Competitors' Reports

Geoff Dearing reports on the Granite City navigating for Dick Slaughter

I worked hard to persuade Dick to take on the 1,200 mile round trip as the previous year we experienced a terminal electrical failure when leading our class and it was a long way to go for no result. As the lashing rain turned to a blizzard on the A9 between Glasgow and Perth I was beginning to think that I might soon be looking for other employment as a co-driver.

Having reached Aberdeen and passed through scrutineering I obtained a set of route notes only to find that heavy snow had hampered obtaining up to date information on the stages. I was beginning to think that with our two wheel drive and little happening at low revs we might have a problem in our faithful old Mark II. Late afternoon was spent cutting extra grooves in the Dunlops, sadly we had no access to either now tyres or narrow Colways which seemed to be the order of the day (four wheel drive may have been handy as well).

The first stages were at 10pm on the Friday and consisted of two 45-second blasts around the car park in front of the hardy spectators who had turned out in the wet and the cold to watch the action. The following morning dawned grey and bleak - with good reason Aberdeen is described as the Granite City! The field was split into two halves with the smaller lower powered machines starting first. The prospect of driving a Ford Ka over untouched snowy stages did not appeal to me, and as the day wore on only a few of the early runners survived.

The first stage of the day was a 9 miler in the forest to the south west of Aberdeen and fortunately we were not troubled by snow as the area is quite low lying. The wake up call came on the next stage when we had problems in just getting the car to the start line. Onto the stage and the picture was carnage with vehicles embedded in banks at a variety of different angles, in ditches and some off the road whilst having travelled in an apparently straight line. Dick took the prudent approach of getting the wheels into the tram lines and trying to keep them there. In the conditions a long moment on packed ice was like a slow motion film but happily we managed to reach the end of the stage in one piece, although in a different event from the four wheel drives.

After service we went on to the most northerly stages of the day in Bin Forest where there was no snow and we were able to set up the fastest time in our class on one stage. Back to service and with new rubber on the rear wheels having suffered a puncture and broken jack between the last two stages we then set off for the famous and very hard Clash stages.

The shorter of the two stages at 10½ miles we survived with some excitement but it was on the longest stage of the day that we lost most time. We were going well when suddenly Andrew Wood, a former National Champions but on this occasion driving an Astra, came out in front of us on the stage having changed a wheel. We then followed him for a mile and a half until he drowned out on a very narrow piece of track with a steep bank to the left and a drop to the right.

"I jumped into six inches of mud and snow..."

There was nowhere to pass and so yours truly extricated himself from his seat, jumped into six inches of mud and snow and helped to manhandle the Astra to a point where we could get past. A minute and a half to two minutes was lost in the excitement but we go to the end of the stage without further mishap. On the last two stages of the day Dick was at his best, putting two times in the top 20 as well as 1st in the class.

Struggling back to Rally HQ in Aberdeen we found ourselves 28th overall, 2nd in the B11 2 litre class and also 1st in the two wheel drive Peter Lloyd challenge. Yes you've guessed it, we missed our class win by 1½ minutes, but such is rallying. All in all we were pleased to survive with not a bad result all things considered.

Ian Torkington reports on the Astra Stages with Colin Hutchings co-driving

Predictions of freak weather for the Easter weekend were true and accurate. As we motored up the M40 on Good Friday we saw Prodrive personnel attempting to keep the river Cherwell from their door, it appeared to be unsuccessfully. Flooding was widespread but by Birmingham there were cars with 4" of snow on the roof. The rest of the journey was wet, all the way to Llangollen.

I was awoken Saturday morning by the crew of an historic Saab in the same B+B shouting to each other "have you looked outside yet.... I think we will put the Colways on." This was a dead give-away and sure enough Llangollen had turned into a picturesque Christmas card.

Organisational problems ensued and the start was delayed by 2 hours and the first stage cancelled due to the conditions. More a problem of getting marshals and safety crews into the stage than purely the depth of snow (about 12" by the time we had got up to Clocaenog).

We started at 13:10 and headed for stage 2. Not far into the stage the ice caught me out and the back came round extremely quickly. Sideways is not best with 4 wheel drive and when the front caught a snow bank the following roll was inevitable.

A full roll and back onto the wheels, then it dawned on me "my GM doesn't have an airbag so how could I win the Superbowl tickets?" (see Tim Hines article in last Windscreen) so hit the starter and away. I noticed 2 things as we sped through the stage: 1) I had no door mirror and 2) in my rear view mirror all I could see was roof where the rear screen should have been.

"The Paramedic deemed us mentally unstable and there-fore 100% OK to carry on."

At the end of the stage Colin T and Neil B were on hand to check the bits that mattered and declared the car OK except for the main hoop being bent in the middle by about 1". We were now using some of our penalty free lateness but decided to crack on to stage 3. We talked nicely to the Paramedic who deemed us mentally unstable and therefore 100% OK to carry on.

Having started as No 43 we were now running ahead of car 48 and after stage 3 approximately 4 miles it was clear he had taken 30 seconds out of us. I know I'm slow but surely I was not over compensating for the accident that much!

"It may be a Cavalier but it doesn't always look like a shed."

At stage 4 arrival he asks what our time was and then casually asks "have you got a problem?" Stupid question, it may be a Cavalier but it doesn't always look like a shed. I allow him to pass as he would surely catch us in the next 8 miles and I can't see behind me. He takes another 1½ minutes out of me, this is beginning to depress me deeply.

Stage 5 was enjoyable with good flowing bends and not too rough. I posted 5:11 and car 48 posted 4:44. This Vauxhall 16V powered Escort MkII is now pissing me off.

On to service, cut from 1 hour to 15 minutes to make back time with darkness for the later cars now a real possibility. However, the RAC scrutineer takes one look at the roll cage and withdraws our timecard and the car's logbook.

As a chartered engineer I believe this to be harsh as the weakness is only in axial compression to the top of the hoop which is not how the cage was designed. The cage had both a roof diagonal and a rear leg diagonal which would have been in tension if the main hoop had gone into compression. The integrity of the roll cage had not been compromised (hence my earlier decision to continue) but we did not argue with the scrutineer.

Early bath and back to the B+B to find that members of the AWD club had taken over for an Easter Sunday and Monday event. However, their event had been cancelled as they arrived. Specials built for the purpose and not allowed to play! Why?

My only saving grace was that car 48 finished 5th overall and I must say that was well deserved, it must have been a stonking drive so well done Mr J Collins.

Graham Morris reports on the Rallye des Hautes Fagnes co-driving for Sue Orchard

This is a really tough event with 240 stage km in one day and not very much road mileage. This is typical of Belgian events, which are all go with the service time being limited to a maximum of 10 minutes at a go, and often less.

We were really going well when disaster struck on the re-group before the 16th stage out of 18. The clutch started to play up, which made the last 3 stages of 45km interesting to say the least. After some adjustments we struggled to the end but had to do the whole of the last stage in 2nd gear! Getting over the podium at the end without the clutch was interesting!

"Getting over the podium with-out the clutch was interesting."

Nevertheless we finished and gained points in the European Rally Championship, as this was a coefficient 2 round of that championship. At the end of the day we were 39th overall and 2nd in class in a field of 91 starters, a very good result.

Chris Morford gives a spectator's view of the Somerset Stages

Following the Wyedean, we decided to give the Macolm Wilson rally a miss due to work commitments. The next event should have been the Somerset Stages, but the car was still undergoing major surgery, courtesy of Julian Godfrey Engineering at Heathfield. Chris decided to go and spectate with Haydn Chappel, who normally navigates their chase car.

A quick 3 hour trip down the motorway took us to Croyde Forest, where the organisers had set up parking for spectators, catering and public address facilities for spectators. After watching the first of the Gold Star crews through we decide to test out the bacon butties and thus missed one of the crews from the south, Matthew Fowle and Tony Watson taking their first run.

Returning to the forest we moved a bit further down the stage to a hairpin to watch the remaining Gold Star crews and the first of the Silver Star. It was soon obvious that a lot of the top contenders in the Silver Star Championship had stayed away and there were only 4 four wheel drive cars and a handful of over 2 litre cars entered. I was now regretting not being entered.

At lunchtime we moved on to watch the tarmac stage at Porlock Hill. We had met another would be competitor, James Sunderland earlier in the day and he had told us to park outside the guest house he was using and take the footpath up the hill. What he didn't say was that it was a near vertical climb unsuitable for any body who smokes 20 cigarettes a day and enjoys the occasional pint!

"What was a bit disconcerting was an apparent lack of marshals."

We reached the stage just as the first car was going through. What was a bit disconcerting was an apparent lack of marshals. There were none at the toll gate where the track narrows through the gateway with 2 very stout posts waiting to grab anybody off line. This lack of marshals became even more apparent when on walking back down the stage they found Stuart Larbey had gone off in his Metro 6R4 on one of the tighter left handers. From the road you could not see the car until you were about two feet from the edge. He had gone down about 20 feet, but he and his co-driver were both unhurt. Several cars had gone past before they found their OK board and put it up on the road. If they had been injured I wouldn't like to say how soon the organisers would have been able to get help.