The previous BTRDA round went well in Wales and we were looking forward to the Woodpecker, which seems to have a good reputation. Based in Ludlow, the stages were in and around the Welsh Marches that are on the Welsh border up around Birmingham level.

Apart from the dodgy starter motor, the Sunny just needed a general check over and clean, so there shouldn’t have been any real problems to sort. Typically things didn’t quite go to plan!

Having tried (and failed) to get a replacement starter motor, we settled for having a new solenoid and brushes fitted, with the rest of the motor seemingly in good shape. Unfortunately Daren didn’t get round to fitting it until the day before we were due to travel and of course it started to play up again! I’m not convinced that the starter is actually the problem – it may be a dry joint somewhere in the power cables – but as it seemed to work ok if you pressed the starter button three or four times quickly we felt it was ok to go with.

We also replaced the wheel bearings on one of the trailer wheels as it had been rumbling for ages.

Seeded again at 30 out of 174 starters, we felt that was about right. The good thing was that for the first time we were seeded a couple of places in front of our class rival Will Onions in the RS2000 kit car and we were first front wheel drive.

Seven stages were on offer, with a couple at 8.5 miles and Radnor at 13.5 miles. We knew the competition was going to be fierce, not just because Will and Daren were now tying for 1^st in class, but there were a lot of local crews out – Will being one of them – and they knew most of the stages well. Ceri, at stage 5 was the exception, as apparently it hadn’t been used for 10 years, so we were hoping that it might be a good one for us. Patterson Pacenotes were being used again, and it amazes me that a few of the top crews still stick to the maps in preference to the notes. That really is doing it the hard way as there are loads of not-as-map bends, but fine, if that’s the way they want to play then good luck!

Mark Dawson was back in the Range Rover as Management and Service all rolled into one – as noted in the decent pre-event write up that Daren had in Motorsport News.

The first stage, Hopton at 4.5 miles went ok and I don’t remember any problems, but we were amazed to find ourselves right down at 70^th overall and a good 12 seconds down on Will. Cripes! Where we lost out I have no idea. It was a bit slippery in places but nothing really bad.

Stage 2, Wigmore at 3.25 miles went much the same, and although we improved to 47^th fastest we still dropped a further 7 seconds to Will. Hmmm, not good!

Haye Park 1 was the third stage and at 8.5 miles was pretty serious. We took 10 minutes exactly here and felt it had gone pretty well. 32^nd fastest overall here – much better. But the really good news was that Will retired here with a broken throttle. Bad luck for him, but brilliant luck for us as we were well ahead of the other class contender. All we had to do was cruise for maximum class points…..

On arrival at Stage 4, a very short 2.5 miler, we were held for ages as there had been a serious accident at the front. We believe that an early car had stopped on stage, presumably partially blocking it, and it was then hit by another car that then rolled, collecting a spectator in the process. No serious injuries, but the air ambulance was called in and the stage cancelled.

From there it was on to the main service and then a long drive out to stage 5, Ceri at 4.3 miles. The notes had one particular section triple cautioned and as it was called the ski slope and was marked as very slippery, bumpy and steep downhill into a 90 left, we were determined to be careful.

We were careful there, but it was ok. In fact we were 20^th fastest there out of the 148 currently running, so maybe the lack of local knowledge did affect a lot of runners. That made us feel much better.

A further long drive took us to Radnor, at 13.5 miles by far the longest stage but one that many said we would enjoy.

Quite early on in the stage we came across a competitor waving us to slow and as we came round a bend we saw car 21 on it’s side in the middle of the road, another car stopped behind it, but obviously no injuries as all four were running about trying to get the Escort back on its wheels. Daren spotted that there was room to squeeze by on the inside of the bend and we went on our way. We subsequently realised that the co-driver of the Escort was Motorsport News reporter, Hannah Curry and knew that she was certainly having something exciting to write about!

This stage was fast! The car and driver were going well, until at around five miles in, flat out in 6^th gear, Daren suddenly shouts “power’s gone!” Sure enough, despite turning the ignition, master switch and fuel pump off and on, the car just continued to slow as momentum ran out. We came to a halt on an uphill straight(ish) bit, rolled the car back onto the narrow verge and started trying to find out why it had stopped.

Pulling the spark plugs showed we had sequential sparks, cracking the fuel rail joint showed fuel pressure, and stuffing a rag in the plugholes showed we seemed to have compression, but would it go? Would it heck! So that was it. Game over. We had to wait until the end of the stage before Mark came in with the Range Rover to give Daren a long tow back to Ludlow.

No doubt Will won’t believe his luck to find we didn’t finish either and so we go into the Plains Rally at Welshpool on 20^th September still tying for first place in class, and everything to play for – if we can find the problem in time. The only significant change in the various standings is that I have now dropped to 3^rd from 1^st in the Senior Co-driver listing.