Skoda Rally Blog

After not a lot of sleep (woke up at 4:30, and didn’t get a lot after that), we headed off to service, got there just after the top kiddies were leaving (saw Petter Solberg drive by), and got everything ready to go, again with various things that we’d forgotten to do, such as charger for the tracker that Paul is using (Memory Map), harness adjustments, tool bag, etc., etc and then it was nearly time to go – a couple of hours flies by when you’re panicking! Just had time to get a hot dog in, and saw Tony “everywhere” Jardine in the loos, and then off we went. Trundled off to the start, and went through the fun of tyre marking, which is always a pain when you’ve got two and have to get them out to mark them. In the pouring rain. And off to Stage 1, Port Talbot. We got there in good time, and found a huge queue in the dense fog. And with good reason – the stage had been stopped due to a car hitting a spectator (although there was the usual chinese whispers routine as we heard this that and the other had happened). Behind us was the BF Goodridge tyre techs, taking the temperature of the ground, etc. Which reminded me to check (and reduce) my tyre pressures, so there would be some hope of getting through the next stage. We found out there was a 3-minute gap to the Land Rovers, which while not ideal at least meant some chance of getting a decent run in before being swamped. And eventually had to book in at SS1, and then turn round and run through non-competitively from a junction half way through to the next stage. During this run, I noticed a horrible rattle from the front end, due to low speed, lack of revs and no helmet, and once we got to the end (with several cars off here and there) we took a look and found that it was the spherical top mounts, so hopefully they’d just rattle and not break up (they were brand new, after all), and headed off for SS2, Resolfen. Due to the break from the stoppage, there was another delay while the course was re-checked, and then finally WRGB 2007 actually started for us. It was quite foggy and very slippy, and there were quite a few places where it was difficult to see more than 50 yards in front of the car – oddly it was the open spaces where the fog was, and between the trees it was clearer. The stage was very, VERY rough, and there were quite a few “OOOOH” moments where we hit things and got away with it, but the car wasn’t running well – it wouldn’t rev out above 6k, meaning it was a bit gutless, but I think this was from it having sat so long in various queues, and it got better as we got on. I took the corner where we damaged the wheel very carefully, and then got caught by the lead Land Rover, and let him pass. And then BANG BANG BANG…. just like last year, another damaged wheel. However, we were going OK and there was nowhere to stop, so I thought I’d roll the dice and keep going rather than lose 5 minutes changing it in the middle of the stage, ‘cos I figured that steel would win against aluminium, and the noise got less and less as we went on, so it seemed to be paying off. The latter part of the stage went well, relatively speaking, and we seemed to put in a decent time, beating a few people on the board at the end, which was a real boost. By the time of the road section the knocking noise was almost gone, so I though it best to leave it on for the next stage.

Stage 3 was Rheola, and again it was wet and foggy, with patches of near zero visibility, and it was either hideously rough or treacherously slippy – all the points where we’d marked “hole”, “rough” or “slippy” were 10 times as much, but it was good to finally be giving it some beans, and the car was running a bit better, but mostly 2nd and 3rd gear, as the engine runs high enough for it to be fun. The intercom had given up, so Paul was just saying the calls loudly and I could hear him just fine. The jump in the arena section was quite a surprise, as I’d not noted how sharp it was and did a bit too quickly and came down with a bang. Again we got caught fairly quickly by the first Land Rover but the second one didn’t catch us until just after the flying finish.

The road section was a breeze, with the usual chocolate and a banana, plus some nice water from the quality Tesco water bottles. Service was fairly simple, ‘cos the car was actually all OK. Didn’t change tyres or anything, just put the light pod on, as it was chucking it down and there seemed no point in changing things just for the sake of it. And off we went to Stage 4, which was the first re-run of Port Talbot. We dived in for petrol (having been cut up by someone who was determined to get to the petrol before us, so thanks for that), and found several others with us, which was a surprise. What was more of a surprise was that the M4 was solid with traffic due to an accident (well, 2), meaning that we were very, VERY late to the stage, and ended up running it non-competitively, which wasn’t great, but it was incredibly foggy and dark, which isn’t a good combination. What’s a very bad combination is being told that you’re short-cutting part of the stage and not being told what you’re missing out, and having your section time reduced by 15 minutes. And then to compound this, not being directed by marshals at “new” junctions on stage, meaning that you get lost, and also end up in amongst the land rovers (who were directed correctly by the marshals, making up 5 minutes or more as a result). This meant that the rest of the stage and then the road section had to be driven very quickly, which I really don’t think is a good way to carry on. It’s also not good having to do this in bad conditions with no notes, and there were several hard hits in ruts and so on where it would have been easy to break the car and be out of the event. We arrived late at SS5 only to find that it, too, would be run in the same way, although the re-direction was much, MUCH better done, clearly explained and very nicely indicated by the marshals meaning it was no problem. What was a problem, though, was the time – again 15 minutes had been removed from the time, and we were not hanging about, and yet still we didn’t make it to the regroup control in time; the problem with this is that we have no idea whether we have to keep to the times or not, and I’m surprised no-one had an accident as a result. Another problem was that we saw several foreign crews’ cars on the stage having broken down or crashed earlier, with people still in the car and no SOS or OK board out; we stopped for each of them to be told they were OK, but they should have put the sign out. All the UK crews we saw were doing it right, and it was a pity to see Jamie Smith out.

Another short road section to SS6, and this was actually being run, but we were in the middle of the Land Rovers, which was ‘interesting’, but the stage was quite treacherous – much more damage to it than before, but also more slippy as well, and the fog was very patchy – it was either not there at all, or solid with almost zero visibility. That made it very hairy as you’d suddenly see nothing and then see OK again. Despite the rain and the cold and the late hour, there were still plenty of people about on the stage, some waving us on, and the stage went OK where the visibility was good, but towards the end, disaster struck – suddenly the car got very, very loud, and I suspected a broken exhaust. However, it’s probably not that much louder than many people’s cars, and we carried on; we got caught by one Land Rover, but no-one else; the end of the stage went fairly well so I wasn’t too displeased, especially given the horrible state of the stage – in places it was more like being on the moon than anything else. Got to the end of the stage OK, and then a loud road section including a stop for fuel and to discover that the tailpipe was missing – the horrendous state of the stages had claimed part of the car, and unfortunately not one I have a spare of. We made it back into service in time, and while waiting to check in, traded horror stories with the others; quite a few had tales of crushed tanks, broken cars and horrendous damage (some of which we’d seen evidence of), and we checked in and then off to service, which was mostly routine – check levels, remove the lamp pod, check the wheels (the tyres had worn very little, surprisingly, so I’ve elected to leave them on for tomorrow morning), and to work out what to do with the exhaust. Although I still think it would pass noise test, I’m worried that we’ll get stopped, and I’d be devastated as it’s such a small thing – with a 2″ piece of tube and a small silencer and 15 minutes with the welder, we’d be back in business, but I can’t see that happening at the moment. We’ve mapped where all the local likely places are, so we’ll be knocking on their doors early tomorrow morning as we’ve planned what to fit to the car, and we’ll take it from there. There’s only a 10-minute service on the car, so there’s not a lot of time, but obviously we can work on the part away from the car, and have a good idea of what to fit. Hopefully it’ll work out, but I have a feeling this could be game over. Disaster.