Skoda Rally Blog

Well, this was a bit of a strange one. Firstly, the event was moved from the relative nearness of Newton Abbot to Newquay, which is around 160 miles away from my house. Which means about a 4 hour drive, and in the gas-guzzling beast that is the diesel pajero, about ?110 of fuel. Oh dear. That, and hiring a trailer means that it’d cost me ?200 just to turn up. Add in ?300 entry fee, and ?88 to stay at Hendra holiday camp, and ?50 of fuel, and suddenly it’s not such a cheap weekend. We will not speak of this again…..

So, got to Hendra pretty quickly (3h 27m), and it was a lovely day. Paul was off in Hong Kong, doing passport things, so that meant I needed a nav, as mentioned before. So I met Chris for the second time ever at Hendra, and then off we trotted to scrutineering, which went well – we managed to get done before it had even officially opened, and documentation too. So we were all set. An evening out in the normally rammed Newquay was odd enough, as it was like a ghost town, and I got the biggest mixed grill I’ve ever seen (seriously – I didn’t eat the next day!), and then off to bed. We got to the start a little early (well, 1h 45m early!), and stood around while everyone else turned up, and indeed left – we were near the back, and most of the field had already gone before we even needed to start the car up.

We’d seen one of the BMWs come back after going, and then head left, then right, then zoom off again, and wondered why. Turned out it was ‘cos there was a bit of confusion over the tulips, although really it was just our rally nerves – if you read the distance between one instruction and the next, it’s pretty obvious where you have to go. By this time it was raining heavily, so stage one was a bit slippy, and not too fast. SS2 was a rerun, and I went a bit quicker, although the vagueness of the maps made it hard for Chris to call, but we got to the end OK, despite seeing an impreza already out (and slowing so as not to hit him!). SS3 and SS4 were just over the way, and a bit more tricky – the first part was OK, but there was a run at the end over some black, loamy soil, and two cars had already fallen victim there, maybe one in sympathy of the other. It was quite slippy, but really not too bad – the stages were as smooth as promised, and with some confidence (lacking, for sure) would have been quick & fun. SS5 went OK, and then a long run down to SS6 and SS7 – a 30 mile road section in the pouring rain. These stages were tough – the calling was hard, but the ground harder – like a volcanic landscape. Really tough on the tyres, etc, and we got caught both times. The end featured a long straight and flying finish, and then a 90 left almost straight after. First time I said “you’d have to be brave/mental to do that flat out”, and second time the 205 that just passed us showed I was right! He was in the bushes having not made it round the corner, but he did it OK. Worth seeing, that.

Then, service, a full hour to wonder around and check out what others were up to. Steve Colville’s new car (clio with R5 turbo engine) had a problem – the steering column had come un-welded leaving him with “a bit of play” in the steering! Thanks to Ant Wilmo’s service crew, that was welded up ASAP, and off he went, as did we. Here’s his car…..

SS8 was tough, particularly as we had driven past another car that had gone off without seeing them – this was the cause of some concern for us, but thankfully the crew were OK after being checked over in the hospital. It sounds unbelievable, but even second time past it was hard to see where the car was.

Then things got better from SS10 onwards. The sun came out, and the drying stages meant that at long bloody last I could drive again and get a bit of confidence. Things got better as we went on, and I really started enjoying it, and even had a few sideways moments (one in front of a cameraman).

The last service of the day (well, I say service, basically we didn’t do anything as we filled the car up in the morning and left it all day!) preceded the two last stages which were dark enough to need lights on. Saw the crew from the BDCC who were manning this stage (as they were on SS1 and 2), and went better, it would seem. The last stage of the day was a half-rerun of one of the earlier ones, and meant we got a good run at it. We’d been told the finish was slippy, but it wasn’t bad at all, and overall had a good time. Chris seemed to be converted to doing forest events in the future, so that’s a plus too. Now onto the Tempest……