Well we made it!
It took a grand total of 4 days, and 9 late evening to get it finished!
To be honest it tried to fight us every step of the way.
The drivers side shock decided to blow up the Monday before the event, so that was a mad rush and mega turnaround from Proflex. Not only that but the Friday morning of the event it wouldn't start, well it started, ran for five minuets before stopping and not restarting. we chased that down to fouled plugs, probably due to a poor cold start map. We got to Blackpool in plenty of time though and it flew through scrutineering.
We had a certain amount of trepidation going into the event, its the first multi venue event we have done in about 8 years and is known to be hard on cars and crews. Added to that was no time to spanner check the car properly, something that's always important to do pre-event. Oh and it was raining HARD and we had no proper wets, just some part worn R1R's.
Rally start:
First problem! The new heated screen kept blowing fuses, quick fix was to just run the drivers half of the screen. The result was heavy condensation on the passenger side meaning water was running down the inside of the screen on the passenger side! (result of no testing time!) Oh and the first 4 stages were in the dark!
SS1. Lytham Hall
The road timing on the northwest is notoriously tight, this meant that we were already into our free lateness by the time we started SS1, and we didn't go wrong!
The wait for the first stage was a long one, plenty of cars were going off in the wet greasy conditions and had to be recovered before we could run. All the cars i could see were running proper wets too, making me even more nervous about the R1R's.
We eventually got going and found out for ourselves how slippy it was, we were nearly dragged into the hedge on the first corner by slipping of the edge of the road and onto the mud! The stage was horrible, pitch black,raining,mud everywhere.
Slow and steady and make it to day 2 was the order of the evening, especially with the lack of visibility out of the screen.
We got though Lytham 1 in 69th position, but we were through.
SS2. Lytham 2
Same conditions as Lytham 1 as it was just a re run. All the stages were run it sets of two to cut down on road mileage.
We had a minor tank slapper incident in here, but didn't collect anything!
Finished the stage in 65th so were moving in the right direction.
SS3 Prom 1
This was one of the attractions to doing this event! flat out down the sea front with solid reinforced concrete walls either side, no room for error and very fast!
Great stage, an amazing experience. flat out in the dark, with the rain and the sea coming over the sea walls onto the car - incredible.
We jumped 12 placed in this stage and were running in 53rd.
SS4 Prom 2
We were getting into the groove now, up another 7 places to finish the first day in 46th overall. Much higher than we were expecting!
So onto day 2:
We were buoyed by the performance of day one, so had hoped to push for 3rd in class. Those hopes were dashed in stage 5 when we dropped around 2 minuets and 15 seconds through a missed split - bugger. Unfortunately it was just one of those things but would cost us by the end of the day.
In our minds any chance of getting a pot were now gone, so we set about trying to get to the finish and get some half decent stage times without taking too many risks.
SS5 and SS6 were fleetwood, after which we were down in 68th.
SS7 and SS8 were the ABP docks, short stages set out with cones. Had a really good laugh through here and got chance to chase
@Grats in his clio! lots of fun!
After 7 and 8 we were in 61st.
SS9 and SS10 were Weeton.
Weeton is somewhere we have been before and is somewhere that suits my driving style. I decided to have a push though here, and it paid off! 3rd fastest class stage time and 26th fastest overall on 9 and then 2nd fastest class time and 25th fastest time overall on 10.
That push would see us move up to 41st O/A and but still 6th in class.
We had service and then back out for two more prom stages.
SS11 and SS12 were the same stages as ss 3 and 4 so with some experience behind us i had a little push again. SS11 was rubbish, not enough commitment. I pulled my finger out for SS12 and that yielded a 3rd fastest class time.
The rest of the afternoon was pretty OK. Last stage of the loop was SS19 lytham again.
Although i have been giving you positions by stage, we didnt have the information in the car until after each pair of weeton stages (and the results didn't include the two stages that you had just completed before receiving the times)
Sat in the queue for SS19 i asked if we had received any times at the last Weeton stages? we had but Angus hadn't told me them! And to our amazement we had worked our way to 2nd in class!! 30th overall! Having never received a position before this brought a new set of questions as to how to drive the stages. I didn't want to push to had to try and maintain the position and fall off the road, nor did i want to ease off too much and lose the place.
We finished stage 19 in 2nd in class and 29th O/A
SS20 was cancelled.
Only service and four more stages to go, two Proms and two Weetons.
SS21 Prom 5
It had started to rain more heavily, and to cut a long story short i was a fan*y! lost loads of time compared to what i should have done. I got caught by Tony Bardy in the focus WRC (not on the same lap) and decided to try* to keep up LOL! That cost me a wing and a wing mirror cutting a chicane too tightly!
Still maintained the 2nd in class at this point
SS22 Prom 6
Pushed a little harder and still kept the second in class, although i was being caught by Andy Graham & Rob McHenry in the escort.
SS23 and 24 were again back to Weeton.
SS23 wasn't a great run, it had gone dark and i was very conscious of not falling off the road and clouting one of Weetons infamous curbs.
We went into the last stage 2nd in class, 12 second in front of 3rd.
SS24 Its hard to describe in words the disappointment i feel about this stage. we pushed hard, very hard. unfortunately when we came to the split for the first time we got caught behind a MK2 escort driven by a complete tool, the worst case of balking i have ever encountered, and we were stuck on his bumper for two laps. Second in class was gone we lost 60 seconds to
Andy Graham & Rob McHenry. Gutted, espeshally to loose it because of someone else and their bad etiquette. loads of room to let cars pass in Weeton.
But we finished the event with a career best result of 3rd in class and 26th O/A which we were both pleased and annoyed with. Minus that two minuets and we were clear second in class, but that's rallying! and some of the other luck went our way.
Still very impressed with the result, especially on part worn R1R's (great tyres for the money!)
Massive thanks to: Angus my co-driver, Proflex UK (great blokes),SW Motorsports, Hopley Tyres and Advantage Motorsport
www.advantage-motorsport.co.uk
Anyway enough words, pictures
