As I promised last month here are the tales various of events far and wide. The Drystone is an event, which has seen activity from our members for several years and has always been a rough, lots of whites, timed to the second event using some excellent roads in the Peak District. It has always required a good set of knobbly tyres with reinforced sidewalls, so I bought two new Colways to go with the two new last year and off we set. I was hoping to do well this year as it was the first time Andy Coshan and I had been together on this event and, as it happened, this year Graham Child and Kevin Ablitt were there too and had taken the precaution of trailering the car there. The start venue was new and so was the organising team and as a result, the event was nothing like what we expected with the large part of the route on tarmac which didn’t help the tyres we’d chosen. Andy was not at his best having suffered an attack of gall stones on the way up which required heavy painkillers not the best for alertness and concentration. The net result of all this was a fair bit of time dropped in the first few sections and a very confusing bit near the Carsington Water reservoir and our luck really ran out a few miles further on. What we down here call LWRNAM (Long Way Round Not As Map) triangles they call GTs (Grass Triangles) and we were to come a cropper on the next of these. Andy Manston, our local photographer who travels all over the country photographing rallies, happened to be taking pictures at the point in question, which added to the embarrassment as I managed to understeer the Manta through the Code Board and into some deep ruts on the outside of the triangle. The car was well and truly stuck with the nearside wheels dangling in mid air and the belly firmly on the ground. Pushing, towing and cursing was to no avail so, after everyone had gone (thanks for trying chaps – sorry about the delay and tyre/transmission wear) I looked around for something to stuff under the wheels. Fortunately I found a wooden pallet dumped by a gate further into the triangle and we dismantled it into planks, remembering to flatten the nails. Jacking the car up and shoving these under the rear wheel resulted, after a couple of attempts, to move us forward several feet and another of the same technique got us back onto terra firma, but well outside our time limit.
We went on to the petrol halt and decided (mostly Andy, the brave s…) to have a bash at the second half, which went reasonably well so we at least managed a finish. Graham and Kevin had a less than satisfying first half too but without getting stuck dropping 7 fails 75mins 29secs (compared with our 9 fails 101mins 56secs) and we saw quite a lot of them during the second half. This went better for both of us with us dropping 15mins 36secs and Graham and Kevin dropping 18mins 27secs. The final result showed Graham and Kevin 28th overall and us 31st, better than we’d expected at one point!
As an interlude from groping my way around in the dark I thought I’d have a go at groping my way round in the dust. Andy Coshan was secretarying an Autocross for Southsea MC down at Meonstoke in Hampshire so I asked Mark Dawson if he’d like to join me thrashing the poor Manta round a stubble field. The day was extremely hot and fairly dusty so the event was run individually rather than in groups, which I much prefer. We had an enjoyable day with me coming last and, therefore, Mark beating me, but I hope he’ll tell you further in his bit.
The next weekend Andy C and I were up in North Yorkshire for the St. Wilfred’s Rally, run by Ripon Motor Sports Club this time with only a few whites we were back on the trusty Yokes which suited the conditions well, I haven’t seen results yet but we were 15th overall dropping 16mins 16secs over the 130 mile route. It was quite wet in places from the heavy rain they’d been having during the week before the event but the night was fine so the marshals didn’t have too bad a night and we had a lot of fun.
What’s next? The Spotted Dick and Custard at Longcross on 1st September that’s what so I know you’ll all be there competing or helping out on this major event. Seriously we need all the help we can get, please phone Chris Scudder if you haven’t volunteered already NOW, thanks.

See you at Longcross.

Chin