Well last month saw the Rally of Wales – sorry must stop calling it that — Rally of Great Britain once again sort the men from the boys and the boys came out on top for a change!  Petter Solberg’s face was an absolute picture of joy at the end of the final stage finally taking his first win of the year, ah bless him!  I have to say I was glad I was watching from my warm and cosy armchair, the Channel 4 coverage was superb once again and the fiasco of too many spectators in a small area could pass me by.  The organisers really will have to look at spreading this event back out again to include the rest of Great Britain. I have nothing against Wales and our last trip to the then RAC Rally as spectators in 1992, included some good venues, but wasn’t it obvious to the organisers that bottle necks around the stages would be a problem. You can read the inside story of this year’s Rally GB as Nick Crush ventured into the forests this year and has sent us a marshal’s point of view of the action.  Other contributions this month include Andrew Actman’s 2002 World Cup Rally exploits. I would like to apologise to those of you who have sent copy but can’t find it in this Acorn. I was in the happy situation of having too much stuff this month so you will find yourselves appearing in January’s issue. Keep up the good work people!
I ventured out by myself to Croydon’s 12 car in November with a new co-driver, Mark Dawson (Brave Man)! No, Ralph and I didn’t have a “Grist  and McRae” style bust up, my other half had a boy’s night out, there was a spare babysitter, Daren was on a booze cruise and Mark needed someone to sit beside him.  Just for once, things came together!  The left hand seat isn't Mark’s usual territory but I have no stomach for navigating, so it was with some trepidation we arrived at Westerham and signed in as “Experts” - Ha! Whose idea was that I’d like to know! Obviously didn’t know I was coming!  We were one of four 7Oaks crews who turned out. The evening progressed pretty well however, with the navigation reasonably challenging but not overly so and sections of the roads had to be taken with caution due to the amount of wet compacted leaves on the surface.  Mark was not used to using a potty and the Vectra does not come equipped with a map light, so Mark brought along his BT issue miner’s lamp!  This was not a successful piece of equipment and after a while Mark began to feel queasy, But he managed to keep reading the road to me  until a couple of sections from the end when he fell strangely quiet and I was left to my own devices (not a good thing!).  We arrived at the last TC in good time but a flashing light on the dashboard indicated that I was a little (actually very) low on petrol.  We finished well being the top 7Oaks crew and managed a very respectable finish of 6th out of 11 crews with no fails and 16 minutes dropped.  Mick and Chris Rose were unfortunate though to pick up a fail, as a penalty for leaving a TC ahead of time and finished 9th but  would have been ahead of us with only 9 minutes dropped. The other 7Oaks crews were Chris and Richard Wise who came in behind us in 7th with 21 minutes and John Roots and Andrew Watson who sadly did not finish.  After a drink and a natter with the other competitors, Mark and I made our way back.  We passed Clacketts Service area when I remembered that it would have been a good place to stop for fuel! Mark seemed to think the petrol station near him at Godstone would still be open so we stopped there, only to find that it had just closed for the night.  By this time, the Vectra was running on fumes and coughed its way back to Mark’s abode. Luckily Mark had a can of unleaded in his garage and we poured it into the tank.  Thanks Mark.  I will get Ralph to fill the car up before I go out in future!!
Festive Wishes to you all dear readers!

Dawn Travers
P.S. Apologies for the lateness this month