May

23

Riponian Rally 2012

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Driver : Dave Hemingway
Navigator : Rob Hart

I entered with Rob Hart from Horbury Bridge, Wakefield. Another Wakefield and District Motorsports Club member and it was only his third time in a rally car, his first venture onto a multi-venue rally and also his first experience in the forests so sitting in one of the quickest rear wheel drive cars in the rally was a baptism of fire. The rally was held in the North Yorkshire Forests around Helmsley.

The leading 10 seeded cars were all 4wd turbo cars including a handful of World Rally cars, the remainder being Subarus and Mitsubishi Evos and we were being a bit dwarfed as the first normally aspirated 2wd car on the road.

We were holding our own in the results despite promising to have a steady, controlled rally and when the first set of results came in after the first three stages we were lying 11th and were second of the rear drive cars being beaten by local driver Jonathan Kitchen, a situation we were in a couple of years ago when we pushed hard to catch him and clipped a bridge which led to us rolling the car and losing a lot of time in the process (look for Roppa 2 on Youtube)

The mornings stages were dry and hard as a result of an overnight freeze but by lunch time, the tracks were thawing and the moisture being released was making the conditions boggy and very slippery; even slippier than the morning’s ice. This of course favoured the four wheel drive guys who then started to eek a few seconds from us. We had dropped to 12th overall and held a half minute lead over our nearest challenger.

We soldiered on through the afternoon’s stages, the car performing faultlessly and Rob improving on every stage with the map reading. On Stage 10 the battery in the intercom went flat so we resorted to hand signals and shouting and it was duly replaced before we entered the next stage. We enjoyed top five times on the last two stages and although we’d pegged the gap to class leading Jonathan Kitchen to just under half a minute, he unfortunately suffered mechanical failure less than hundred yards before the end of the last stage gifting us the class win and eleventh overall when his front stub axle broke.

May

23

MR2 Series 2011 : The Story So Far

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Officially we are now two rounds into the 2011 MR2 Racing Series season but I’ve already competed in eleven races. Firstly, there was an initiation race in April; a double header of Nippon Challenge cars and Mr2s at the Silverstone National Circuit,. Next came the 750 MC MR2 Challenge race which half a dozen of the regular MR2 series drivers entered. This was a double header with heats and I ended up driving in three races there. The first round of the MR2 series proper was a couple of weeks later and back at Brands Hatch followed at the end of May by the second round at Castle Combe where I entered the Nippon Challenge as well to gain more experience on the track and benefit from the drastically reduced entry fees.
What I have realised is that my car is crap. I’m not saying that the whole of the problem is the car, I’m still trying to drive it like a Mk 2 Escort on gravel and it’s an MR2 on tarmac so there’s a vast difference. Both the car and myself are improving though, slowly. What I have been doing is messing about with the suspension. Lowering it, raising it, trying different track and tow angles, adjusting the camber and fiddling with the tyre pressures. And I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t really know what I’m doing.
At the Silverstone race in April I’d qualified the second MR2 on the grid. Some of the main protagonists were absent but there were still some quick lads behind me. In race 1 I held on to finish 3rd MR2 but had some serious handling problems while trying to keep pace with the flying Jon Winter who was the eventual MR2 winner. Race 2 was much worse!
Brands Hatch for the MR2 Championship with the 750 Motor Club and the car had been put back to standard suspension. The standard height springs made it look like a 4×4 and the uprated road shockers were struggling to keep the wheels on the road. Having said that, the car was gripping a lot better, didn’t eat any tyres but did seem to lean a bit. Half way through the day, an angle grinder was procured and the springs shortened a bit to a more suitable height and a class A record lap was set.
A fortnight later, on the first of May we were back at Bratch; this time with Red Dragon for the MR2 Series. Now if I was a gambling man, I would have put a couple of quid on myself here, three races worth of sneaky practice and some suspension mods a fortnight before should have made me one of the favourites but a second covered the top ten qualifiers and I was down in 8th. Should I be disappointed with this when I was 6 seconds quicker than the 38th qualifier? The race went quite smoothly but I was disappointed not to be able to match the pace of the front-runners and although I made a few places up, I also had a couple wrestled from me to finish 8th. Race 2 was a similar story, places gained and places lost, a bad start due to getting pushed off the road in the congestion at Druids dropped me half a dozen spots before we reached Graham Hill Bend and the next few laps were spent gaining places and avoiding the carnage Jonny White was leaving in his wake. A trip to the scenery along with Simon Garderer to avoid a rotating Chris Shackle put paid to catching any more cars up and when Paul Corbridge spun and rejoined in front of me, he was able to pull away and leave me to hold off Gardener.
Castle Combe was the next round on Spring Bank Holiday Monday and I had done some homework. I’d managed to get some suspension settings that they use for Autocross racing in America so, armed with the tracking gear and a camber gauge, my mate Pud and myself wound the suspension settings on to the car. In fairness, we didn’t even have to move the rear and the front was within a fraction of a degree but we were safe in the knowledge that it was pointing where it should have been. All the work seemed fruitless when Monday morning dawned and it was drizzling profusely. The type of rain that wets you through. I spent the couple of hours between scrutineering and practice unbolting suspension bits and strut braces to try to soften the car a bit. The rain also wet the track and made everyone drive like girls, except for the girls. For the Nippon Challenge, I was second MR2 in a respectable 7th but behind MR2 rookie Charlotte Burridge who’d shown us all the way round. MR2 qualifying was not so good. Every quick lap I attempted was thwarted by someone spinning, a yellow flag or simply catching someone that was driving like a nonce.
Nippon Race 1 was wet through. I escalated myself to fifth overall and had a couple of attempts to pass the Celica in front for 4th but it wasn’t to be, his straight line speed was way too quick so I spent the race fending Richard Avery off instead. Fifth and first in class was quite an achievement though.
MR2 Race 1 was always going to be interesting with 34 cars on the grid so caution was the order of the day. By simply avoiding spinning cars I exited the first bend in fifth place and was in shouting distance of the leaders. Matt Smith had held on to 4th from his second spot on the grid and was inches in front of me when he backed off mid corner and I headed for the grass to avoid him and I rejoined in 9th just behind Steve Hennessy and Dave Thomas. Dave was disposed of at the very next bend and Steve was more than a handful with his similar Cogsport engine but I had a better line into Camp Curve where Steve gave me loads of room and I nailed it down the start straight and up to 7th. Richard Avery had taken a visit to the scenery at Quarry and Charlie Budd was taken Buffalo Girl style at quarry to put me up to fifth and a couple of laps later I was gifted fourth as Aaron Pullen took to the grass in front of me. In front I could see that Matt Smith was now in second followed by Mark Woods and Dave Pittard had decided that he didn’t like us and had just buggered off. I closed the gap to Mark and was thinking about how I might get past when we started to encounter back markers on lap 5. Despite being quite close at one point, a podium was never on the cards but I was close enough to see Matt Smith take second place.
Nippon Race 2 was simply a futile attempt to fend off faster cars as they streamed past on a drying track. I retained the GT150 class lead however from Nathan Harrison who came in second a handful of seconds behind.
MR2 Race 2 was shaping up to be quite interesting. I had time to fuel the car after the Nippon race before they were calling us to the assembly area and then on to the grid for what was now a quite dry track. Some drivers had the time to bolt their suspension back on to give a dry set up but mine was still on Mr Soft mode. Despite this, I was able to catapult the car from the second row of the grid and follow Dave Pittard into Quarry and settled down behind him in second place. I was able to follow Pittard quite closely but he was carrying more speed through the faster corners and pulling away on the straights. I was dropping about a second or more to him but then catching it all back up around quarry and the Esses where my car seemed more settled. But Dave was a fast learner and he was getting quicker lap by lap and I was over-driving trying to keep up and had started to make mistakes. With me off his bumper he was able to concentrate on his driving and eked out a few seconds lead as I bounced it over the kerbs on the exits of the corners. Lap 7 was to be my downfall as with second place almost in the bag, I managed to spin it through 720 degrees on the oil slick Matt Smith had left behind after his engine self destructed and by the time I’d managed to restart it and weave my way through the wrecked cars on the grass, I’d been demoted to 10th and behind Nathan Harrison. Lucky for me that I got it going again as the bit of grass I’d spun on to was occupied by half a dozen interwoven cars the next time I passed it. I was just able to pip Nathan for 9th place before the chequered flag dropped a couple of laps early to give the marshals some extra time to clear the wreckage up.
So the season so far has been a bit of a learning curve. The main points I’ve learned are that KYB shockers are not as good as everyone makes out; and they won’t last a full season in a race car; and despite everyone telling you that a set of cut down Apex Springs accompanied by KYBs and Red Stuff pads are all you need to be competitive, no one actually does this. It looks like there’s still a bit of room for improvement after all.

May

23

RAC Rally 2011

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Driver : Dave Hemingway
Navigator : Simon Ashton

The weekend started off badly on Thursday when the car was delivered to Pud at Woodfield Garage for a quick once-over before the rally started on Friday. What was scheduled to be a spanner check and an oil change after a 500 mile running-in session turned out to be a gearbox rebuild and change.
Friday didn’t exactly go swimmingly either. At about the time we were due to set off to the start at Helmsley, I discovered an electrical fault which pointed quite firmly at the engine management computer. After removing the dashboard and revealing the nest of wires beneath, the fault was painstakingly traced and the errant yellow wire which seemed to be causing all the problems was found to be a bad connection on the back of a relay. A new connection and the refitting of the dashboard and we were on our way, a couple of hours late to the start of the rally.
With the car scrutineered and the paperwork sorted out, it wasn’t long before we were sitting on the start line of Stage 1 and the RAC Rally 2011 had started. We were once again entered into the Open Rally which runs alongside the Historic event. Our car doesn’t qualify to be an historic because it has a more modern Vauxhall engine fitted so we and a couple of dozen similar cars thrash it out for a separate trophy.
Stage 1 was a success and we had nailed our flag to the mast with the quickest stage time in the very slippery Duncombe Park. The second stage, however was a different story and we dropped half a minute jessying about on the very rough tracks of Dalby Forest dropping us down to third and bending the steering on a particularly large hole.
Back to Duncombe and we were well on the pace through the trees but as we hit the tarmac hairpin, all was not well. We had no drive too the rear wheels. I fished about through the gears but none would drive so we attempted to freewheel the mile or so out of stage. The last 400 yards was quite a steep uphill and we quickly ground to a halt on the grass. We jacked the back end up and discovered it was a broken halfshaft so radioed through to the service crew to make them aware.
We were dragged back to Helmsley by one of the marshals (Phil Worley. Cheers Phil) and then across the service area by a 4×4 we had commandeered and Pud, Stu and the gang set about swapping the halfshaft. They had already prepared a “halfshaft broken bit removal tool” by screwing a strong magnet onto the end of a sweeping brush and once the main part of the shaft was out, started fishing about for the stub which was stuck into the diff. No joy. There were loads of bits of steel and iron filings but the last couple of inches were firmly stuck into the diff. Without further ado, the casing was removed and the axle stripped, crownwheel and pinion removed along with the halfshaft stub. It was now discovered that some errant bits of halfshaft had got into the diff and chavelled the bearing away. Job number one would be to remove the old bearing which proved quite easy with the use of an angle grinder and a hammer and chisel but where would we get a new bearing in the middle of Duncombe Park at Midnight on a Friday. (It appears the answer to this would be to see Justin from JT Motorsport who was running Tim Pearcey’s car who had a box full of second hand ones and was quite happy to hand one over and wouldn’t take anything for it. Cheers Justin)
With a suitable kit of parts, Pud and Stu rebuilt the diff, refitted a good pair of shafts, the only thing that remained was to fill it with diff oil which was borrowed from the cheeky boys, Phil and Mick Squires. Bring on day 2.
We had effectively dropped ten minutes in the Super Rally rules by missing two stages out on Friday night so it was looking like an overall win was well off the cards. Martyn Hawkswell had moved into the lead and Andy Madge was in second and both were capable of setting similar stage times to us. They had to get through the rally unscathed however so, as they say, it aint over till the fat lady sings.
We bolted Friday’s wheels and tyres on and started Saturday the way we intended to carry on with a fastest stage time through Langdale but were only fourth through Gale Rigg, possibly due to a couple of overshoots. An overshoot on Duncombe Park 3 saw us drop a handful of seconds and Martin had a couple out of us on Duncombe 4 but back in Langdale we were 16 seconds quicker than anyone and had another handful back with a quickest through Gale Rigg. so were 10:30 off the lead as we headed out of Yorkshire but more remarkably we were up to ninth overall as we were now passing other cars slower cars and some who were experiencing difficulties.
We headed up to Croft where we faced two runs of a four mile stage on nice slippery tarmac. Someone must have cheated here by putting sticky tyres on or something as Martyn had almost half a minute out of us on the first run but levelled us on the second. In our defence, the rain had started to fall as we were lining up so he may have had a drier run, and we were still on the set of worn knobblies we started the event on almost 24 hours ago. They still had a bit of tread left so we decided we’d make them last the day out and headed out to Hamsterley.
I admit to driving like a poofter through Hamsterley and the balding tyres couldn’t have helped. We only dropped ten seconds but lost a whopping minute in Shepherdshield. We overnighted in Carlisle 12 minutes off the lead and had somehow managed to eek our way up to 7th. The car was WOFTed, a broken leaf spring rerplaced, a dodgy windscreen wiper motor replaced with an even more dodgy one and we were away to the hotel for the night after a rather enjoyable 18 hours of rallying. The couple of pints in the bar were much appreciated by all. (WOFT is Water, oil, fuel, tyres, by the way. We were pushing the boat out and using another set of relatively new rubber)
The overnight re-seeding wasn’t kind to us. Although we were running in the correct position order, we were amongst the slower cars. Nige Barrett in the 1300 Micra moved over in the arrival at Ae to let us past and we followed a Mk1 Escort into stage. We’d had the hoof down quite heavily in the early parts of the stage and about half way through we had our minute man in our sights on the longer straights but he disappeared into a blizzard as we climbed up the dizzy heights of Whitefold Hill where in contrast to the snow free valleys below, we had been treated to a good couple of inches of snow. Despite being warned of the slippyness after junction 18, we fell off on an open 90 right before we actually caught our minute man half way to junction 20. We stayed in the ditch for an hour and were eventually put back on by spectators once enough had arrived to lift the front of the car out of the ditch. As we descended the hill, the snow cleared and we entertained the spectators with some very sideways action on the way out We were OTL by about 20 minutes so decided to head back to Dumfries and miss out Twiglees so we now had 20 minutes penalties. At service it was discovered that we had once again snapped the tailshaft of the gearbox so the whole box and propshaft was replaced with a standard unit and we headed out onto the Heathhall stage some fifteen minutes behind what we thought was the last competitor on the road. It was dusk but the spotlights were useless but we still posted the quickest stage time, just to let them know we were back.
We were effectively down to three gears as first was only useful for parking on steep hills and fifth wasn’t really suitable for the Scottish Forests in the snow and I’d also declared to Simon that the remainder of the rally should be considered fun only. We would back off on the straights, take absolutely no risks but would endeavour to go as sideways as possible wherever possible. Dropping the additional 10 minutes had dropped us down to 9th overall but with 2 minutes to 8th place 4 minutes to 7th, 6 minutes to 5th 8 minutes to 4th and a whopping 10 minutes behind 3rd. We completed Ae2 with third place, about a minute down on the leaders but still eeking a bit of time out of the cars in front despite stopping to thank the lads who had pulled us out earlier and shout “we’ve been in that ditch” to the course car who was now occupying the spot we vacated an hour or so previously.
Back to Heathhall and we topped the leader board once more on the one mile stage and then out to Twiglees where we were third, still dropping time to the leaders but making time up on the lower runners.
The road section from Twiglees to Newcastleton was about thirty miles of sheet ice over a mountain and was “interesting”. The stage start was at the top of a hill and was freezing cold and icy. The rest of the stage sort of descended through the trees and the weather had obviously warmed up as it was quite wet rather than frozen. Again we were third and eked a little more out of our rivals.
A trip in to Carlisle for another service and we decided to stick with the same tyres as we’d only really done a half a day on them and when we returned from Newcastleton 2 we overnighted in 7th place.
This time, the car needed only a minor service and we shod it with a new set of part worn boots and ventured to the bar, which was shut. Thank god for small mercies in the form of a slab of lager and Steve Carter’s hip flask.
Monday dawned cold and frosty and a glance into the distant Scottish hills told us that a sprinkling of snow could be on the cards. The Hakkas were readied. Two in the chase car and two in the Escort. We had until about ten miles from the stage to decide which tyres to run and made a last minute call in a small village to swap onto the snow tyres as an insurance policy really. We swapped the tyres in a couple of inches of slushy snow and continued behind Captain Barret who had done likewise. As we approached Kershopefoot we were greeted by a blizzard and the main roads had a covering of snow. Some spectators cars were stuck on the hill before the stage and some competitors were being towed up by 4x4s. We plodded steadily up the hill and got stuck when a car came skidding back down towards us and we had to take evasive action. We were pushed clear of the steep uphill hairpin and continued unassisted to the stage.
We arrived late at the stage but there was no rush, The course car had gone off (for the third time I understand) and was not clear of the stage yet. Some time later, the first of the historic cars ventured into the stage and 35 minutes later had cleared the 17 miles of snowy Kershope and it wasn’t long before the first of the main rally went in.
We were to start a minute behind Nige Barrett and were only 40 seconds adrift so if we caught him, we would wrestle sixth overall from him. Other numbers to muse over were that 4th place was only five minutes in front and third was only nine. If any or all of these had turned up with no snow tyres, then we stood a chance of claiming some places back. To our disappointment but in line with our expectations, the decision had been made to cancel the second running of the stage so we were left with 17 miles of rallying left. We’d caught Nige after about three miles and he politely pulled over and let us pass. We were not pulling any trees up but were obviously making progress. I was short-shifting to keep traction and on a couple of occasions found myself in fifth. We caught our two and three minute men in the finish area and had set fastest Open rally time by over a minute; but more importantly, we had taken time out of everyone who was leading us. The only person that we had no chance of catching was Mick Smith in third who had a nine minute lead over us but he’d gone off in stage and was unable to regain the track. We’d actually managed to claw our way back to third!. Andy Madge remained second, a mere 18 minutes in front of us after a scare of spending six or so minutes in a ditch and Martyn maintained a comfortable seven minute gap over Andy to emerge a very worthy winner.
We used two front and four rear tyres all weekend plus put another 17 miles of wear on the snow tyres. We need a diff rebuild and a gearbox recondition but all in all we had a brilliant weekend. Thanks to all the lads in the service crew. Pud (and Stu on Friday) Rob in the barge, Steve and Coggs in the chase car and Guy and Mick on shopping duties and of course to Simon for pointing me in the right direction for almost four days and although he maintains that I never frighten him, he has admitted to “being a little concerned” at times in Kershope.
So, as we said following our woes on Friday night, it aint over till the fat lady sings!

May

23

Cadwell Park 2010

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They say that qualifying is everything in a one make series and we’d done everything right in preparation for this event. The usual, turn up and drive philosophy had gone out of the window, we’d been to the circuit on the Wednesday before the event and messed about with suspension settings and learned the circuit. Although on the track day we weren’t allowed to time ourselves, we were aware that we were doing speeds that would get us to the pointy end of the grid. One unfortunate incident was that Matt Coggins blew a head gasket so had to pull out of the event, there being insufficient spare time before the event to comfortably put a new one in. You may say it was better to let go on the track day than at the race, however.
Qualifying is a bit of a lottery what with 32 cars on the circuit and everyone trying to go as fast as possible and yellow flags being waved vigorously as people were visiting the scenery. My opening couple of laps were, as usual quite steady, working the car and the tyres up to temperature whilst trying to find a gap in the traffic for a few quick laps. Towards the end of the second lap, I was considering dropping back to avoid a group of slower cars that I was catching but as I approached them, the blue flag waved and I could see a good patch of daylight in front of them. I passed the last of the bunch as we hit the start finish straight and the road ahead was completely clear. The next four laps were all quick ones with an empty track but eventually I started to catch traffic, the rear gunner of the bunch being Richard Avery who promptly spun directly in front of me on the exit of Charlies, the start of park straight thus ruining the lap completely. Cruising round the remainder of the lap and waiting for a substantial gap to appear in front of me, I noticed the chequered flag being waved at the finish line so exited stage left content in the knowledge that I could do no more.
Race 1 saw me take the highest place I have ever occupied on the grid, the qualifying session albeit shortened substantially had put me in fourth place and on the second row of the grid. Alex Gassman (48) in his now customary pole position had pipped Sarah Wherry (4) into second with Ross Stoner (22) alongside me on the second row and other regular front runners Chris Shackle (77) Adam Lockwood (51) Aaron Pullen (26) and Mark Scott (40) headed the remainder of the capacity grid and were all snapping at our heels as the lights went out to signify the start of the race.
All got away safely albeit I was engulfed by the following pack after a massive bout of wheelspin off the line but we exited Charlies pretty much in grid order. Adam Lockwood had overcome Chris Shackle and was putting me under pressure and I was able to pull alongside Ross at the end of Park Straight. Ross promptly put me on the grass which put paid to my buffalo girl manoeuvre at Park Curve. I regained the circuit in time for Chris Curve but was unsettled so took to the grass once more and then enjoyed further attention from Adam as we rounded the Gooseneck and we watched Ross take a mad lunge at Sarah into Mansfield which he somehow made stick. We completed the lap and headed round Coppice, Charlies and onto Park Straight once more. I checked my mirrors and there was no sign of Lockwood and however he exited the circuit must have hindered the rest of the field as I was a handful of seconds clear of my nearest pursuer.
Somehow, Sarah seemed to have the legs on me and I think this made me try harder and go slower, as is usually the case. I steadied my pace and calmed down and started putting the laps in and the gap was coming down gradually, too gradually in fact.
On lap six, we rounded Charlies to discover that Steve Woolfe (88) had managed to put it in the barriers, I backed off but started to reel Sarah in before the inevitable red flag came out and the results wee declared. 4th overall and my best result to date, not counting the B race at Mallory.
Race two and there was no way I was going to mess the start up this time and I fled the line like a scalded cat leaving Sarah in my wake and hot on the heels off Ross before Alex impolitely came across the front of me and slammed the door. The lift was not enough to allow Sarah past but we rounded Charlies and the two orange cars seared into the distance. Late braking into Park and a good line round Chris and the Gooseneck and I was back with them but my bad technique round the mountain saw them pull away once more and it wasn’t until the hairpin that I was back with them.
The gap was yo-yoing from 200 yards to nothing for the first two laps but on the third time down the start straight, I had a good run out of Barn and as the car gathered momentum, the gap to Alex was dwindling. Alex moved right and Ross went to block him and I could see straight up the inside. I didn’t know if Alex was expecting me and I didn’t get fully alongside so the split second decision was not one of bravery and I backed out of it.
A bit later in the lap, I thought I’d try a different approach to the mountain as I always seemed to drop a few yards but on this occasion, I dropped even more and Miss Wherry didn’t need asking twice and was alongside me. Again, bravery not being an option, I opted to slot in behind her and wait for one of the now leading trio to make a mistake.
My strong point on the laps was at the end of the long straights, the power of the Cogsport engine in evidence (blatant plug). I could exit Charlies and Barn quite well and had the straights been longer, a podium would have been inevitable but so evenly matched are the cars that passing is very difficult, especially with my lack of experience.
With three laps to go, the dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree, the main engine light being the most obvious of the plethora of illumination. Backing off and checking the gauges lost me time and concentration and some lairy moments were had whilst trying to evaluate the situation and keep up with the leaders and I took to the grass dropping back by a couple of seconds. By the time I had decided to “drive round the problem” I had a large deficit which I set about regaining and after a relatively short period of time was back in the hunt and making opportunistic but alas unsuccessful dives up the inside and outsides of the corners. The three leaders maintained their positions and I was stuck with another fourth place albeit only 1.4 seconds adrift of the lead and extremely satisfied with myself for upping my game and being there to mix it with the big boys and girls.

May

23

Mallory Park 2010

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Thank You Ash Cloud
My 2010 season was scheduled to start at the end of May with the MR2 Racing Series round at Snetterton and before the event, a host of work is planned for the car, including replacing the ageing and smoky 120k mile engine with a completely freshly rebuilt one, a respray and full stickering job and some set-up work done to the suspension, including lowering the back end which seems to stand an inch or two higher than most on the grid, and to get all the wheels pointing and leaning in roughly the tight direction.
The reason for missing the first round of the series at Mallory on 18 April was a business trip to Italy but due to an untimely ash cloud issuing from Iceland, the trip was thwarted at the last minute.
As the available spaces on the grid and also on a second grid, scheduled to run at the back of the Nippon race were all taken, it was unlikely that I’d be able to fill the weekend racing but a phone call to series co-ordinator, Steve Vince was slightly encouraging at the expense of a fellow competitor who had found himself at the other end of the flight cancellations with no return flight from the Caribbean.
So, I’d manage to secure myself a place on a grid at Mallory but unfortunately, I was destined to be in the B Race. As Mallory only has a licence for 30 cars at a time to race and there were 42 entries, the field was split. The first 36 entries received were allowed to qualify for the 30 places on the grid. The last six entries and the slowest six from the qualifying session were destined to compete in the B Race.
Qualifying
We were to qualify with the Nippons and then be joined on the grid by the slower of the MR2s. Qualifying was a bit of a farce really. The power differential between the faster Nippons and the slower ones, and ultimately the MR2s is vast and as we exited the pit on what should basically be a green flag warm up lap, some of the Nippons were away like diarrhoea with pumps on and we were four abreast down the back straight and being outbraked into the Esses. I backed off and had a couple of steady laps until I found a gap with no cars in front or behind and I was able to stick a couple of good laps in. (This doesn’t sound like rocket science to me but there weren’t many out there seemed to grasp that we weren’t racing yet)
MR2s
The first main MR2 race was absolutely excellent as a spectator. We had a vested interest in the race as team mates Matt Coggins and John Winter had qualified on 8th and 6th on the grid, vast improvements on last season possibly as a result of the work that had gone into the cars. A first corner incident lost Coggs a handful of places and Jon was able to make up a couple of spots. Coggs was able to climb from 14th to 10th during the race and as Jon lost power during the race he dropped from 4th to 8th.
Race 1
Race B was not quite as incident packed and in true Nippon style, the fastest of the turbo cars sped off into the distance followed by a line of chasers, the gap between each slowly increasing as the procession continued. These were followed by a gaggle of MR2s who’d started a few rows behind on the grid and were still all on top of each other and I’d managed to maintain the advantage of sticking the car on pole despite a couple of cars looking like squeezing up the inside around Gerrard’s. I settled down to a reasonable pace and opened up a sizeable gap between the rest of the MR2s and myself and apart from having to keep out of the way of the faster cars as they lapped me, that was pretty much how it stayed until the finish. My maiden victory, albeit in a B race. 
Race 2
Race 2 was a completely different story. Dave Morgan in car 70 had taken a flier of a start and had out dragged me into Gerrards and then held me on the outside all the way round it losing me some speed for the back straight and I was forced to nip in behind him for the Esses. Some strong defending had him in front round the hairpin and it was after that that my lack of power showed as I was a good 30 yards or so behind as we hit Gerrards once more. Unfortunately, about 50 yards into Gerrards, I discovered that my strong point was my cornering speed and the differential was such that avoiding action was necessary and then all the momentum was lost for the following straight and into the Esses where once again I closed the gap but had the door slammed in front of me on the approach to the hairpin. With 15 laps left, there was no rush to get past so I planned to stay behind Dave and time it so that I exited Gerrards with a load of speed and pass him on the main straight. All was going to plan until we started to get lapped by the Scoobies and they had absolutely no respect for the fact that we were racing ourselves and pushed us wide on corners, backed off half way round Gerrards and were generally ill mannered. All this avoiding had allowed Geraint to close up and he easily overtook me on the back straight and then out-braked Dave into the Esses. Gerraint looked to be going well so I nipped past Dave in the second part of the Esses and made chase. Once more, I’d got the legs around the corners but was struggling to keep up on the straights and getting close to Geraint was proving difficult as the Nippons were rudely squeezing in between us. On lap eleven, tow Nippons squeezed between us and the gap was looking unassailable but the second of the cars hassled Geraint that much that he put a wheel on the grass and had the car rotating down the length of the braking zone into the hairpin. I was back in the lead, upped my pace by a second a lap and set about opening up a safe cushion which I kept to the flag. Another victory in race 2

May

23

RAC Rally 2010

Rally  Posted by / 0 comments

Driver : Dave Hemingway
Navigator : Simon Ashton
Car 75: Sarah Jane – The New Escort

This rally started way back in April for me. I’d had the new shell sitting in the garage for almost a year and the current car was deteriorating fast. A series of minor indiscretions had left it quite tatty and she was well overdue a re-shell.
Pud and Ian Emerson started fabricating the shell, fitting the roll cage, 15 inch rear inner wheel arches, seam welding and repairing the very small amount of rot that the sand blaster had unearthed.
Paint took longer than expected and when the car returned it was absolutely pristine but September. Still two months.
Parts started getting bolted on and the money started running out. It was my intention to build the new car out of the spares package from the old car but it’s amazing what bits you need. How difficult can it be to obtain a steering wheel cowl?
The proposed engine was to be a 2.0 Pinto with a steel crank and rods, 205 block and a super doper head and cam fed by twin 48 Webers or Dellorto carbs. The block turned out to be cracked and the head was more expensive than anticipated and the price of a new set of carbs looked like someone’s telephone number so a last minute decision was made and an old Crossflow was purchased from Ebay. The plan was to bolt it straight in but on inspection, it wasn’t “as listed” so required a bit of a tart up and a new set of pistons. The result is a mighty fine 138 BHP fire breathing monster. (for the less technically minded reading this, that was an act of extreme sarcasm, a BDA or well tuned Vauxhall engine will be producing about twice that BHP figure)
The engine sparked in to life on the Monday before the rally and the car moved under her own steam on the Tuesday by which time she was treated to an MOT and an MSA logbook inspection. Total miles to date 45.
Wednesday saw the main running-in session which consisted of a drive to Motoscope where she was tuned to the magical 138.3 BHP figure and then further running-in was enjoyed on the way back. (total mileage now approaching 200 due to getting lost on the way to Northallerton)
Thursday saw some finishing off work in the shape of mudflap fitting and the re-wiring of the master switch so that it actually switched masterfully.
Come Friday, she was on the trailer and en-route to a very snowy Pickering showground.
THE RALLY
The service crew usually have a sly bet on which part of the car will be the first to suffer any form of damage but this year was special. The sweep was on how far the car would get, the lowest bet being “not even onto the trailer”. Absolutely no-one put their money on a finish. Bollocks boys!
Despite the car being built to Hysteric spec, the Hysteric Rally Car Register, in their wisdom, have decided to classify cars in International Homologated groups so they must appear as the works used to run them, “in period” which means that as the Ford works team never ran a 1600 Escort, mine is ineligible for historic motorsport. How the fek you can interpret that from the regs god only knows but that’s the rules.
Did I mention the snow yet. I assume everyone knows that the 2010 RAC was one of the snowiest on record and as we set off on a mild November morning in bright sunshine from West Yorkshire, we were already aware of road closures due to heavy snow in North Yorkshire. On the strength of this, the van was packed with Maxsport’s best 155 x 13 Hakkas all rimmed up on the RS alloys which had now been converted to gp 4 spec. Sure enough, as we passed York Racecourse there was a mild dusting which grew to a couple of inches at Barton Hill and we arrived at Pickering to greeting of about six inches of the stuff. (didn’t measure it, that’s what everyone said)
Friday 26 November Day 1
SS1 : Pickering Showground 1
Someone had used their brain here. A completely different stage with no artificial yumps, no watersplash, no fuss. Just a blast round some completely new tracks in the showground.
As we approached the start we realised that the intercom had stopped working so plugged into the backup and it all came to life. We sat on the start line contemplating the icy stage and the countdown started. A good luck shake of hands and we were away.
As we approached the first corner, a hairpin left around a pond; I realised there was very little light issuing from the new Crystal headlights so hit the high beam switch. The full beam came on without the spots. I then started waving frantically in the direction of the spot light switches and dislodged the fuse box cover which headed straight for the driver’s footwell; and when I eventually found the switches and the flood of light was released, it revealed that I’d left the braking a bit late for the spectator surrounded hairpin right. I wrestled the car round the corner and onto the straight then kept feeding it gears until it was time to start shedding speed for the next 90 right which despite being sheet ice went without a hitch, as did the next. The next corner was a 90 left back onto the old stage and this was completely overshot requiring a handbrake turn and a 90 right back onto track. Discretion being the better part of valour, the next corner into the flying finish was treated with much respect and we plodded over the line.
SS2 : Dalby 1
Despite there being almost a foot of snow in here, we set off like a scalded cat down the first straight in Dalby and it soon became evident why there was a big crowd there as we wrestled the car to a pace suitable for going round the corner. Bell’s bend had been cautioned to us and a throng of spectators greeted us. I was feeling smug as I’d not been caught out by the corner, arriving at a snails pace over the blind crest but as we hit the downhill we were sledging and the car accelerated into the snow on the outside of the bend where we had to claw out way back on. Down into the Woodyard and our minute man was still in there. Surely it can’t take a minute to get round the Woodyard? Sure enough after a few hundred yards we’d caught him and could see he was struggling with the conditions. He acknowledged our presence but there was nowhere to get off so unfortunately we had to follow him to the finish, by which time we had caught a further three cars, all five of us finishing the stage line astern.
A quick service and we were ready for stage three but at this point we were given some results which showed us to be leading the Open ally by some seven seconds. We were actually quickest on the showground by eleven seconds.
SS3 : Showground 2
A much better run this time and well prepared for it too. Slower by three seconds and we’d been demoted to second place by Matt Robinson in the Millington Escort.
SS4 : Dalby 2
It was interesting getting to this stage. We met the Kall Kwik competitors on their way out of the previous stage and we were on a single track road with passing places. Some cars were getting stuck on the way up to the stage. 
We managed to drop a minute in the arrival so had generated a gap to the car in front; but no need, he was off like a shot on some new snow tyres and we only took a handful of seconds out of him by the stage finish but we were about a minute quicker than the previous run through.
Back to the showground for a WOFT before the car was put to bed in the exhibition hall and we retired to our digs in Scarborough absolutely amazed to be leading overnight by a minute and 27 seconds.
Saturday 27 November: Day 2
SS5 and SS6 : Olivers Mount 1 and 2
We were expecting to get our hides spanked quite severely here but the weather was being kind to us. The stage was icy and had been shortened to an uphill drag only because of the treacherous condition of the steep downhill Mere Hairpin. Then it was straight back round for another go at the same, but this time remembering that the slight right over the top of mountside could be taken flat if desired! We were quickest on both stages extending the lead another three seconds to Barry Wheeler in an Escort RS.
SS7 : Langdale
This was probably the deepest snow we’d seen to date and another shortened stage as the MOD had decided that rallying was too dangerous in these conditions and withdrawn the permission to exit the stage over their land at Fylingdales.
We were quickest through Langdale despite running first of the Open lot on the road and enduring fresher snow. I must say that the stages looked very pretty, if a little difficult to distinguish what was stage and what was scenery.
SS8 and SS9 : Olivers Mount 3 and 4
Wheeler and Robinson had both encountered problems so took Super Rally times in Oliver’s so it was a resurrection of previous years battles between us and Marcus Noble and his navigator, Brian Hodgson; with Phil Jobson slightly behind in third. The stage times reflected this with us leading, Marcus second and Phil third on both runs of The Mount.
The demise of Wheeler and Robinson meant that our lead had expanded vastly and we now had a 3 minute 47 second lead over Noble.
SS10 : Langdale 2
We topped the stage times by almost half a minute in here despite being stopped by the Stratos of Steve Perez as he attempted to regain the track after a visit to the scenery along the Earth Ride but we’d opened the lead to 4:11 and our gaster continued to be blabbered. Andy Madge was back on pace but an earlier setback had left him out of the running.
SS11 and SS11a : Hamsterley 1 and 2
Organising on the fly, Colin Heppenstall the rally manager had decided to add an extra stage at the last minute to compensate for lost mileage in Yorkshire. The stage was said to have eight inches of snow and was typically Keilder (despite not being in Keilder) with a domed shape to the road and deep ditches on either side, caution to be excercised in here.
Robinson was back in the rally and topped the stage times with us followed by Noble just a second apart on the first run. We topped the stage times by 40 seconds on the second run, Noble obviously encountered a delay and Robinson took a maximum.
The overall position was looking good as we had an almost five minute lead,
SS12 : Shepherdshield
Absolute disaster. We arrived in a slight flurry of snow and by the time we’d got our time and been rushed onto the start line, it was a complete whiteout. So bad that the tracks from the car who left the start a couple of minutes before us had completely snowed over and my dipped beam was proving useless. We struggled through and dropped around two minutes to Noble and Robinson who seemed to have had less troubled runs of the stage.
So we ended a very long and testing day 2 of the rally with a lead of 2:51 which is a fair margin but with two more days to go, by no means safe.
Sunday 28 November. Day 3
SS13 : Ae1
This was our worst nightmare really. The reason why we were doing so well (apart from being amazingly talented) was the fact that the lack of power we had was not really that much of a detriment in the slippy conditions. Ae had had an overnight dusting of snow and despite the surface being frozen, the grip was phenomenal. I’d made the mistake of leaving the Hakkas on where the Dunlop Knobblies would possibly have been the better choice and reduced the risk of punctures We were expexting to loose most of our lead in this stage alone. We were followed into the stage by Dave Greer in the Ascona 400 and I must admit to spending too much time looking in the mirrors for him. We also had a minor indescretion drifting wide on a left hander where the braking was left late and then further compromised by ice but luckily there was a small tree to prevent us rolling down the banking and out of the rally. Matt Robinson took well over a minute out of us but Noble only had 19 seconds so we were chuffed to monkeys with that. We also found a set of timecards that we collected, delivered to their rightful owner and now have friends for life in the shape of Warren Philiskirk and Eurig Evans who’d had a puncture in stage and suffered all the disorganisation that goes with it, dropping the timecards from an incorrectly shut door after the control being one of the common mistakes.
SS14 : Twiglees 1
An inch of snow was said to have fallen in here but it was more slippy than white. Hakkas was the better choice in here but it was touch and go. I upped the pace a little and enjoyed the way the Escort handled in the conditions. We took fifth fastest stage time, over half a minute down on Robinson, Madge and Wheeler but most importantly, 44 seconds ahead of Noble. Our lead was back up to 3:16.
SS15 : Heathall 1
Not too much to go wrong in here as it’s only half a mile long. We’d bolted the knobblies on for the next run through Ae and it was quite slippery and we spun on the hairpin. We were 8th quickest, only 5 off Robinson but 7 quicker than Noble.
SS16 : Ae 2
Now on Knobblies and with a new “wing man” in the shape of Philliskirk who had slotted into the gap between us and the chasing Noble. Warren saluting and clicking his heels as he reported for duty at the arrival. ( I hope no-one thinks we take this rallying seriously by the way?) This forest, on both runs had tested the performance of the car. The axle is obviously not suited to the 6500 rpm we were obtaining from the crossflow as the top speed we registered was 75mph. I think we had 116 on the same straight last year!. Keep feeding it gears and try not to slow for anything and the car was capable of pressing on quite admirably and we exited the stage having dropped only 37 seconds to Marcus.
Most impressed by our speed was our new wing man. He came to us after the stage and told us that he was worried for us. He was expecting to catch us quite early on in the 17 miles of Ae but it hadn’t happened. Approaching the end of the stage he said that he was getting worried as he hadn’t seen us anywhere and still couldn’t see us on the long straights and was quite relieved to see us sitting on the finish line when he got there, but absolutely amazed that we’d held him off for the whole stage. Thanks for the compliment, Warren. Much appreciated.
SS17 : Heathhall 2
Disappointed by our lack of talent on the previous run through here, we were determined to get it right this time; and so we did, setting the fastest time at 1:15 and eking six back from Noble.
SS18 : Twiglees 2
Still on the knobblies for this run meant that we could use more of the scenery than the previous run and despite dropping half a minute to Andy Madge who was on a charge, we gained half a minute from Noble. Night had fallen so the times and the temperatures weren’t as hot as the previous run.
Back to Carlisle for an unscheduled service halt as Newcastleton 1 had been cancelled due to the lack of emergency crew who were snowed-in somewhere north of Edinburgh. The re-arranged time schedule allowed the crews from Ae to install themselves in Newcastleton by the time we all arrived.
SS20 : Newcastleton 2
We’d arrived here with 3:26 cushion and it was now starting to look like we could pull this off. There was over 12 inches of snow in these forests so power was going to be no advantage but bravery was. I wasn’t planning to use bravery in here and hoped that no-one else was. It’s also worth noting that by this time, we had been told that tomorrow’s stages in Keilder were off and we had a five miler in Kershope that we were to use twice which had a similar 12 inches of snow to Newcastleton. I had 15 miles survive with a three and a half minute cushion.
Well anyway, we were fourth in here dropping 28 seconds to Marcus in the process so we went to bed with 2:58 lead.
Monday 29 November. Day 4
An oil leak had been discovered the previous night stemming from a stripped thread in the sump plug (well it was a shyte thread that was stripped when it was nipped up) so we spent some time trying to source one unsuccessfully so Pud decided to make one out of some toilet roll middles, a sheet of sticky back plastic and some rubber gloves, or so it seemed. A suspension bolt, nut from the spares box, five minutes with the mig and a tube of loktite and we were good to go. The car was left overnight and we oiled it up in the morning and headed out to Newcastleton.
Kershope 1 and 2
We entered the stage fairly well up the running order and the snow was still pretty fresh. Despite plodding round, we still managed to lose it on a downhill 30 left and drifted well into the undergrowth but the car miraculously scrabbled its way back on. We headed round for a second go not knowing what Marcus had done but we were aware that some of the hysterics had taken two minutes off us. Don’t panic.
Luckily, Marcus had decided that he was happy with second place and plodded round almost as casually as we dis taking 14 from us on the first run but dropping 20 to us on the second attempt.
Back to the holding control in Carlisle and we were hugged by Colin Heppenstall then shepherded into the winner’s convoy for the parade into Carlisle City Centre where Simon and myself were allowed to spray each other with the worlds finest champagne.

Roger Albert Clarke Open Rally 2010.

First Overall.