Skoda Rally Blog

Well, I just about got the car finished – there were a couple of things to do this morning (one of which was ‘cut your thumb open with a holesaw’ – not on the list, but I did it anyway), and got to the service area around 9. There were already quite a few cars and crew there, and the first thing we noticed was….. It was bitterly cold! Hideously so – just putting the tarp out was a challenge, and then we had to run down to get the stickers for the car. There were quite a few of them, and the door stickers are over a foot square. Needless to say, Paul didn’t make light work of this, and I had to take over as “big sticker boy”. But we got ’em on, and got noise tested (a HUGE 82dB!), and then off to Littledown for scrutineering – always the most nervous part of any rally for me, and even more so as at the Sunseeker, it’s inside a leisure centre, so everything is on show, and it seems really official.

Needn’t have worried, everything was in order, and after about 10 minutes we were pushed back outside so we could get on with our documentation, which was also in perfect order.

However, on the way back to my house, I noticed a knocking sound, which was getting louder, so would some attention. Turned out that the front brake caliper bolts don’t have enough thread on them, and it was a little loose, and also the left-side driveshaft had a bit of play in the inner joint. It would probably be OK, but I thought I’d change it anyway. Once this was done, it then turned out that the terratrip would only work when turning right. Half an hour later, I was still scratching my head – no problems with the wire when not fixed to the car, but when on, it was doing the same. However, it was too late to worry about that. We’re first car off, so we should be leaving service around 6:31, and on stage around 7:01 and 7:25. Let’s hope my nightmare of a week ago doesn’t come true!