Fat Albert Stages 2009
by Darren on Jul.25, 2009, under Rallies
Today was the 2009 running of Fat Albert Stages, which is based at Keevil Airfield in Wiltshire. This is a good event for two reasons – firstly, it’s a very well-run event and features a good combination of high-speed sections (which are on the main runway area, long straights with some chicanes and so on) and a section which is extremely tight and technical and makes demands on car and crew. The second reason is that it’s only 55 miles away, so it can all be done in a day. But this does mean getting up at about 5 to manage this, and then there’s an hour’s drive to get there (although for some reason TomTom said it would take 1:45, which was a bit strange). Got there dead on time at 6:45, and found that Mike had left my pass with the Marshal there, as agreed.
It’s always a bit weird turning up to an event to navigate with or drive with someone you’ve never met before – you have no idea really how things are going to go on a number of levels. Fortunately I needn’t have worried about this – I found Mike easily enough (in the queue for scrutineering) and checked everything out – the car seemed fine, and luckily I fitted in the seat OK, and we got to know each other while waiting for the car to be scrutineered, which it passed without problem. It was then just back to the service area to check if the intercom adapter I’d made up (Mike’s intercom is a different make and each uses different connections) worked, which it did, and then wait around for the start times to be posted.
Mike's 1.6 205, ready to go
Events like this have a wide range of cars entered, from things such as the Furzelands’ WRC Subaru, right down to the lowest-budget rally cars you could imagine, and everything in between. On the first few events I was amazed at the diversity of machinery that was present, but after a while you get to accept that people decide to run all sorts of different cars, for all sorts of different reasons, and looking at a results sheet doesn’t really tell the tale; a single cc-based class can have a madly-tuned hothouse flower competing with a totally standard road-spec car, but that’s the nature of the beast. But it’s not often you get to see something like this:
Not something you see every day.....
An Aston Martin. There were varying opinions from people I spoke to throughout the day, some saying that they “don’t belong” in rallying, others who loved it. I can’t see the problem, and it certainly looked and sounded different to the usual cars, and that’s saying something.
Anyway, the stages. Mike hadn’t been rallying much for the last few years, and this was his third event this year, and he was happy just to go out and get back into it, plus sitting in with someone new it will always take some time to work together, so a “fair” pace was what he was after to start out with, and we managed that – there were no real dramas at any point, although it became clear that Mike is no stranger to the handbrake, and damn good at it too – he really got the car launched sideways in places where needs be, and made it look smooth and fast from where I was. The braking areas needed to be honed down, for sure, but for the most part it went well; the car is only a standard 1600 engine with twin 40s on, so it’s not a high-powered screamer, but it went well enough, touching nearly 100 on the longest straight.
Stage 2 was a repeat of stage 1, and we went a bit quicker. There was a corner which was a long 45 degree one which tightened towards the end, and the first time round the car felt a bit light on the way in; I thought it felt a bit too quick on the entry. And half way through it turns out I was right – the back stepped out, and we were going sideways. We were doing about 70 when this happened, and typically we drifted into the line of cones; it was interesting seeing them come sideways at the car, and we then hit one which had a wooden sign in it, with a sizeable bang, and came to a halt. It took a few seconds to get the car going again, and by this time the next car was coming along at quite a pace. We’d moved the cones that showed where the stage was, and as a result they ended up coming quite close to us, and we were facing them at this point. Fortunately nothing untoward happened, and with them out the way we could get going, which Mike did quickly. Despite having spun and taken time to get the car running again, we managed to go one second quicker; I’d think we lost about 15 or so with the spin, so that wasn’t all bad. Unlike the side of the car:
Cone + 205 + sideways = this.
Stages 3 and 4 were slightly altered runs of 1 & 2, and they went well; different lines and speeds were tried on various corners, and it was coming along quite nicely; paring down braking points until they were pretty much there and trying to get back up to speed on “the corner of woe”, and everywhere else trying to keep it neat and tidy. We caught a slower car in one place and he very kindly moved out of the way (car 91), so thanks for that, and in general it went well; it was sunny now and getting a bit hot in the car by the end of the stage, but all good fun.
Stages 5 & 6 featured another change to the layout again, and they went well too; the car was behaving itself well, and the second run was quicker than the first. There was a fun moment where the car that had witnessed and passed our spin on stage 2 span in front of us (there’s a bump mid-corner), so I guess they knew how we felt; Mike had thought I’d been a bit too cautious about the speed over that bump but given what happened there it looks like I was right!
Then it was lunchtime, with a break while the stage layout is changed (they are run in the reverse direction in the afternoon), but the break became a lot longer when a glider had to perform an (apparently emergency) landing on the airfield, leading to a 40 minute or so delay. Once we got going, it was good fun; the reversed layout had a few surprises (one of the sections was new, and wasn’t really clear on the map so the first time through was a bit interesting at speed), but seemed to be a lot quicker; there was a downhill straight where the car was topping 100 before a hard braking area and a chicane for a handbrake turn, and a few times this was taken right on the limit with the front of the car just starting to push before gripping and turning us round.
Stage 9 was a small modification again, and I made a right mess of it; I looked at the wrong corner, called it and then took us through a plastic barrier. Mike and I both thought someone had dragged it into the way, but they hadn’t; he deftly spun the car round and we carried on for the rest of the stage, with the calls being punctuated by apologies by me. Dammit! Fortunately no damage was done to the car by this small off, and Mike was quite happy with the outcome, saying it had been a laugh anyway! Stage 10, the last of the day was a re-run of 9, and we got it right throughout, and it went well pretty much everywhere.
All in all, a fun day, with good stages and organisation, fun with a new crew and nothing serious going wrong. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday, and we’d finished 45th out of 90 starters, with 52 classified.
