Skoda Rally Blog

I guess that sometimes you think things aren’t meant to be. Last year’s trip to Caerwent was a simple affair – drive there, drive around a bit, see lots of people crash or blow their cars up, go home. However, this year’s attempts seemed harder. Lots harder. The first event in March ended up with a pulled entry due to loss of Navigator, and the second entry involved driving all of a mile and then death of car. So, despite me having done lots of road mileage and the Tempest Rallysprint, and trailering the car to the event, I was still very nervous. Not about the driving per se, but whether or not the car would pack up, embarrass me further, and mean I’d have to kill myself.

So, after a rather later night than I would have wanted (thanks Juliet!), it was time to go back to Caerwent. We got there late enough to have to park in the smaller service area, but got everything set up, the car ready, and went to the drivers’ briefing. I mention this only because it was a chance to pay our respects to Michael Park, following his tragic death a week before on the Wales Rally GB. A minute’s silence is something I’ve often observed, but it seemed particularly poignant at this event.

Off we went to stage one, and the first thing is that the scale of the maps at Caerwent means that a lot of the detail is…. er…. missing! You get an idea of where you’re going, etc, but you really need to know the place to be able to be quick right out of the box. And we were anything but. It wasn’t because of Paul, it was because there was NO GRIP WHATSOEVER! The car was all over the place – the tarmac was really slippy in places, and others OK, but there seemed to be little way of telling until you slid off the road. Had quite a few minor moments, but fortunately didn’t hit anything nasty, just the odd kerb or two, but not in a bad way. Made some notes of dodgy areas (basically the entire map!), and changed to the wets that I’d brought – although it wasn’t that wet, I thought they’d grip a bit better. And I was right – much, much better, although me missing a junction and going straight on lost us probably 30 seconds, and we ended up with a similar time to the first time out, alas.

The next few stages were a right mixture – dry, then torrential rain, and then getting progressively dryer. More and more cars went out, victims of kerbs, over-exuberance (in the case of the ex-Steve Colville Swift), or just plain bad luck (Glen Williams’ broken engine mounts leading to a stripped cambelt). There were around 100 starters, originally, and as the day went on, we moved closer to the front, although by virtue of the demise of others, I’m sad to say. Probably my worst performance as a driver as I really was lacking confidence – both in the car and in myself after the first stage. But we kept going, and went back onto dry tyres, which was the right choice until the last minutes of the stage when it rained again and it got slippy. But we stuck with the tyres and things got better for stage 6, and finally on stage 7 I got my act together and got things close to right – braking harder and later, and not screwing up in the twisty bits.

I must say I’d heard lots about “the Quarry” at Caerwent. And with good reason. It’s a really tight section, with very little visibility ahead – you have to rely on knowledge and trust your co-driver, and if you got it wrong in there it would be very messy indeed with a big kerb and buildings on the left, and a rock face on the right. But it is excellent – it really is. I’m sure I was at a snail’s pace compared to nearly everyone else, but it felt good! On the last stage, we made up two places, to finish 41st of 46 finishers. So over half the field had broken down (including the ‘big boys’ in the WRC subarus and a 6R4), and we’d beaten larger cars too. No mess, no fuss, just good fun. A long drive home, but well worth it. I’d rather do that than watch Eastenders Omnibus.

And I’ve found a navigator (and a good one too) for Newton Abbot Audi. No idea what he’s going to make of being in the Skoda at impulse speed, but there you go…….