Well, Daren Hall and I did make it through the Wyedean, but there were times when I thought he was trying to get his own back for making him sit with the maps on the Preston!
Cracking good event it was too – first time there for us, although Daren has been down spectating on it in the past. A LOT more slippery than we thought it would be, but some of that may be down to it being the first time out in this car in the forests. He wasn’t happy about having his crash helmet fail scrutineering either!
Certainly Daren found initial traction a problem with the 2000cc front wheel drive ex-Alister McRae / Nik Elsmore Sunny, but once on the move it tramps along pretty well. It left-foot brakes nicely and the back can be swung around quite easily – too easily sometimes! Ride height was way too high, which didn’t help, but we hadn’t had time to set the car up properly before the event.
Stage 1 was the very short squirt around Chepstow Racecourse – went fine until we came over a brow into the second chicane. It was so much tighter than the first chicane and we had no idea how tight. Too fast in, we stopped before hitting the pallets but like a lot of other competitors had to find reverse to get round it – bummer! Lost 5-6 seconds?
Stage 2 Speech House was the first proper stage and was a nightmare for a lot of competitors judging by the number of cars we passed in the stage and saw stationary at the end of it. The retirements list says: clutch, 2 x half shafts, hit tree, off road, diff etc etc.
A friend of ours, “& District” 7Oaks member Chris Powis, was out on his very first drive on the loose – never even tested. He’s darn good in his 1400 Nova, winning the Rally 2001 tarmac championship, but he didn’t make it through the first proper stage – his was the “hit tree” retirement!
We whacked an unseen hole or rock on a straight in Stage 3, Swallowvallets, throwing the car violently up onto two wheels as we headed for another car that had probably hit the same hole and were pulled up 200m down the track. The crew’s faces were a picture! How the tyre and rim survived it we just don’t know. Bent the track rod giving significant toe-out, but had no time to try and sort it at the management service point at the end of the stage.
Also we found it jumping out of 3rd gear a lot after that and some of the other gears too on the bumpy bits, meaning Daren had to drive one-handed – the other holding the gear stick. We had to run like that for Stages 4 and 5 before service, where we straightened the track rod but couldn’t do anything about the ’box.
The rest of the event went OK, loads of moments and near-misses with log piles and gate posts, but we didn’t hit anything and kept going despite the gearbox getting worse and worse. Daren couldn’t select 4th at all by the last stage, jumping out of most other gears if not held in – lots of revs in neutral when we should have been flat in 5th or 6th!
We were pleased to complete the last stage (no.10) and make the finish in one piece and even more pleased to find that we had overtaken our only class rival (the other had conked on stage 2) to win the class.
On loading the car we discovered that the strut that had taken the whack had smashed the strut alloy top mount and bent the inner wing. Oh yes, the screen cracked from bottom to top too. But that is one bloomin’ strong car, that’s for sure!
Mark Dawson was our sole support for the event, driving Daren’s Range Rover out to Management Service and then back into the main Service for us. He did a good job on the spanners too. He’s got that very smart V6 Chevette that he sprints and is no mean driver himself, but he doesn’t know how I can sit there reading the maps, sideways in 6th gear through log piles – not sure I know either! Thanks Mark.
Our 50th overall from 176 starters and just 119 finishers was ok, BUT we were beaten by three 1400cc drivers – they won’t do that next time!!! (Having said that, when we ran in the Colway Formula 1300 series, we regularly beat much more powerful cars – including the likes of the Simmonite sisters in their works 2wd Escort – so we know its not all about sheer grunt).
Overall winner, Andy Burton, drove superbly – we saw the car going at Chepstow and that looks and sounds brilliant!
Following an Evo Lancer most of the event, we could see just how effective four wheel drive is off the line – he must have saved 2-3 seconds on every stage just on the starts alone.
Lots of work to do before the next event, which should be the Rally of Kent, more as a test though as we are only registering for the BTRDA Silver Star Championship. If we can’t repair it then of course we will be marshalling in Hempstead Forest with the other 7Oaks members.

Andy Elcomb