It really all started at the end of 2001 when following the loss of 1^st gear at Bovington the decision was made to rebuild the gearbox using Quaife straight cut internal. The work was undertaken by Shoreham based Road and Race Transmissions better known as Phil Stewart and a very good job he did too. The next outing at a very slippery Longcross in December showed the change to be an instant success with a 9^th O/A finish, which all looked good for the coming season.

In reality the forthcoming season was not very far away. I was invited by Colin Knott, a Brands Hatch Colleague and fellow SDMC member albeit quite “and district”, to visit their neck of the woods near Weston-Super-Mare to compete in the Regency Stages, held at a very substantial caravan park at Brean. Do not be misled by the description, the venue is a real challenge and provides a wide range of roads and on the 2^nd and 3^rd February it’s not only mighty cold but also extremely slippery. 12^th O/A 4^th in Class and 1^st Front wheel drive was not bad on a first visit and we spent most of the long drive home contemplating the forthcoming season.

March saw a trip to Bournemouth for a two-day event. The conditions where ideal and whilst I don’t recall it as being warm it was certainly dry. I was now at home with the closer ratio box and we were fairly flying. As we sat over dinner on Saturday night we were looking forward to Sunday morning and starting at 12^th after the overnight re-seed. When we started the first stage of the day I could only see the potential for a good result, however as I turned into the last corner there was a bang and what was to become a familiar noise as a drive shaft broke.

In April I fulfilled a long time aim as we trundled our way down to the west for the Tour of Cornwall. I have wanted to do this event for years, as it is one of the few multi venue tarmac events left in the national calendar. Due to Andy Elcomb’s other commitments, I had recruited Andy Kilby to the left hand seat, fresh from his success on the Monte-Historique. It’s fair to say that whilst Andy’s navigation skills are very well practiced and his knowledge of stage rallying extensive having been part of the BLCC Kent Forestry Stages organisation for many years, he’d never sat in a Stage rally car on stage in competition (oh were his eyes to be opened)! The event is part of the National Tarmac Championship and so there was some mighty machinery on the event, which saw us seeded way back at 52. What a day we had, Andy was up to speed after a few stages once he got used to quite how quickly things happened on stage and as we approached the last two stages (15 and 16) at the Rally HQ before last service and parc-ferme, we were 20^th O/A. As we came up between some buildings on an up hill section on the penultimate stage of the day, we were flat in 4^th when we crossed a drain which ran the full width of the road. Bang! That dreaded sound again! The momentum of the car took us to a suitable place to pull off, and as I got out of the car I pronounced my disappointment in no uncertain terms. I then discovered we were parked right in front of the commentary box and most of the crowd also heard them (oops!). It was extremely disappointing as I had fitted two new shafts prior to the event, but we had proved we could mix it with the best of them and hold our heads up. I must take this opportunity to thank Bill and Matt Oliver and Matt Cotton for their help on that trip and the least said about the murder enquiry the better!

Another new drive shaft fitted and we were off to Abingdon at the beginning of June for the Car-nival Stages. Stage 1 heard that dreaded noise again, this isn’t just bad luck but confirmed what I had already thought. The much closer ratios on the six speed box meant that the drive shafts were taking much more of a pounding than with a standard set-up, plus the engine was now producing 50% more power than standard, so modifications had to be made.

There were many telephone calls over the next few weeks and the end result was to be Ford Focus WRC CV joints courtesy of GKN, new extra strong drive shafts from Mr Quaife, who were also going to machine new hubs to take the much bigger CV joints. Let’s just say things didn’t quite go to plan with delivery dates and so it was September when we were finally ready to try the new set-up. I decided to go to Avon Park to test the week before the next event, just to make sure everything was working. Plus whilst off the road, I had taken the chance to fit power-steering as the torque steer with the new gearbox was torturous on the arms. The plan was not to put on a lot of miles but just make sure that everything was working properly and it was…until the engine started to rattle. Well, that was certainly the end of the 2002 season, I’d had enough.

Needless to say that the engine was rebuilt with a few further enhancements, which found a bit more power but mainly made it a lot more tractable. And so it was back to Brean for another visit to the caravan park. I don’t know what those caravaners do to those roads but they’re extremely slippery On second thought I don’t think I want to know! Andy Kilby was back in the left hand seat (so the previous excursion obviously didn’t dampen his sense of adventure) as Andy E had opted to go back into the forests with Daren Hall. We had a good couple of days, albeit one very bad tyre choice cost us at least one place, but 13^th O/A and 4^th in class was respectable and we missed retaining 1^st FWD by one place, and so it ordered well for the coming year.

It was then back to Avon Park in March for the two-day event run by Bournemouth & District Motor Club. The least said about this event the better. Let's just say the standard of organisation was poor and the stage layouts were just down right dangerous.

The next outing was to be the Rally of the Midlands, a two day multi venue event using Mira as the main venue, somewhere I’d never seen before but what a place it is. The start was in Nuneaton town centre and as we were waved off by the Mayor we were full of anticipation. The first car on the road was Gwyndaf Evans in the works MG ZR. Unfortunately there was a timing problem on SS1 that caused a delay but we then started to get into a rhythm. Multi venue events are so much more of a challenge, as you are on the go all day and service periods are few and generally short so there is far more of a team feel about the event. It was all going well until SS6. We were back at Mira and had just completed a stage there, and our stage times were suggesting a good result. We started the stage 1^st up to 8000rpm, 2^nd back up to 8000rpm 3^rd Bang and a very expensive noise…this was no drive shaft! There was nothing to do but dip the clutch, stop, phone Matt and wait for the end of the stage for recovery. When Phil stripped the box the diagnosis was the lug that carries the selector shaft had broken and when I changed up to 3^rd it had not taken it out of 2^nd, the net result apart from the noise was a new set of 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd gears.

BLCC’s Anniversary Stages was the next date on

the calendar and what a scorcher that was. Terry Cavender uses the venue slightly differently to other clubs that run at Longcross and so it makes for a pleasant change. The weather was creating problems for both cars and crew and early on the car was suffering with a misfire so we plugged the laptop in only to read a cylinder head temperature of 120°C. At that point I decided not to look again as the ECU was switching into safety mode. Removing the grill made a big difference and reduced the engine temperature by some 15°C, which cured the misfire and also settled the driver’s nerves. 13^th O/A and 7^th in class was not as high as we might have liked but the misfire had obviously cost more time than we first thought.

A trip back down to the West Country was to take us to Keevil for the Fat Albert Stages. The venue can be a bit rough in places and this doesn’t suite everyone, but the Golf always seems to cope well with a bit of broken concrete. By stage 2 it was wet and extremely slippery, however we didn’t have to deal with those conditions for too long as part way around the stage the main fuel pump decided that it had worked hard enough and promptly stopped. In rallying there is no getting recovered, fixing the problem and then going back out again so our day was done.

A return to Avon Park in August for Southern Car Club’s Bournemouth Seat Stages meant I wasn’t at North Weald. Oh what a difference an organising team makes, I believe that was the hottest day of the year and we recorded temperatures of up to 47°C in the car, but having made some modifications to the cooling system the engine was fully on song all day. We hardly touched the car all day (it was too damned hot) and were very happy to drive home afterwards with 9^th O/A and 4^th in class.

This brings us pretty much up to date. There is

one thing for sure class C (1600 to 2000cc) is a very competitive class that usually contains more than

half the field, which makes for some very stiff competition. We were quite hopeful of a result this last weekend, when for the first time we visited Oakington for the Bomb-a-Long Stages. 22^nd after Stage 1 was certainly off the pace. It was the first time we had seen the stage and the many warnings of “Watch the lack of grip” were totally unfounded, so whether they were gamesmanship or not I’m not sure but you’d be a fool to ignore them. The venue is quite a challenge, with both tight twisty 2^nd and 3^rd gear stuff with kerbs everywhere, to some blind long open flat in 6^th, corners all of which make for interesting stages. We came away with 10^th O/A and 4^th in class, so we are certainly looking forward to the next visit.

Next time out, the City of Truro Stages in Cornwall in early October, so watch this space.