Old Gits - Challenging Times

WHILST THE NUMBER OF CLOSED ROAD RALLIES IS SLOWLY INCREASING IN THE UK they are still few and far between, and the few that are run are very expensive to enter. But, there is still much uncertainty surrounding competing in Europe since Brexit and whilst several crews have done so without any problem, others have been caught out which is a risk we have not been prepared to take. We did have an entry for the Three Shires rally which was scheduled to take place on the weekend after the clubs

National Day, but was cancelled following the death of the Queen. So reading about Rally RS Achene in the last edition of Opposite Loc made me very jealous of our Belgian friends.

After pondering what to do next we opted for Bournemouth and District Car Clubs Challenger Stages, run on the wide open concrete tank training roads around Bovington. According to the event regulations scrutineering was from 12:00 to 15:00 on Saturday 12th November with the rally on Sunday 13th. As its only about 40 miles for me it was a fairly easy trip for me to meet up with co-driver Rob Thompson and Service crew Grahame Standen at the venue. I duly arrived around 11:30 only to find the gates locked. Whilst I was not the first to arrive it seems that most crews were aware that the 12:00 time was when the gates would open rather than Scrutineering starting. Anyway, as it was we were first through and once signed on we set up in the service area and were home in time to watch England beat Japan in the Rugby Autumn Nations Cup.

Sunday was not quite so leisurely as we left home at 06:20 to ensure we got there before the scheduled closure of the gates at 07:45. This meant breakfast was served once we were settled in the service area.

First car was at 09:00 and with 30 second starts our start number of 53 meant we should have started just before 09:30. Except that the stage finish was on the exit of a chicane and somebody managed to wipe out the timing gear and cause a bit of a delay. It was nothing serious and we were soon off for the first of 2 attempts at a single clockwise “lap” of around 3.5 miles on a rather damp and greasy surface, resulting in a spin at a very slippery artificially tightened 90 left. This allowed the Escort that started behind us to catch us, only to overshoot at a later chicane where we were so close behind him that we needed to reverse in order to allow him to do so. All in all not a great time for SS1. The second attempt saw just a half spin at the same junction so a much better time.

Stages 3 and 4 were much the same but run over 2 laps making each stage something over 6 miles and we found the chicanes were fairly open which suited us and the car. We found ourselves catching the car in front only to overshoot the same chicane as car 54 did on the first stage, but we did catch right up to him by the end of the second run.

After lunch stages 5 and 6 were run in the opposite direction over 3 laps which meant it got quite busy at times and as we came around to start our second lap we were joined by a Toyota Corrolla who came out just behind us on his first lap. He didn’t catch us but we could not pull far away from him either so it

got very interesting when we caught another car. At the end of stage 5 there were signs that we had a bit of an issue with some sort of water leak as it was sprayed liberally around the engine bay. There was no obvious sign of where it was coming from so we topped up the rad and went off for another busy 3 laps, catching and passing several cars and thoroughly enjoying ourselves. Back at the finish there was once again water sprayed around the engine bay but no obvious reason. Until that is, with the engine running it was obviously the water pump and hence an early bath.

So that was it. A much more enjoyable event than I expected due to the open nature of the chicanes and as it was the first retirement due to mechanical failure since the car was completed in its current guise we cant really complain.

Old Git Bill Cook