2010 Event Reports

RAINWORTH DUKERIES RALLY 12th June

Picture Courtesy of Brian Atkinson

Firstly our thoughts are with car number 204 Martyn & Richard Lewis. Martyn sadly lost his life whilst competing on the Dukeries Rally on Saturday 12th June, his co-driver brother Richard was taken to hospital and has since been allowed home following a tragic accident when their car left the road, rolled & hit a tree. Our hearts go out to the family & friends of Martyn & wishes to Richard for a speedy recovery..

Sometimes you just get the feeling that things aren’t going to go to well, it started Friday afternoon when we left home for our journey to Southwell Nottinghamshire, and normally a 3hr drive turned into a 6hr drive, the traffic on the A419, M5, M42, and A42 was absolutely grid locked!!! (No reason!!!)

Anyway we eventually arrived with only 5min remaining until scrutineering had to close, we then signed on at documentation and then headed off to our accommodation. Again Julie had booked a lovely cottage for us to stay in just 2 miles away from the start of the Rally. The lads were happy as the cottage had a sauna so that kept them out of trouble for a while!!

Our start time was 10.34am so the lads had plenty of time to give the car another spanner check and a quick clean before Julie & I had to set off to the first stage..

The car felt great instantly & handled the rutted stages well, but we were running in the main field of the event which unfortunately for us meant that being in a 4wd car meant that we had to run at the back of the event whilst the 1400’s & the 2wd ran in front, by the time we started the stages over 110 cars had already driven through. Despite being in a powerful 4wd the car still took a severe battering but once again the hard work that the lads had put into maintaining the car paid off and once again we had another finish under our belt.

However we were slightly disappointed with our result, we had finished 24th o/a which happened to be our seeding number which meant we didn’t gain any places, although the rally had an entry of over 140 competitors and 24tho/a is a reasonable result we felt we were way off the pace to our fellow class competitors. We knew we were up against strong contenders and unfortunately as we have only entered the Rallye Sunseeker and the Pirelli Tour of Cumbria Rally this year which we were forced to retire on due to a tyre blow out we were feeling a bit rusty... some of our class contenders had been out the previous weekend competing and most had been out at least 4 or 5 times if not more on other events.

Well that’s enough excuses!!! On with the rally.. The rally consisted of 10 very fast gravel stages. Stages 1-6 were admit tingly hard work, we were reaching speeds of well over 110mph on some of the fast sections and then having to brake hard to attack the tight corners and the hairpins, normally a common thing to do, but the braking area’s on the stage were so rutted it was almost impossible for me to hold onto the steering wheel and occasionally even snatching it out of my hands!! A decision was made to brake earlier but this was losing us so much time.

Stage 7 was cancelled due to the tragic accident involving car 204 Martyn & Richard Lewis.

We headed off to stage 8 where as you can imagine our thoughts were somewhere else, however we maintained our pace & had a steady run and continued on to stage 9.

Stage 9 was going well, although still extremely rough, we started to catch a little dust, again probably being a little cautious we backed off.. As we were nearly to the end of the stage a sudden thick cloud made us come to a stop, car 17 unfortunately had gone off and ended up on its side against a tree, the thick cloud was actually a fire cloud, Julie & I jumped out of the car to help, spectators had managed to get both driver & co-driver out of the car before the fire started. Unfortunately both crew members had suffered with back injuries and were taken to a local hospital for checkups, the stage was halted and then cancelled for the remaining competing cars.
We once again were diverted to the final stage of the day, stage 10, after a good clean run we headed back to Southwell Race Course for the finish.

It turned out to be a very long day and after the day’s events we were only too pleased just to have had a finish.. Thankfully this sort of rally doesn’t happen very often and is actually quite rare considering there is an event on almost every weekend of the year.. We all know the risks in any form of motorsport but I guess that’s why we do it!!!

Julie & I would like to thank the organisers, rescue crews, marshals, spectators & all the volunteers for their truly dedicated work and would also like to thank, Gordon, Matt, Jim, James & Stef for their tremendous support and hard work too... xx

PIRELLI TOUR oF CUMBRIA 24th April

After leaving home 9.30am Friday morning we eventually arrived at our destination 7hrs later, Carlisle Race Course. The Race Course was going to be the start, finish and service area for the Pirelli Tour of Cumbria Rally.

After sailing through scrutineering and documentation we set off to our accommodation for the weekend. A lovely barn conversion in the village of little Corby.

Saturday morning had arrived, and the sun was shining, normally a good thing but this also meant dust was going to be a big problem for most crews.

Kielder Forest known to most as killer Keilder was where the stages were being held, after an hour’s drive from the start at Carlisle Race Course we arrived at the stage start in good form. Once again the car felt great and so Julie and i settled down for the day ahead.

SS1 was very fast, but extremely tricky, talk about being focused!!! I didn’t even have the chance to blink!! ... The stages were incredibly dry and as we predicted very dusty! After surviving stage 1 and setting a time of 9th fastest we were fairly happy and continued on to stage 2.

Stage 2 was just over 10 miles long, dust was beginning to be a problem as it hadn’t had time to settle from the competing cars in front and with no wind about it hovered around which for some crews was a disaster as it caused many to go off the road.

Due to the surface on this event punctures are also a big problem, and again many retirements were caused as cars would get thrown off the road and with huge ditches either side of the tracks it was impossible to re-join and carry on... Unfortunately this is what happened to us!!!! With just 2 miles to go before the end of the stage we approached an uphill section with a right 4 over crest, however as we came to the right 4 a piece of slate ripped through our front left tyre and as I turned for the corner the car snatched away a threw us to the left forcing us off the road, but the damage was made as we hit many off the huge rocks that also laid on the side of the rocky road surface. Our front lower arm completely bent pushing the front wheel into the arch... we were going nowhere!! After having done only 16 stage miles our rally had come to a very abrupt end!!

Jamie Anderson running behind us had suffered with three punctures on one stage, and Tom Noughton running behind him had just re-joined the stage after he stopped to change a puncture and was then caught out in Jamie’s dust which unfortunately completely blinded him and forced him off the road into a ditch next to us ending his rally also..

The extreme conditions had claimed many crews with only eight making it to the finish... after recovering our car stricken car from the ditch and having a suspended tow to the end of the stage where our eager crew were waiting to assess the damage, it was discovered that the lower arm had almost folded in two, however as normal it was no big problem for our team, whilst Julie and I sat in the sunshine on the side of a very lonely road the boys went to work and within twenty minutes a new lower arm had been replaced, all to show was a battered front wing and a bent bumper!!! It could have been much worse looking at some of the carnage that we passed through the stage!!

Well that was our first retirement in the car since we brought it two years ago, and although disappointed on not having a finish it’s good to know that it wasn’t mechanical or driver error that caused us to retire!!

Thanks to Gordon, Matt, Jim and Stef again for all their determination and hard work....xx

RALLYE SUNSEEKER 27th Feb

Picture Courtesy Of EdenVauxhallRallyTeam

This was our first event of the year, and the first time in the car since November last year and so our 20 minute drive to scrutineering at the Little Down Centre Bournemouth from Canford Park Friday afternoon would be the only chance we had to give the car a run before first stage Saturday morning.

All felt fine and the car ran well, Gordon had done a fantastic job over the winter break in getting the car prepped ready for the rally.

Friday night saw us driving to Poole Quay for a ceremonial start, something new for Rally Sunseeker as normally they run two night stages, however this was a great experience, it was packed with spectators as this was their chance to get really close to the cars and their drivers. Whilst we were parked up for the 1 ½hrs Julie & I had been given, courtesy of Rally Sunseeker organisers VIP passes to hop on board one of the Sunseekers Yachts that the event sponsors had moored alongside the Quay.

Talk about how “the other half live” we felt very privileged to have had the opportunity to take a tour around this magnificent boat.... the captain had told us that if we wanted to purchase one it would ONLY cost us 4 million!!!!

Any way moving on we went back to the car for the last ½ hr where we were greeted with many spectators waiting to take pictures..

Just minutes before our start time I unfortunately received very sad news that my uncle had passed away just 10 minutes before, he had been diagnosed with cancer just before Christmas, this was a huge shock and understandably very upsetting. However I had a rally to do and putting on a brave face although very red eyed we set off over the start ramp. I had decided that this rally was going to be dedicated to my Uncle Andy......

Saturday morning had arrived and we had woken up to torrential rain and hail stone, but as we arrived at Canford Park service for the start of the rally the rain had stopped and thankfully it was the last downfall of the day.

SS1 was Uddens, this normally fast stage had been turned into a mud bath, standing water and huge ruts made handling difficult but the car felt great and we had set a time of 22nd fastest. Throughout the day we had been setting consistent times and the car had run without fault despite almost nearly drowning a few times due to the extremely wet conditions.

Julie and I were pleased with our pace as we were aware that our car was slightly underpowered to those in our class due to the new ruling with the turbo changes and that we had not had the opportunity to upgrade ours however this didn't stop us from pushing as hard as we could.

The condition of the stages had stayed the same throughout the day and we had pretty much settled to the extreme slippery soft rutted terrain.

SS7 saw us having a slight excursion a miss heard call saw us miss a chicane and instead of entering on the right I took it as a hair pin right and after destroying a few bushes and the taking down the tape it was a quick manoeuvre in reverse. Unfortunately this had a lost us time, quite a bit as we had only set a time of 29th fastest.

SS8 had been cancelled due to a river bursting its bank, so it was onto stage 9. Again another consistent run on very tricky conditions.

SS10 was the longest stage of the day just over 10 miles long, we had started the stage in good form and had put a real charge on as we were determined to get a top twenty result, however half way through things were about to change, we were approaching a very fast section of the stage, a flat out 5th gear blind crest!!! As we came over the crest I just happened to catch a glimps of blue flashing lights in front, instinct told me to back off and as we approached the second crest which should have been even faster thankfully my instincts were right... we came face to face with a big red fire engine coming towards us WD (wrong direction)!!!! Luckily the road was wide enough for us to pass and luckily I had enough time to scrub off the speed, shocked was an understatement; this is not what we expected to see on a live stage!!!

We had continued on obviously slightly concerned and way off the pace as we weren’t sure on what else we were going to come across or even if the stage had been cancelled. As we arrived at the flying finish we had reported the “close call” to the finish crew who then quickly went into action to stop the stage.

Unfortunately this had cost us a huge amount of time loss, but we are just grateful knowing that it could have possibly been a lot worse.

With just one more stage to do we knew we could not make up the time on the car in front so we settled with a steady run to ensure us of a finish on a very difficult rally.

However although difficult this is still one of our favourite events and one that we really enjoyed and will definitely be back next year. A final result of 17th o/a, 6th in class and awards for 1st o/a lady Driver & 1st o/a driver & co-driver in the ACSMC Championship. Julie & I also scored maximum points in the ACSMC Championship.

A Huge Thank you to Gordon, Matt, James & Jim our service crew who once again had done a superb job..xx