My co-driver John Bond and I ventured out on our first loose surfaced rally together on June 15th within the forest of Mid Wales around Newtown.
In the days leading up to the event, we had spent every spare hour working on the car, fitting a new gearbox and a much needed race and rally gearbox differential in order to gain some extra grip through the loose forest tracks.
Suffering a serious engine misfire on the first stage, we were not blessed with a good start… a quick look after the first stage could not establish the problem but time was ticking and we had to press ahead in order to reach the next stage. We were pushing hard through stage two only to be faced with a electrical fault resulting in the car coming to a sudden halt. Around 20 minutes were lost solving the problem - all the while being showered with gravel in the wake of passing cars. The faulty electrics were temporarily fixed to enable us to reach the next stage.
At this point, we had lost a lot of time and consequently dropped down the running order behind slower competitors – we were not discouraged by this and by the 4th stage there was no stopping us. The car responded well to the injection of refreshed determination and we were on top form as the car was pushed to the limit flowing effortlessly around the track. Hot on the heels of the car in front, the dry, dusty conditions resulted in their efforts vanishing before us as we were temporarily blinded by a cloud of dust left by the previous car on a fast downhill section. A tight left emerged from the dust and we careered off the track landing 35ft down off the Welsh track some 400 metres from the finish. . . this was to be the end of the event for us.
Not all was lost, we had gained the kind of experience that has only made us more determined to achieve our goals and even in the face of disappointment we managed to end the day with a smile … (see inset).
We certainly have our work cut out for us in order to take part in our next outing on the 19th July - the Colin McCrae Stages, a round of the Scottish Eccose 205 Challenge and Autumn Cup. We will certainly give it our best shot.
We will certainly be back in force for the 205 challenge round - the Swansea Bay Rally, 9th August in South Wales.