2007 Eventsigns Mewla National Rally over Epynt

Sandy said.... Due to the success of my first ever rally navigating at Wilbarston and thoroughly enjoying the whole day, George and I decided that it had been a success for us both, and that he would like me to do more events with him if I was interested. So, thought about it for 1/100th of a second and agreed to do more. But what to do for a second event? George had suggested doing a bigger single event rally to give the car a better run out and to give me more experience. Ah, sod that, lets go the whole hog and do a proper multi venue rally with recce, pace notes on fearsome roads, a place steeped in rallying history - The Mewla over the Epynt military ranges! Wednesday night before the August bank holiday weekend and I have just come back from Georges. Its 11.30 pm, in my right hand is a mug of coffee and in my left the 2007 Mewla pace notes. I read over them, getting the terminology, flow etc several times that night and over the next few evenings. Saturday morning and I have travelled the 40 minutes to Georges and at half seven in the morning we set off for Builth Wells in mid Wales. As usual, I talked the whole way there. We got there, had some lunch and a coffee before heading up on to the ranges to meet at the Drovers Pub to sign on for the recce. We are in convoy three. We head off for the start of stage 8. We follow the other cars and I read the notes. Now it all makes sense! My main concern in the days before the rally was how I would recognise some of the roads/notes. Does that make sense? I have watched thousands of in car videos over the years. Some had pace notes with them, and not once had I ever got close to getting them right. Would I recognise a small jump, a six left etc. Yip, easy! We then did stage 1. Excellent. I had read this one on my kitchen at least ten times. Now I would see what it looked like. Easy, other than some very quick and brutal dips, corner and crest combinations just after the start. Next stage and we trundle round with the rest. Round the next corner and in the distance is the German village. Built for military training. I couldn't believe how German it was. Don't think I actually read the notes on our first recce through the village. Got to the end of the stage, turned and did the three stages again in reverse direction. After that, we got to do the three stages again, once in each direction. By now I was feeling more confident with the notes, the place etc and was looking forward to the rally. George was slightly concerned about using his Jeep for the recce from the point of view that something more rally car ish would be better. However, there were guys doing the recce in all sorts of cars, vans, and 4x4. One pair even rattling round in an Aston Martin DB7. With the roof down! Back to Builth just in time to roll up behind Stu and Cal with the van and car. We get the car of the trailer, go to noise, pass that and on round to scruitineering. We get through there ok as well. Back to the van. Park the Jeep and trailer and take the van and rally car to our B&B's. We were all in different places. Stu and Cal got a very nice, recently refurbished town house. George and I stayed with a very nice older lady in her 1950's museum! Quick shower and change and head into town or a beer and fish supper. Sorry, Scottish for fish and chips! Sunday morning and after a greasy fried breakfast, G and I head round to meet Stu and Cal to get the car ready. I don't like full cooked breakfasts and wasn't going to have a cooked breakfast, but it was delivered to the dining table for me by our land lady. I felt obliged to have it. That was after having discovered that the milk in my cereal was white water labelled as milk. Stu appears from his B&B. Asks what our B&B and breakfast was like. Then proceeds to tell us about the luxury they were living in. And their breakfast I enquired. Well Sandy, three rashers of bacon, three sausages, a whole bowl of beans, as much toast, coffee as they could eat. Told me three times that day what a good breakfast they had. Anyway, car sorted, Aron and Pete Coley arrive for the day. They all head for service and us for the start line. We slot into place and cross the start and head for service and stage one. My first proper rally was under way. We arrive at emergency service, confirm all is ok and continue on to stage 1 start. We queue up with the others and before we know it, we are on the five seconds to go. Five, four, three, two, one and we are off. This is just a short three mile introduction, but seemed easy enough. Pace notes were ok, but would take time to get properly into them. This was after all, only my second rally. We then have two minutes to cross the road to stage 2 for a five mile blast. Again, more experience and my notes are a bit better. G reckons he is getting the information more or less when he needs it so far. Stage three is five minutes after stage 2 and this is 11 miles long through the German village. Half way through the microphone falls out of the front of my helmet. I didn't notice, but carried on anyway. This was the only time I felt sick. Must have been the breakfast. Once we got to service and got some fresh air, I was fine. Cal and Stu checked over the car with Aron and Pete. Then we were of again for our second lap of the first three stages. In the three previous stages, we had passed one or two cars parked up, out of the rally. This run of three stages would be more serious in retirement stakes. On the second of the three stages, we came over a particularly evil right over a crest into a severe dip through a left and right before going right and left up out of the dip. As we came over the crest, there was a mark on the road, then some soil and then an Escort WRC in Repsol colours 100ft up the embankment and completely written off. As we continue, we pass more cars parked up. During the recce and event it was obvious that the foot and mouth restrictions meant that there were a lot of sheep on the ranges. At the end of the stage we pass car 1, the Audi A3 Quattro parked up having wiped out two sheep. On the next, stage it was our turn to have a run in with the sheep. As we were coming round a couple of corners, I spotted three sheep running down the moor. I mentioned that they were heading our way. Round the next corner, the three of them are barrelling down between the spectators. Two got on to the road, the third stopped. The first two carried on to the other side. The third then thought, hey, good idea and jumped into the road in front of us. G hit the brakes and swerved to miss the sheep, which had now thought maybe I wont bother right now. Meanwhile we half spun left, then right before going right round. We re started the engine and carried on to the finish. I think in the end, 11 sheep were wiped out. Back to service before tackling the long stage 7. This stage is an amalgamation of the three first stages to make one long 15.5 mile run. This was a good run with no problems. So its back for a longer service. By now Aron and Pete had gone spectating. Next up is the three stages but run in the opposite direction. These didn't cause us any problems, but by now other cars were dropping out all over the place. Probably five on every stage. By the time we got back to the last service of the day, the service area was pretty much empty. We only had one incident in the afternoon stages. One very busy complex of corners, dips and crests led to a double blind crest and 50m to a 90 right. It was a busy set of notes for me and we arrived on the second crest just in time to shout at G to slow down. We sort of slowed down a bit once the wheels were sufficiently on the ground to grip! We over shot the junction by 20 feet onto the grass. We found our way back to then road and carried on. We finished the stage and remembered to get it right on the second run. Then it was all done bar the run back to the finish. We got to the finish line and met up with Stu, Cal, Aron and Pete. Next thing we new was one of the other cars which had been running just behind us all day, caught fire while waiting to go over the finish line. We got everything packed up and went to the finish ceremony. G & I finished 54th overall and won our class, N2. A very successful second rally for me and another solid finish for the Saxo. Next we headed back to the B&B, got changed and had a curry and a pint in the town. Next morning we met up for the run home but not before Stu took great pleasure in telling me what they had had for breakfast. Three rashers of bacon, three sausages, a whole bowl of beans, as much toast, coffee as they could eat. Many thanks to Stu, Cal, Aron and Pete for all their work, and to George for a fantastic opportunity. ........ Sandy