MINI TEMPEST STAGES 8TH APRIL 2001

The first round of the Rally 2001 Tarmac Stage Rally championship took place on Sunday the 8th April one of the very few useable venues in the country – Longcross. To many members, even those of the speed variety, Longcross is a now a known quantity as it is the current site for our Spotted Dick & Custard Stages which will be run on 2nd Sept (mark your diaries now!).
For once, a bright and sunny day ensued – such a pleasant change from the blasted rain that just won’t seem to go away. Therefore slicks (or what passes for them since new rules) were the order of the day right from the start.
Four Sevenoaks crews were on the entry list, two of which were Spotted Dick 2000 sign-ups. John Eaton / Andrew Montgomery are pretty local and were going well in their rapid black 2000cc turbo’d Fiesta Cosworth and seeded at No.7 in Class D. The other recent joinees were Chris & Tom Powis at No. 56 (Class A) in their 1400 Nova – but they are distinctly “& District” members as they hail from Hereford. Colin Billings / Andy Elcomb filled Colin’s familiar yellow 2litre Golf at No.40 in Class C, whilst Stefan Davis / Vivien Elcomb had a pretty fraught day in his 1360cc AX GT, running at No.85 also in Class A.
Having had a few events cancelled already due to the dreaded F&M, you would have thought that people would have had more time to prepare their cars. However, stage 1 saw an incredible number of broken down cars littered all round the site. None appeared to have actually whacked anything – it was probably relatively silly things going wrong, but enough to have ruined their events. Fortunately none of our intrepid crews suffered this ignominious fate – but that doesn’t mean that they all finished the rally!
Stefan was troubled by a recurrence of gear selection problems, but at least he did appear to have solved the persistent misfire that plagued him last year. He had also visited a rally school up north before hand to get a bit of tuition, tips on car set-up and practice. He felt this was extremely useful, but was unable to get the most out of the car due to the gearbox problem. Mind you, he was obviously enjoying himself as he put in an extra lap on one stage – earning himself a maximum time penalty!
The Powis’ were going strong though, and just reported the odd moment – nothing too alarming said Tom. Their seeding is improving all the time, justified too as they walked off with a 2nd class award at the end.
John Eaton appeared to have been going well up to nearly half way.......... until he was spotted pointing in the wrong direction, well beached in the gravel, at one of the high-speed chicanes. Not sure yet whether it was a mechanical or biological failure, but it put them out of the rally! Want to let us in on the moment John?
Colin’s main rival was Bexley’s Terry Luckings in his equally immaculate red Golf. Parked side by side in the paddock they both looked good, and they both managed to keep the bodywork tidy, with the exception of some very light scuffmarks on the side. That just proves that you’re clipping apexes right! Terry has gone with the older 8-valve engine, but has more sophisticated suspension and brakes, as well as a six-speed gearbox in his left-hand drive shell. Colin’s 16-valve engine probably produces a bit more power, but the Corrado derived gearbox, although much stronger than a 16 valve Golf one, still gives a relatively slow gearchange.
The upshot of the above is that despite getting within one second on one stage, Terry never quite managed to pip Colin all day – hooray! Mind you, turning right at the bottom of the infamous ramp when he should have gone straight on cost Terry about 25 seconds on one stage, so he was rarely a threat.
A short new way off the perimeter track led into a quite tight twiddly section next to the paddock, giving a good chance for the service crews to see their charges in action. One Cosworth Sierra appeared in this section with a broken front compression strut, the front wheel wobbling about in the arch most alarming! He retired from that stage but was seen running a bit later on. An Astra went one better, a front wheel emerging from behind a large concrete ramp a second or so before the rest of the car, which ground to a halt running on the brake disc and sumpguard! Turns out that the wheel/nut combination meant only a few threads were used – not a good idea!
The twiddly section did mean a few cars catching others, but as there was no room to easily allow another to pass, one had to be patient. Stefan got caught up right at the exit onto the perimeter track but kindly moved well over to allow the other car through. Trouble was, the other driver was not nearly so well behaved and barged through, pushing the AX off the track onto the gravel. No real body damage done though, just big black tyre marks on the door.
However what the other car didn’t know was that they were now dealing with an extremely irate (and hormonal!) co-driver. That meant a visit to Deputy CoC Barry Guess who revealed that this was not the first complaint received, so the miscreants were duly referred to the MSA Steward and subsequently excluded from the results. They were allowed to continue the rally though, much to Viv’s disgust – she would rather have seen them hung, drawn and quartered.
Instead of coming over and apologising for the contact, all the crew did was send their mates over to inspect the damage, which they found most amusing. A few words between the co-drivers were exchanged later, and unfortunately their argument was that they thought that they had the priority, so s*d you mate! What they still don’t know is that Viv will be the Entries Secretary for our event later in the year and their card is well and truly marked!!
Stefan and Viv’s gearbox woes soon turned into a complete loss of second gear, so he carried on using 1st and 3rd, which made the clutch start to slip. However they were soon put out of their misery when they conked out on stage with a burned out fuel pump (which may have been down to running out of fuel too!). They waved cheerfully though as the remaining 7Oaks crews passed.
It couldn’t last of course – the sunshine that is – and sure enough the thickening clouds started to spit at us as we waited for the last stage. As Colin’s slicks were getting seriously worn out by now, it was felt prudent to put treaded intermediate tyres on – as did many other competitors. Needless to say the rain didn’t come to anything, at least not until the awards and the run home. An identical time on the last two stages was sufficient to hold on to 4th in class and 13th overall for Colin – a good result as the cars in front were all powerful Mk2 Escorts, which are extremely hard to beat.
Good event, well run by Sutton & Cheam MC, roll on the next on 20th May (not literally we hope!).

Andy Elcomb

The Acorn : May Edition