-grade, and will cut up like hell on the rally – they seemed more like fire breaks than forestry tracks, reminiscent of some of the crappier parts of the Sunseeker. I think the FC are getting away with charging for substandard tracks in a lot of places here today.

Eventually we got to the stage finish, and pulled over. A decision was made on something we’d talked about when we’d stopped in the queue, and that was to not re-attempt the stage. The notes we had were good enough for our purposes and I really didn’t fancy trying the ice sheet of doom again, and possibly getting stuck. If we went off then it would be the end of the recce for us, and a real nightmare. This meant we’d get to the next stage, Rheola, at just about the opening time for the non-priority drivers, and that suited us just fine. When we got there we had to wait for a bit as Mark Higgins may be back for another run, and the friendly start crew even conjured up a cup of Tea for Burley. And told us there had been no problems in the stage as well, which sounded good to me. Off we went, and this was much more like it. Yesterday and this morning dented my confidence; I’ve not driven on ice before, and it’s beyond me. But this was just gravel, with some icy patches here and there, and was great fun. The Rheola stage is being used four times, in a sense, as the Walters Arena part is being used twice on Friday as well as when it’s part of the full Rheola stage. The first part of it is great, but towards the top there’s a quarrying operation, and the road becomes something more akin to the moon than Wales. Again, I think it’s daylight robbery being charged to use this road, as it’s a pile of crap and damage central to the car, but there you go. Once this section was out the way, we dropped down again and found the start position for Walters, which was clearly marked with a crew. We took the opportunity to stop there and take stock, and then head into the arena itself. While it would be possible to drive it visually given our speed, we made notes and this year noted the jump better, as I don’t want a repeat of last year’s front-bending nose-dive. The rest of Walters is great fun, the car was sliding around and we really got into a good rhythm. I started to feel like I could actually drive again, which was good. The next section after the arena is open with a series of 1 and 2 bends, BUT a few rocks inside to catch the unwary, and then a long drop down into a tighter section of forest (where we lost the tailpipe on the car in 07), and this, too was good fun. There were a few bits that were slippy and dodgy, but most of it was grippy, and ALL of it was good fun. Making the notes seemed to be much easier this year, and more detailed too. The end came up too soon, and I couldn’t wait to go back round again for the second run.

The second run of Rheola was much, much better. Paul made some minor adjustments to lengths and a few corners, and added some detail, but we seemed to get a much better rhythm through the stage, and caught the 309 up again and passed it (they were on their first run, obviously), and had an even better time, particularly in Walters Arena. Realised I’d called the enormous right turn on the way down from there as a left, but aside from that it was good fun all the way round – we caught someone up which slowed us up a bit, but for the most part it was all good stuff. Now it was time to trot off to Port Talbot….

… which is run in reverse compared to last year. It was probably my least favourite stage previously; I’m not sure why but it never seemed ‘right’, despite being beautiful. But being in reverse could change all that. We got to the arrival and were told there was a cyclist going WD in the stage, and to look out for him, and that it was slippy where the sun hadn’t been – looked like a return to the slidy terror of every other bloody stage then….

Anyway, we set off up the road, and it seemed OK so far – and indeed I guess being in reverse meant it seemed completely different; aside from the hairpins at the beginning I couldn’t remember a lot of the stage at all until there’s a right where the outside is built up to stop you dropping off a rather large cliff, and this seemed much better this way round – the following road was uphill which is always a bit more secure, and the descent down to the bottom of the valley was much more pleasant than I remember it. Once you get to the bottom there is a small concrete bridge, which usually has (I think) railings on it. Not this year (they always get destroyed by someone anyway), so some care is needed there, but the thing I realised at this point was we were completely out of the sun, and there hadn’t been any icy death moments – in fact the whole stage had been pretty good throughout. On the way up the other side all was well, and the car was revving its little nuts off as I kept it pinned in second as it wouldn’t pull third gear. The final section of the stage is a flatter, open section which has a few clumps of trees but for the most part is exposed and quite sandy-looking. This section was a LOT better in this direction, and seemed to flow really well. The only thing I recognised was when we were coming up to reach the end of the stage, meaning that I wasn’t completely asleep, and 20k had passed really quickly.

Time for the second run, and there were “special instructions” to take you back to the stage start, which seemed pointless as they were just normal road directions; I can’t see why they’d be put there as this was the most direct route anyway (as confirmed by TomTom), but I guess I don’t know the full story. We were back there soon enough (once we’d passed a Tractor towing a trailer with a digger on, a contender for the “slowest vehicle” crown), and when I commented to the stage crew that I liked it a lot more in this direction, one guy said it was a little like NZ in places with cambered corners, and he was right – the section at the end is like this.

A quick tribute to R487 JDV, my lovely little recce Felicia. I’ve done basically NOTHING to it aside from change the camchain, and it’s done Rally GB three times – all the stages, and been beaten up. It’s never let us down, and I know it’s just a car, but it’s a bloody great one!

I got Paul to run the camera for a bit here, as we got down to the bottom of the stage by the bridge, as I thought it would be a nice memory, particularly as it’s the last stage I’ll be recceing for a while, if not ever. The rest of the run went well enough to catch up someone in an evo (who thoughtfully pulled over as we were massively quicker than them, as we were on our second run), and I really, REALLY enjoyed it. This was what I wanted to spend Friday, Saturday and Sunday doing, but obviously that’s not going to be the case, given the forecast. So I had to make the most of it, and this I did. Obviously obeying the 80kph speed limit, your FIA-ness.

Then it was off to Cardiff. This is a 45 mile drive, and we hoped we’d miss major traffic, which we did until the centre of town. In previous years there has been a massive queue for the stage, and around a 90 minute wait before doing the recce for the Stadium. Paul’s not been too happy about this, but I have always wanted to do it as (a) I’ve paid for it (b) How often do you get to drive in the Millennium Stadium (OK, 4 times now, hopefully 5 by Saturday), and (c) we have to come here anyway for Documentation so we may as well. We turned into the Stadium to find a helpful security guard, 3 marshals and …. NO QUEUE! We just drove to the start line, waited for someone to come out, and then in we went! The lighting, apparently, wasn’t exactly as it will be on Saturday, but I think that will make no odds whatsoever to us. The stage layout has changed since last year, going for a “kidney” shape instead of figure 8, for a faster experience, but there’s still a tight corner, and getting it wrong (as I so nearly did on the second lap) would mean a trip into the barriers. It was close…. but not that close. Time for a second run, and I tried a different line into that corner, which meant I’d just hit a different barrier, but it seemed a bit quicker so that’s how I’ll go on Saturday, if I’m not in a morgue. We videoed this on the camera, but it’s too big to upload from the mobile… it will follow though!

With the recce out the way, the only thing left to do was Documentation, another area where usually there’s a queue, but as there wasn’t anyone there, it was quick. And as we were amongst the first, those doing it were very chirpy (particularly the woman who did our stuff), and even tried to get us to go to the end-of-rally party, which this year is sponsored by Moet, apparently. BUt I don’t like champagne, and I predict I’ll be removing a scrap Felicia from a trailer by then, so we made our excuses and left. On the upside, we’ve been given a bunch of free stuff – some lovely notepads, some pens, and somehow they’ve managed to make the “Wales Rally GB” crew bags an even worse design than before! Attempts to get the sticker for the in-car camera drew a blank (no-one had ANY clue about this here, which seems a bit odd), so we trolled back to Swansea.

The only other update is we now don’t have all the service crew we originally had – Ali and Ian (who I met on the Plymouth-Banjul rally last Christmas) were due to do it, but Ali can’t get off work, and he’s the mechanic. Hopefully Ian will be OK – he’s a top guy and I’m sure he’ll be able to do whatever’s needed. Hope so, or I will be doing it all!