Silverstone

People suspect that I’m a bit mad at the best of times but when I suggested that I would like to enter Phoenix in a circuit race, they thought I was mad. (Phoenix is the name of my 2 Litre Vauxhall powered Ford Escort Mk 2 rally car) I’ve taken her to do trackdays on a couple of occasions but usually get asked to leave or at least calm down when the Escort is seen drifting through the Esses at Mallory for example.

Steve Vince, co-ordinator of the Track Attack Nippon Challenge and MR2 Racing Series had refused me an entry at Rockingam in the Escort stating that the rest of the contenders in the Challenge would face too much of a culture shock having an Escort amongst them and it would also be difficult to explain the connection the car has with the Far East and the Nippon Challenge.

Silverstone was to be an “Invitation Race”, additional to the Nippon and MR2 calendars, invitation basically meaning that anything goes. The only stipulation is that cars must run on treaded road tyres from some list in the Blur Book. This is an ideal way for drivers of cars which are no longer eligible for one make championships to have a run out, typically there were a number of Clios and a Peugeot 205 running which used to run in the now defunct Clio Cup or Peugeot Challenge.

I knew that transforming the rally car into a race car would be an expensive and time consuming operation so opted out of slamming it to the ground, fitting stiffer springs and tarmac shockers and just did the basics. I fitted a set of race spec brake pads to the front end, bought a second hand set of Federal tyres from a friend and fitted a rain light amidships on the rear bumper. I also opted to remove the two spare wheels, wheel brace,
big bag of spanners and the tow rope from the boot, as well as the quick lift jack from the side of the passenger seat but I forgot to take that out in the end.

I wasn’t sure how the car would be received in the paddock at Silverstone but many people said it brought back memories for them and everyone said they were looking forward to seeing it on track.

Qualifying.

I was quite nervous during the build up to the meeting and had absolutely no idea how I would get on. I raced the track a few years ago in an endurance race so I know what’s flat and what’s a lift in an MR2. My first shock came when I kept it planted through Maggots and the cars in front gave it a big squeeze on the brake pedal and I quickly learned the limit of adhesion of the Federals whilst nearly ploughing into the back of someone. I backed off and gave myself some space. Despite not knowing what to expect from the car, or my ability to muscle it round the circuit, I was a little disappointed to qualify 19th but when I realised that the ranks had swelled to 40 cars and I was just North of the centre of the grid, I was quite pleased.

Race 1

I was under no pressure this weekend but no one else seemed to agree with this. “You should get a blinding start in that car of yours” and “You should be in the top 10 by Copse” were comments that did nothing to relax me. By the time I was on the grid I was a blubbering wreck of nervousness and anticipation.

When the lights went out, I rocketed through two rows of cars only to come swiftly up behind a wall of MX5s who for some reason had decided that they would brake for Copse. I backed out of my ascent to the lead and joined the throng as they pottered on towards Maggots. It was here that I discovered that you can’t brake and steer at the same time as the Escort took a big sideways lunge in avoidance of a car braking unnecessarily, and the pendulum effect lasted right through Beckets and on to Chapel, losing a couple of places to the more agile cars. Once launched onto Hangar Straight it was just a case of keep feeding her gears and powering past the less powerful cars.

A typical lap would consist of being almost flat out over the start line with a little lift and a bob down in to 4th for Copse, back up to 5th and take the lefthander into Maggots absolutely flat with a lift and a drop to 4th for the righthander and nail it round the left, then bob in to third to get the front to turn in through the right hand Chapel. This complex suits the Escort to an extent, the soft suspension soaks up the bumps as it rides the kerbs and if it tucks in nicely on the way out of Chapel, I could even make up ground on the other cars. Next, give it gears out on to the Hangar Straight after which a good stamp on the brakes for Stowe but only down in to 4th which is held to Vale which is a second gear corner, extremely difficult to stop and very easy to lose the back end. The tight right after Vale is flat in second but usually a drift over the exit kerbs going three wheels off. I always managed to keep the front right on the track but the front left and the back end were well off. Flat through Club grabbing third on the way in, fourth over the GP start line and a quick visit to 5th and back again before drifting through Abbey and Farm then hard on the brakes for Village in third gear and another opportunity to make up time before the car started to drift wide in the tight bends. Through the hairpin, second gear is needed and the car goes from massive understeer to massive oversteer and anyone close behind would be all over me like a cheap suit. Not to worry though, because the cars around seemed very reluctant to try to stick a move on a waggly Escort on three wheels so as soon as it straightened up and they stuck a nose up the inside, the Escort squatted down and sprinted down Wellington straight opening a sizeable gap which would become useful as the car slithered through the third gear Luffield complex with an arm full of understeer. Once the car was pointed in the direction of Woodcote and some loud pedal applied, any sprint to the stripe would have been won by the Escort.

As the race panned out, I found myself in a gap a few seconds adrift of a pair of very racey MX5s and steadily eked a gap behind so set about the chase. I caught and passed the Ma5das and with a couple of laps to go, started to close the gap on fellow MR2 protagonist Arron Pullan but his pace was sufficient that I got no closer than a couple of seconds away and a very respectable 13th overall.

Race 2 and my nerves were jangling again. From the 7th row on the grid, if I got a rocket start similar to race 1, then this could put me in amongst some proper quick machinery who would then be be quite agitated about being held up by an old Scrote. As it turned out, this sort of happened. I ended up back at the side of Arron and snapping on the heels of the MX150s and just outside the top 10. The first lap was spent side by side with Arron. He’d out manoeuvre me in a corner then I would out drag him on a straight, then we’d do a corner side by side, inches apart with absolutely no paint swapped. We were actually in a 5-way fight which also included the two racy Ma5das from race 1 and a much quicker MX5 who took a sneaky dive up the inside of Luffield and apart from me having a look up the inside into Copse, was never really seen again. Arron got tangled with the racy Ma5das and swapped quite a bit of paint with one and when I exited Luffield on lap 2, I was alone with a half a dozen second lead over the trio.

The rest of my race was spent chasing down a white Mazda which was lapping at a similar pace so once I’d established that the chase was futile and the gap behind was safe, I started to experiment with different driving styles. By this, I mean that I was letting the Escort do what I had been fighting to stop it doing all day. Vale was a perfect example where I left the braking late and allowed the back end to step out to the right, then planted the loud pedal and held the drift for long enough so that when it snapped back in, I allowed it to step out to the left and powered through the right hander with half a turn of opposite lock to the appreciation of the marshals.

Despite my increasing exuberance behind the wheel, the gap in front diminished and the gap behind increased but I held station at 10th overall but took the 2 litre class honours.

The verdict is that the races in the Escort were thoroughly enjoyable and I had a lot of positive response to taking it, but being realistic, the car is not suitable for regular circuit racing and I am not prepared to modify it when it will need returning to forest spec for the next rally.

Riponian Rally 2013

Following a lacklustre performance on the RAC where I didn’t seem to be able to get on the pace at all, I was determined to do a little better in the Riponian. Rob Hart was once again on board as navigator, now on his fourth ever rally and the second time in the forests so gaining in experience rapidly.

The entry list was quite impressive quite a selection of quick Historics and the usual class C crowd including Jonathan Kitchen and Curly Haigh.

SS1 Waterloo

The rendition of Abba’s Waterloo was anticipated but didn’t happen as the start line was some distance from the ATC and we were all strapped in and busy at the start. Following the usual ridicule and un-necessary advice from Calder Rescue (Richard Ashton usually gives advice such as “It’s that way” or “watch out for the trees” )we were on our way on to what we had been warned was a very slippery stage. The descent to the hairpin was grippy but as we reached the braking point, the surface turned to ice and I was knitting socks trying to keep her on the track and get her stopped. I spun it at the bend and the 180 had us pointing the way we came; a further 270 was required to get me pointing the right way and this was overcooked and had us pointing at the inside of the bend again. A few words to myself about calming down and we slithered our way through the rest of the stage experimenting with the differing amounts of grip available to us. Remarkably, we exited in 21st position but were 5th in class and were also being beaten by eight of the historics.

SS2 Roppa

I had a phone call from Matt Coggins who was marshalling in the stage saying that I should consider snow tyres in here. As we hadn’t brought any, we were stuck with the knobblies. We climbed the hill from the start to the top of the ridge where we encountered what must have been at least a foot of well compacted snow which had now turned to sheet ice. With the back end flailing about and very little grip or steering I soldiered on. Very cautious not to hit the bridge (again) and flat out down the straights past Coggs and his Barnsley College team and out of the stage, I was quite pleased with our pace and learned that we were 8th quickest in there and now up to 3rd in class and 13th overall.

SS3 Riccall Dale

Possibly my least favourite stage and the one I am least familiar with but we soldiered on. I discovered a cut on some grass was not actually a cut but was hiding a small stream so we were launched skywards in a buttock clenching moment and the rough, car trial type climb up to the hairpin had not improved. We stopped the clocks with a 12th quickest stage time and had climbed to 12th and were holding station with the class leaders, about 15 seconds behind leader Andy Gibson and second placed Martyn Hawkswell.

SS4 Pry Rigg

I still think Sproxton is a better name for this stage and it also brings back memories of the old RACs and National Breakdown rallies of the 80s. From the start, the stage was relatively grippy on the wet gravel but on rounding the first 90 right into the trees, the tracks were snow covered and treacherous. We carried on a t some pace until a few hundred yards from the flying finish, I had hung the back out on a long left hander and was setting it up for the next right hander. The corner was a little too far away to use the pendulum effect and as I straightened it up, the car understeered on to a patch of grass. Rather than add drama to the situation trying to fight it, I let the car come to a stop and stuck it in reverse whereby the back wheels simply dug themselves holes in the mud below where the belly pan beached itself.

We had enough marshals plus ourselves so could physically lift the car out of the holes where we could reverse back with the aid of a little shove. We were off the road for about 10 minutes taking a maximum which meant we only lost two minutes.

SS5 College Moor

Possibly my favourite stage and to be honest, I entered it a little angry with myself. I thoroughly enjoyed the drive through here and it sort of made up, mentally for the previous stage. Absolutely on the limit and a respectable 10th overall. We had dropped down to 36th overall but this stage brought us back up to 32nd, not that we were in with a shout of a result now.

SS6 Boltby

We started Boltby with exuberance and soon had it knocked out of us as we came across a particularly icy stretch and went straight on, heading for a tree. Luckily we hit a big pile of muck before we reached the tree and it brought us to a halt with expense to the steering rather than the front end of the car. Although we were bogged, the two marshals on the scene were able to push us off and we continued through the stage with damaged steering. We dropped .

Service

Pud worked his magic on the steering and the broken track rod end was replaced with one supplied by Curly Haigh, cheers Curly. And we were all set for a repeat of the morning’s stages.

SS7 Waterloo

We dropped no further places in Boltby and by the end of Waterloo (Deer Park to the older generation) we had climbed to 28th. The stage was even more slippery than the morning’s run with the icy surface now polished.

SS8 Roppa

On it from the start and paying little attention to the ice, we soldiered on setting 9th quickest stage time and climbing back up to 22nd overall and 6th in class.

SS9 Riccall Dale

I actually enjoyed this stage for the first time in my life but was still pleased to see the finish. With over a minute to the car in front of us, it was now highly unlikely that we would make any places up so we remained in 22nd

SS10 Pry Rigg

We struggled to see how we possibly got it wrong on the first run through here as the car turned in perfectly for Our Corner. A toot of appreciation to the marshals was responded to with waves of approval (and some not so approving) and we continued to College Moor.

SS11 College Moor

As we were now playing to the crowds, any chance of a quick stage time was thwarted by a couple of spins but we were still quick enough to maintain our position; but wait! Who was the guy parked up repairing a broken wheel in that stage? For the second year in a row, Kitch had retired in College Moor. This time a wheel had broken in two and although repairable, he was OTL when he came out of the stage. 21st overall and 5th in class.

SS12 Boltby

Unlike our off in Pry Rigg, it was easy to see how we’d gone off in Boltby and many more had been in the same hole. In fact, at the dramatically reduced speed we still nearly came a cropper this time.

Back to the finish and we were confirmed as 21st overall and 5th in class. We had continued to eek away at the lead the cars in front held but not enough. If we hadn’t had the two offs, then we were on the pace of the class leaders so would certainly have been in with a shout, but we weren’t. So there. Proper enjoyable rally and a must for 2014.

Cheers to Pud and Nige Bywater for running Chase and to Rob for sitting at the side of me.

RAC Open Rally 2012

Getting Ready

Remarkably, the car had been ready for the rally for some time. There were a couple of jobs that were outstanding and left until the last minute; like swapping the rear leaf springs and fitting the new front disks and pads. The car was loaded onto the trailer the night before the rally and the chase car packed, so all there was left to do on Friday morning was hook the trailer onto the van and make our way to Pickering.

We’d been watching the weather carefully and the cold spell which seemed to be gathering momentum seemed to dwindle away and we were presented with a relatively mild weekend and no matter how much of a snow dance I did, it looked like we were out of luck.

Day 1

The first night consisted of a steady plod into the woods and two stages, both repeated, in the Dalby complex. Stage 1 was a blast up and down the long Riggs and Dales and through the Woodyard.

Stage 1 Dalby 1
We sat on the start line, all fired up and ready to go and slipped and slithered our way into the Woodyard through the massive crowds and away up Flax Dale, The next Rigg is apparently flat but I was very nervous on the narrow track and was backing off un-necessarily for small crests and was mistaking tufts of grass for the corners. The stage time reflected this and we were already in sixth.

Stage 2 Newclose 1
Still part of Dalby but much wider with flowing corners and wider tracks. Our pace was much better on this stage with no un-necessary backing off and our third position was to be expected. What wasn’t expected was how much the leader, Alan McDowall and Gav Hestletine were in front of us. Martin Hawkswell was, as expected, taking time out of us so it looked at this early stage as though we were in a battle for third place. This looked like being tight between a handful of cars. Nick Jarvis in his Mk1 Escort, Nigel Barber in the Astra and Andy Madge in the Corrolla plus ourselves were all of a similar pace.

Dalby 2 qnd Newclose 2
A long service was had in Dalby before we ventured out into the woods again to repeat stages 1 and 2. I’d tidied my act up a little and we went 20 seconds faster than the first run of Dalby 2 and was 4th and continued with a third in Newclose 2 before we went back to Pickering for the overnight halt.

We were lying in 4th position overnight. What was looking like a four horse race for third was looking to be down to three as Nigel Barber was a minute up on us; but not to worry, the last time Nigel did the RAC we were able to turn the wick up and put some time into him to eek out a lead over him so I’m sure we’d be able to do that again.

Day 2

Stage 5. Gale Rigg 1
Gale Rigg was the opening stage and we left a very foggy Pickering and climbed out onto the North York Moors and above the low-lying cloud into bright sunshine. I put the hammer down and we were second, a handful of seconds down on McDowall, a handful up on Hawkswell and we’d had 14 out of Barber. Another three stages like that and we could be up to third.

SS6 and 7 Duncombe 1 and 2
Duncombe was foggy and it was scary travelling through the trees at speed. We traversed the tricky downhill hairpins with ease but the car went airborne and straight on at the bottom of the hill, missing the slight left in favour of a trip through the barbed wire fence and down a banking into a field. To make matters worse, there were spectators leaning on the fence who took flight as we headed towards them, some falling to the ground as they fled. We stayed around to make sure that everyone got up. Only one was limping but we were hurried on our way leaving the marshals to take care of the casualty.

We were last on the stage having dropped about half a minute, and as things were tight, it dropped us to fifth overall, Andy Madge having passed us. Another trip round Duncombe proved costly as we caught our minute man who absolutely refused to let us pass and dropped us a further 20 seconds.

SS8. Gale Rigg 2
Back to Gale Rigg and we were back on the pace again. Hawkswell improved slightly to better us and we only had 4 seconds out of Barber but half a minute from Jarvis who was breathing down our necks coming out of Duncombe.

SS 9 and 10. Duncombe 3 and 4
Duncombe 3 went without a hitch. We were 6th in here but only a handful of seconds separated the top 8 crews with a pretty similar story for Duncombe 4 where we were fifth.

A short drive to Croft was spoiled somewhat by all the traffic that had diverted from a blocked A1 and joined us on what should have been a leisurely drive through Northallerton. Instead we were diverted down some country lanes in the pea souper fog and arrived via the back entrance to the circuit.

SS 11 and 12 Croft 1 and 2
Croft being an all tarmac stage, we put our best slicks on the car. Unfortunately, the slicks weren’t as new as they used to be and apparently, the compound wasn’t really suitable for a wet and cold November afternoon. I gave the steering a jerk whilst driving steadily through the service area to see how much grip they seemed to have and the back end stepped out. This was going to be interesting. Surprisingly, despite being sideways from lights to flag, and enjoying a monumental spin, we beat Hawkswell and were only 10 seconds down to McDowall but the stars of the show were Nigel Barber for winning the stage and taking 26 seconds out of us, and Jarvis who was only three behind barber. Croft 2 was pretty much a repeat but McDowall must have found his feet to win, but a further 25 were dropped to Jarvis and Barber.

So we left Croft with the tail well and truly wedged between the legs. We were now two and a half minutes down on Barber and any chance of third place. Hawkswell was a further minute up the road looking quite safe in second with McDowall a further minute and a quarter clear. To make matters worse, we were back into fifth and trailing Jarvis by 12 seconds. Regrettably, our old sparring partner Andy Madge was still parked in Duncombe Park in the same place as we parked last year and suffering a similar broken half shaft but was still scoring super-rally times and would later join back in the fun.

SS 13. Hamsterley.
This stage never looks familiar and was pretty much like Dalby where I was braking hard for the straights and was nervous about dropping into one of the humongous ditches. Another 12 dropped to Barber but half a minute gained over Jarvis. We were back in fourth.

SS14 Pundershaw 1
I’m not sure exactly what happens in the fog. Whether there was a little fog cloud following us round like the Creepy Coupe off the Wacky Races or whether we just dropped on unlucky but we were 8th quickest and a minute off the pace in a 6 mile stage. Luckily Jarvis was only 6 up and Barbers were 8 so it looks as though they encountered the same mist as us. Perhaps I’m just a wuss in the fog as well as on straights?

Pundershaw 2
was even worse. We were brought to a complete standstill at one point trying to work out where the stage went. Luckily, we could see a feint glimmer of a control board a few yards away which turned out to be the advance warning for the finish otherwise we may still be in there. Notable times were that we tied with Jarvis and dropped another minute to Barber, Nige Barrett taking over half a minute out of us in his Nova.

So at the end of day 2 of the 2012 Roger Albert Clark Open Rally we headed to Carlisle to the overnight halt lying a very dangerous 4th position, Nick Jarvis snapping at our heels only 11 seconds behind and we were absolutely no-where near a podium as Nigel Barber was now 3:33 in front of us. Up to the end of day 2 we have already covered the equivalent mileage to three National Championship rounds and tomorrow we have the equivalent to two more. And my bum is already starting to ache due to being sat in the same position for 14 hours in the hard rally car seat, everyone is knackered and ready for bed. And we do this for fun!

Day 3

We didn’t have to wait for the alarm to wake us up as the drumming of the rain on the Premier Inn roof had already done it.

As I stated at the end of day one, we’d been able to turn the wick up and put time into Barber previously so we could possibly find the three and a half minute deficit to claw back a podium spot. Time to stop nancying around and do some of that rally driver stuff. Still quite aware that we were running on unfamiliar roads with huge ditches on each side which could swallow a car whole, we pressed on.

SS16 Glen Dhu
was part of the Kershope complex and we had 7.5 miles of it. Times were tight at the top with everyone quite similarly paced apart from MaDowall who was half a minute clear. Worse thing was that Barber had 4 out of us. This catching up lark wasn’t as easy as it sounded.

SS17 Newcastleton
Nine miles of Newcastleton next and sixth place stage time, another 4 down on Barber. But time to start looking behind as Nick Jarvis was on a charge and brought his deficit down to 16 seconds.

SS18 Florida
Three miles of Orange trees and Everglades greeted us in the sunny Florida Valley and all the stage times were within a few seconds. We took one off Barber and five off Jarvis. Now we’re talking!

SS19 Riccarton
Fourteen miles of Riccarton followed and the three way battle was split by 4 seconds, in my favour, taking three from Jarvis and four from Barber. Andy Madge stuck in a sneaky top three appearance with the top two spots business as usual with McDowall and Hawkswell.

SS 20 and 21. Craik1 and 2
A pretty good 9 mile stage as we were second quickest, only 5 off Barber and Jarvis so the overall scores were pretty much as they were at the start of the day. Jarvis now trailing us by half a minute, but the next run through saw everyone improve except us so we dropped a handful.

SS22 Wauchope
Wauchope followed. This was a reverse of the morning’s Riccarton stage and rather than call it Notrccir, it was caller Wauchope. There was a fairly big upheaval to the event on this stage.
Alan McDowall and Gav Hestletine had opened up a lead of over five and a half minutes over their nearest rival and almost eight over third place. So we were extremely surprised to come across them hanging perilously close to falling off the edge of a ravine and into the bubbling river below. Both were out of the car and Gav was slowing us down and wielding the OK board.
As the story unfolds, they cut the inside of a hairpin a bit too close and it sucked the car in. As we passed, the front end was well down the banking and the rear of the car was at head height. Alan and Gav had climbed out of what they are describing as an Italian Job moment and were busy flagging the following cars down when the car set off down the banking on its own, crashing into the bubbling river below. Gav tells a good story of what they had to do to get it out. I’ll leave that one to him.

So with 22 of the 24 stages complete, we had a new leader. Martin Hawkswell led Nigel Barber by 2:07, we were a further 3:56 down (see the charge was paying off) with Nick Jarvis a further 33 seconds behind.

SS23. Florida 2
Darkness fell and we headed for a reverse of the morning’s Florida stage. Although not really that far off the pace, I was fast developing a dislike for the dark stages which I once loved and found we had dropped nine seconds to Jarvis and it looked like our newly acquired third place could be in jeopardy. RAC Rally safe mode was perhaps a little too safe. We had 26 seconds clear and over 17 miles of Kershope to hold it off for.

Final Stage. SS24 Kershope.
We were delayed for half an hour at the beginning of the stage and it brought back some happy memories. The last time we were here was in 2010 when we were holding a massive lead in the Open Rally and there were six inches of snow on the ground. Cars were being towed up the hill into the stage and the ones that couldn’t make it into stage were being lowered back down again on a rope. This year it was a balmy 10 degrees so we had no chance of the snow I had wished for. The crack was fierce as we all tried to out psyche each other. The delay was caused as Captain Barrett had gone missing mid-stage and was suspected to be well off. He was in fact parked up on the narrow bit after he’d crossed the bridge into England where’ he’s drowned the car out in some deep water.

Nick Jarvis was to start the stage a minute behind us with a deficit of 26 seconds. His pace was easy. Go like stink until you see an Escort in front of you then you’re third. Ours was a little more difficult but basically the same principal in reverse. Go fast enough to not be able to see an Escort in the mirrors. My dislike of the dark was increasing and I’d been messing around with the spotlights trying to get more light on to the road directly in front of the car so would lose out on the longer straights or whilst cornering, I think I preferred it so will have a mess around with this over the winter months on the road. The first bit of the stage was tight and twisty, predominantly narrow and pretty much down hill. All my least favourite attributes. I’m not allowed to look I my mirror whilst driving on a stage but every now and then I caught a glimpse of a white light in the mirror. This made me lose concentration so I was going even slower as a result. I worked out that the white light was from Simon’s Potti and it was lighting the rear hoop of the roll cage up. I knocked the mirror out of line and started concentrating again. We dropped down the hill to the side of the river and then over the bridge into England where we hairpinned left and set off back up the opposite side of the tight, twisty valley we had just come down. Quite soon we saw two sets of headlights, less than 15 seconds apart and certainly less than a minute behind us. I decided that a little more pace was necessary and put the hammer down. The valley bottom road was tight and twisty but I knew there wasn’t much to catch us out so pressed on. The roads opened up and climbed steeply uphill and further into England and after a few more miles we crested the hills and onto open moorland. Although a glimpse in the mirror was now out of the question, we could see our minute man going the other way across the valley head and when we arrived at his location, there was no sign of the two cars that were following us. As we dropped back into the trees and down towards the stage finish, I felt comfortable on the tight and twisty bits and threw the car about with ease as we dropped down to the finish. We got our time and pulled a few yards clear of the line where a raft of reporters were hustling to ask questions. We clocked our finish time and knew that if more than 34 seconds elapsed before the next car arrived that we had maintained our third position. A minute went by; then another. By this time we were being asked to leave the control by the marshals so we did as requested, quite happy that it appeared that we had done what was necessary to maintain our third place.

It was about 30 miles back to Carlisle but once we’d climbed the hill out of the stage and could see the glow of the street lights in the distance, the phone chimed up with internet reception and I refreshed the results page. There were only the first three results in, showing us as third. We waited and waited but still there was no update. Eventually, more times appeared on the results sheet but none for Nick Jarvis. It transpired that he had being giving it some pasty in an all or nothing kind of way, saw us going the other way up the valley and clocked us to be thirty seconds in front so gone all out to catch us. In the meantime, behind Nick and also suffering from the same Red Mist Syndrome was Steve Magson. Steve apparently rolled out shortly after entering England and Nick, having lost sight of us had missed a tight right-hander and gone straight on requiring the help of a few dozen spectators to get him back on the road again.

So, another RAC Rally and another third place in the Open. Not a superb performance by any stretch of the imagination and possibly some of the most pedestrian driving that I have ever done; but once again, Phoenix made it to the finish and between us we have now completed every single one of the nine Roger Albert Clark rallies since it’s inception back in 2004.

Photos:
Frank Love : www.raceandrally.co.uk
Martin Cain