2011 Event Reports

SOUTH of ENGLAND TEMPEST RALLY Sat 5th Nov

Picture Courtesy of Philip Randall

Well with Julie back in the office (co-drivers seat)!! we set of for the South of England Tempest Rally. The Rally based in Aldershot Hampshire is probably the closest event we do to home.. This is great for us, we always look forward to this event as family and friends always come and support us and it always reminds us just how much support and backing we have.

The Rally started and finished at Rushmoor Arena, this was also where central service was held.

The Event held two categories one for the 2wd and one for the 4wd. We were running in the 4wd category and were seeded at number 14.

Knowing from previous years of competing on this event we knew the stages were going to be pretty treacherous and slippy. Well we weren't wrong!!

Our aim of the day was to achieve a top ten position, we knew this was achievable as long as we kept it clean & tidy throughout the day. It wasn't that easy tho, competition was tough especially in our class as we had the biggest entry. Throughout the morning stages we kept it clean, driving a bit to cautiously but going into first service we found we were 12th o/a.

After service and no problems to report we set off to complete a further 3 stages, again we saw ourselves amongst a fierce battle with others in our class and with just seconds between us.

Again back into service and again with no problems to report and also a position of 12th o/a still, we set back off for the final loop of the day, a repeat of the morning stages. Surprisingly the stages had dried out and became really quick with mega fast sections. The final stage of the day was Ash just over two miles long with huge jumps and in the dark!!

We really had to push if we were to get into the top ten. So that's exactly what we did and on arriving back at service for the finish we were handed the results list to find that we had made the top ten position and with a 17 second gap between us and the car behind. Another good result :-)

Thanks to Gordon, Matt, James & Kaye for an excellent job once again and to everyone that came to support us on the day. x

TRACKROD RALLY YORKSHIRE Sat 24th September

Picture Courtesy of Tony Boyes

Whilst Julie was at home recovering from her recent jaw operation (She must obviously talk to much)!! I called in my former co-driver Bob Stokoe to stand in. Bob sat along side me back in 2003 when we won the Formula 1400cc British Rally Championship and me winning the British Ladies Rally Championship title too. so, we were fairly familiar with each other which always helps when your competing especially on the fast & furious stages of Rally Yorkshire.

Stage 1 was 14 miles long, I admit i felt rusty as the last event was on the Epynt Ranges in August an all tarmac event and before that was back in June which was the Dukeries a gravel event. So it had been 4 months since i last competed on gravel..!!

Anyway excuses out of the way, Stage 1 was horrible!! Unusually the car felt horrible too, the handling & the set up just felt so wrong, but with the stage being 14 miles long i just had to grin and bear it and hope that things would improve along the way. Unfortunately it didn't, if fact it just got worse, I overshot more corners than i can remember but worse i stalled the car every time!!

After finishing the stage we pulled over to check the car to see if there was anything visible, thinking that i may have had a puncture or two!! but everything was in contact, so we headed off to compete the next two stages "with care" before we could arrive in service for our crew to give the car a thorough check over.

We were disappointed to have dropped back to 20th o/a after stage 1 but we weren't surprised!

Onto stage 2 & 3 where the car actually felt better but not enough to push hard, to our surprise on arriving into service and being handed the results we found we had climbed to 11th o/a...

After a thorough spanner check the crew replaced the front disc and fitted new brake pads. So with new confidence off we went to compete the final 3 stages. Instantly the car handled better especially on breaking, instead of being thrown off line & locking up it actually stopped where i wanted it to..

After a clean & drama free run through stages 4,5, & 6 we headed back to Scarborough for the finish. At the finish We were excited to discover that we had eventually finished 8th o/a a fantastic result after what started to be a very tough event ended in a brilliant result..

Many thanks to Bob for standing in :-)Ohh & thanks for the Pizza..

And a massive thanks to Gordon & Matt for once again getting us to the finish and with a top result.

MEWLA RALLY Sun 28th August

Picture Courtesy of JMS

After having such a long break we always knew that the Mewla Rally was going to be a tough challenge. Well it didn’t disappoint!! Having done the recce on Saturday and making a few changes to the notes we were fairly happy with the stages. Although the shiny new tarmac section was causing a few concerns amongst the crews as it was reported that if it was going to be wet on the day of the rally then just be aware as the new tarmac could turn extremely slippery and would probably catch crews out.
Apart from that everything was great. We actually enjoyed the recce despite getting thrown about a bit as our Mitsi L200 wasn’t the ideal recce car to be chucking around over blind crests and big jumps.

The day of the rally arrived 8 stages covering 80 miles, each stage roughly 10 miles long. This was great having long stages meant we could really get stuck in. We were obviously a little nervous because we hadn’t competed since June, but more so we didn’t know how the car was going to handle as it had been sent away to have a few repairs and not having the chance to drive the car before the rally it was a case of the first stage being our only test drive not only that it was our first tarmac event in 3 years!!

It turned out we had nothing to worry about, the car felt great & handled superbly, and very quickly we settled in. Although the weather was against us at the start of every morning stage the heavens opened and at some points visibility was down to yards!! Still we enjoyed the challenge and started to work our way up the field.

The weather and the character of some of the stages soon started to claim victims with many retirements on most stages, thankfully no one suffered any injuries just allot carnage and broken cars.

Lunchtime arrived and we had over an for service, the lads Gordon, Matt & James gave the car a thorough spanner check before we headed back out for the remaining stages of the day. The sun had come out for the rest of the day and the tarmac had dried so a different approach was in force.

The stages were extremely fast and smooth, unfortunately we found we were down on power on some of the long straights, this was nothing to do with the car this was due to competing against more powerful tarmac spec cars, cars that are only built to compete on tarmac.

Anyway excuses out the way, overall we had a great day, not a great finish, 51st o/a out of 97 entries & 5th in class not our usual top 10 finishes but not bad considering our lack of time on tarmac, but most importantly we had a finish and the aim was to get the car back on form we successfully achieved.

Thanks to Gordon, Matt & James great job done 

DUKERIES RALLY Sat 11th June

Picture Courtesy of Richard Booler

After a very trying day we finished the highly contended Sherwood Forest based Dukeries Rally a very respectable 29th o/a out of an entry of over 120. We had also finished 7th in class & I was first female driver home.

The final result was more impressive as we had suffered with gear linkage problems throughout the day leaving us to drive two of the nine gravel stages stuck in one gear, and couple of times we had to cruise the car to the finish line where our team of mechanics could do emergency repairs for us to continue on in the event.

Still we are thrilled with our finish, & this is down to our service crew Gordon, James & Matt as without them we would have never finished the event.

The drama started just 1 mile into the first special stage when we exited a 90 degree right hand bend to find that the gear leaver had come away in my hand, thankfully the car was stuck in third gear which meant we could continue to the end of the short stage where Gordon & James were waiting to make temporary repairs.

We then continued on to special stage 2 where we managed to gain 30 places up the leader board having dropped back to 71st o/a on stage 1, although the car had been repaired it was only temporary until we could reach main service at lunchtime, but before this we had to compete on a further 3 special stages.

I have to say it felt very strange driving the car with the gear leaver flopping all over the place, but because it stuck in a fairly high gear we were able to drive at a fairly reasonable pace.

Despite another two gear linkage breaks before the midday halt we still managed to climb the leader board, and found that we were laying a very creditable 35th o/a.. this is even more creditable the fact that we had dropped to the very back of the field and was literally the last car running in the event, which obviously wasn’t an ideal place to be as this meant at least another 100 or more cars had been through at a competitive speed before us and which meant we were then forced to drive in extreme conditions and despite having 4wd it gave us absolutely no advantage what so ever!!!

This we felt was an incredible effort by all, we eventually made it to the finish 29th o/a because the problem was solved although temporally to get us to the end of the rally by the huge determination of our service crew Gordon, James & Matt, who would not give up & fixed the problem with a simple piece of wire fencing which was enough to secure the broken part just to get the car to the finish. Well done Lads.. :-) xx

RALLYE SUNSEEKER INTERNATIONAL Feb 25th & 26th

After a few busy winter months with the car, firstly undergoing it's winter prep, then being sent off to Jim Griffiths for a re-spray followed by the graphics being re-applied by ASF Sign Factory the car really looked stunning, and as well as teaming up with new sponsors Swindon Karting F1 & having continued support from OCM Capital Markets, Guest & Fiore Bricklayers & Combined Scaffolding we were all geared up & ready for the season to begin With our first event being the high profile Rally Sunseeker.

We Started the Rally Sunseeker Friday night with a ceremonial start at Poole Quay, although this year no stages ran in the evening the ceremonial start still managed to attract spectators in their thousands. It was a fantastic atmosphere and a brilliant way to start the year.

Saturday morning was when the battle really began with SS1 Uddens. We finished the event 17th o/a last year and so was very keen to improve on our finishing result.

SS1 went well, we kept it very tidy as the stages were extremely slippery due to the amount of rain that had fallen recently. SS2 was much the same, very wet and boggy in places but very fast in others!! It was great, but, we felt we were down on power!! Going in to stage 3 we found ourselves 8th o/a we were well chuffed but felt we weren't driving flat out and was probably being to cautious!!

Onto SS4 and having settled in it was time to push.. The stage started well but on a long fast straight i felt the car struggling to gain power and on a tight hairpin right on exit we got bogged down, i had no choice put to go into first gear to gain traction and grip!! Unfortunately we went no further the clutch exploded and we had no choice put to pull off the stage!! Our rally was over!

Thanks to the Rally FM Motorhome for their hospitality and to everyone that supported us on this event. We will be back, I guess we can't complain really as this is our first mechanical retirement in nearly four years..

And as always thanks must go to Gordon, Matt & James our service crew... your the best :-)) x