Skoda Rally Blog

A really pleasant surprise today was that the weather was good – a little chilly (but it’s February after all), but dry and bright, and not too windy. We got everything together (including all the service stuff in the boot of Kev’s car as he was running as chase car), and went to service. The front runners were already off, but we had over an hour to wait. A few things to do to the car (change tyres, move the video camera so it didn’t just see the bonnet an 10 feet of road), and check over. All looked good, so we put some fuel in, and off we went.

First up was SS3, Bere Heath, over towards Wareham forest. We sat in the queue for a while, and just before the car in front of us was pulling up to the line, I thought I saw some steam, but was relieved to see it was their exhaust vapour. Except it wasn’t. The car was overheating in a big way. The temperature gauge was only on normal, but the fan hadn’t kicked in, and it was seriously hot under there. I couldn’t believe it. Not even starting the first stage looked the only outcome. I quickly bodged the fan switch wires together, and the fan came on. Only time would tell if the engine had been cooked by this, but there was nothing to do other than take it easy for the first few hundred yards and hope it went OK.

Soon all this was forgotten as it was as rutty as I remember – on any of the corners, I was barely driving the car, it just followed the ruts. I didn’t experiment to test if you could actually let go of the wheel and the car follow the ruts, but it felt that way for sure. It was more a case of ‘grit your teeth and go for it’ than actually driving the car with any skill. The next stage, Wareham North was much the same, but twice as long. Then we had Gore Heath, somewhere I know reasonably well. The first half of the stage was as rutty as the others, but later on it was a bit better, and we could actually control where it was going, and not skid along on the sumpguard. And we also had the pleasure of seeing the gorgeous Jemma Pink at the Time Card collection at the end of the stage, which was a nice bonus for finishing it!

We got back to service to see that our times were slower than the other Skoda. Not massively so, but we were now 14 seconds behind them, and that wasn’t good enough. Paul then slipped neatly into his new role as navigator and chief motivator. The next stages were what I consider to be “proper” – i.e. the roads are strong enough to take what the cars in front have dished out, and as a result we could actually drive the car and get it sliding about going into the corners, etc. Paul was often telling me not to back off and to push, and this stage felt good. At the start of the stage we were told that a certain corner was “very very slippy”, and the course car had gone off at that point! So when we saw it, I took it a bit easy, but it didn’t seem that slippy to me or the others who I spoke to. I think they may just have over-cooked it! However, we later found out that we were still trailing the other Skoda, but by less this time. The next tstage was Ebblake, and that was good too. There was a delay at the start of stage 8, Mount Ararat, which at 10.6 miles is the second longest on the rally. And instead of checking the car over, I just stood about and had a chat. When the queue started to move, I realised the right rear was completely flat, and there was a very hurried couple of minutes for us to get the wheel changed, but we did it inside the allowed time. However, we started the stage with the intercom disconnected, and in the hurry to get it done, it came apart, and Paul had to hold it for the stage while reading the notes. This probably lost us about 15 seconds at the start, which was a pity as we were 6 seconds slower than the Becketts on this one too. But getting closer, ‘cos that’s not a lot over 10 miles.

Next up was Somerley, which is always good as the stage is varied (including a tarmac section by the house), and with good forest tracks for the most part. It was going pretty well, with Paul making sure I didn’t back off too soon, and we got some good air in a couple of places. Coming past the house there’s a 90 right, and I was going for it, and forgot that i was on forest tyres, so there was a rather big lock-up. Paul later said I was “showboating”, but I just had brain fade. The next section was fast and straight, and we got good speed up there, but there seemed to be a missing corner in the notes, and that slowed us down, and the end section was a real mess – always is here – but we took 15 seconds out of the Becketts on this stage, so that meant we were now only 10 behind them.

Back to service, just to check the car over (a marked contrast to the frenzied servicing that all the crews at the pointy end do), and then off for SS10, Gore Heath 2. Here it was much the same as before, but we went better in the latter part of the stage, but were 5 seconds slower than the first time – the ruts were unbelievable, and there were a couple of times I thought we’d not get out. On the latter part, although I took the corners better, I felt the engine wasn’t giving full power – it just seemed to be a bit gutless, although Paul was sure it was the mud slowing us down. Still, we took another 11 seconds out of the Becketts here, and were actually in front of them! Finally, I wasn’t last in the Sunseeker after some forest stages. OK, it was only 1.3 seconds, but that’s still ahead. And again, the joys of the same time card collection woman as on SS5. I got out because the car was making a horrible noise (turned out the terratrip probe had lunched itself in the wheel at some point), but alas was too busy to make conversation. Damn!

Next was Wareham, this time a reverse of the first Wareham stage, but with an extra loop added. The smoother parts of the stage went pretty well, but the cut-up sections were, well, cut up badly, and again it was ‘follow the ruts’. Took another 13 seconds out of the Becketts to move 14 seconds in front of them. This was going well!

And now it was Stapehill which was a reverse run, largely, of SS6. This went well too, getting good speed through the corners, and this year not backing off at all on the long straight up to the finish. This sounds a bit girly, but when you’re going 80-85 on gravel and going between two very sturdy gateposts, not backing off seems alien. But it actually steadies the car, and that’s a good thing. Again, made another 10 seconds on the other Skoda crew, so the lead was now 25 seconds.

Back to service once more, and put the light pod back on, as we’d need it towards the end. Unfortunately, it seemed that this morning’s overheating antics were coming home to roost. The car just seemed to be losing power – the long straights of somerley (mostly uphill this way round) meant the car just wouldn’t pull cleanly and often where I’d expect to be flat in third wouldn’t work at all, and I’d maybe be at 50% revs (no rev counter, so that’s as accurate as the figures get, alas). This was bad, and I sensed that a non-finish was on the cards. We lost 15 seconds of our lead here – we didn’t know it at the time, but I was certain of that, and we had the longest stage to go yet, Plumley Wood (basically a reversal of Mount Ararat).

The car was getting very slow now – third gear was not an option if there was any kind of incline, which meant for the most part our top speed was around 40. I couldn’t believe it – a simple 50p item was looking like it would cost us not only the coveted “not bloody last again” trophy (self made, of course), but even a finish. At several times the car just seemed to not want to go at all, and although I think my driving was getting better as the day went on, I’m not good enough to be able to lose that sort of time. We got passed by a 205GTi towards the end of the stage (he was around 3 minutes faster than us on the stage!), but by then I was just hoping the car wouldn’t die. It kept going, thankfully, but I knew we’d have lost a lot of time as there are two very long straights on this stage (again, uphill), and even just there we must have lost a lot. Turned out it was around a minute. Bye bye to any hope of a lead. Turned out we were now 47 seconds down on them.

Finally, there was Ebblake again, in reverse. This isn’t a bad stage, but there is a series of horrible, loamy corners which just grab the car when you don’t expect it, but by now it was just a case of second gear only – third was out of the question completely. Still, took a few corners well, and I was staggered that we actually got to the finish. Lost another 23 seconds here, and were now 1:10 down. But we still needed to get to the finish, in Bournemouth, so I drove as carefully and engine-preservingly as possible, and we actually made it back to the town hall, although pulling up the ramp into the car park the engine sounded really bad to me. But it did make it. We finished. We finished last, but we did finish. And if the engine hadn’t cried “enough”, then I’m certain we wouldn’t have been last. Paul seemed to have a good time, and going over the finish ramp was a good feeling, ‘cos I was certain an hour before that it’d be a cold wait in the forest before a long tow home.

A massive thanks has to go to Kevin Jackson for being our chase car this year. He was to compete with Steve Colville, but Steve couldn’t get a car in time for the event, so Kev spent the day supporting us by meeting us at the end of most stages, and checking that all was well. Fortunately there wasn’t a lot for him to do, but it’s massively appreciated.

Next year, I’m not going to be last.