Skoda Rally Blog

Today was the B&DCC Rally, which was originally the Three Counties Multi-Venue, but became the Single Venue at Smeatharpe. We entered it as it was still eligible for Championship points for us. There were 10 in our class (class A), and 80 runners in total – we were number 81, being first reserve. It was funny going back to Smeatharpe as it was where my first event was, and it all seemed quite different, as we were obviously a bit more experienced than the first time, and hoping to do better than last time out.

The stage layouts this time took in more of the airfield, as the service area didn’t take up one of the legs of the crossed runways, so we lined up and were ready to go. It was clear, but cold this morning, and it was pretty slippy on the first time out – grip would be there, and then go, and come back again as I braked for the chicanes, which was a little unnerving, as was being eaten alive by a fast RS2000 that was somehow down at number 74, who we met on his second lap, our first. Held on reasonably well in the corners, though, just got eaten on the straights. Second time round I decided to take the fast chicane a little tighter, and BANG! My wing-mirror dissolved in a noisy cloud of bits, and just left the three cables for the adjustment – it looked like a severed limb! The rest of the stage was uneventful, as was SS2, the re-run.

SS3 featured a few tight acute bends, which was hard work, and really meant going down to first to get any kind of speed through there – I was disappointed with the time, but a check of the board showed we were 6th in class, and 63rd of 76 runners, so not all bad. And then SS4 came….

It all started out OK, but on one of the long runs, we just lost power completely – the injection was still firing, but nothing doing. The fuel pump had stopped, and we pulled over and I desperately tried to get it going, but to no avail. We were OTL, and that was that…… Our first retirement. Bugger! We got towed back to the stage start, and had to push the car back to service, which was probably half a mile, which was hard work. Thankfully someone gave us a hand towards the end which was good as we were pooped from that…..

I was worried about getting home more than anything else – I’d driven to the event, and wasn’t expecting this. But I’d brought the old carb, and was ready to rip off the injection and just drive home, when Steve Colville suggested testing the pump… and it worked. Further fault finding found two problems – a relay in the original car fuseboard was dodgy (well, the connector for it was dodgy, so little to be done there to fix that permanently), and one of the relays in the MS relay board was dodgy too – when those two things were fixed, the car started on the button again.

Handily, SS5-8 could be run as a “Trophy Rally”, for those cars that had failed earlier in the day – many people had gone out, but most of them just went home, and I didn’t see the point in that. There were three runners for the Trophy Rally – an Evo 6, a MK.II Escort and us. We would run at the back of the field, and whoever had the fastest times over the 4 stages would win. SS5 was fun again, and SS6 was good too – still with the tight bends, but run the other way, and it was coming together a bit more now – definitely worth it, just for the practice if nothing else! When we were queuing for SS7, we realised that the Evo 6 hadn’t turned up. So there were only 2 of us left in it. But the escort couldn’t stop as well……

We started SS7 still giving it some beans, and got about half way round where there is a long straight, which is about 30 seconds worth, as you always see the other car going the other way. The rest of the lap was uneventful, but on the second time round, we saw that the escort was still only 30 seconds ahead of us, exiting the chicane opposite us as we ran down the long straight. I glanced at it and thought “that’s going slowly”, but you always think that. But when we got round to them, we realised that they had stopped! We were now the only runners in the Trophy Rally, if they went OTL…..

We got back to service, and had some problems with the relays again, but got the car started. And got to the head of the queue, to find that we were the only runners! All we had to do was finish the stage, and we’d get the trophy! But the car had other ideas. About half way round the first lap, it cut out again. But we knew what to do, and Kev held the relay in, for the next lap and a half. And we finished! Which meant that we’ve finally won something! OK, it was ‘only’ the Trophy Rally, but you have to finish it to win, and we were the only ones that did. And it’s a nice trophy too. Looking at our stage times briefly I think we were doing OK anyway, and when I get some results I’ll see where we would have come had we kept going, but it was a good day, despite the problems. Yes, we didn’t finish, but we kinda did! Video to follow, when I get my new converter working properly….