Last modified: 14/07/2002

No 85 Crew Service Crew

Peugeot 309 GTi 16v Aron Brown Andrew Mitchell George Cooke / Lawrence Fowler

After the disaster of the Quinton Stages Rally and the superb efforts of the team to get the car back to a presentable condition, "Team Oranje Motorsport" need a finish to boost moral. For the Wroughton Stages it was again, all change. Aron & Andy were to pilot the 309 GTi 16v with George & Lawrence as their back up team.

Due to the distance to the venue an overnight stay was needed, along with our friends from "Yoda Sport Rallying" who were also to compete on the following days rally. As usual with single venue rallying, scrutineering was to be carried out on the following morning so an early start on Sunday was needed - which didn't go down too well with some of the team!

When we arrived at the venue the queue for scruitineering was already building up, this left us with very little time to sign on and get ready to start the first stage. Wroughton airfield is a typical of single venue rallies, i.e. fast open tarmac. With the weather being a little on the warm side, the heat build up from within the car was almost like a sauna!

At the start of SS1 we found ourselves seeded behind a Mini Cooper, suffice to say the Peugeot caught and passed the Mini halfway through the stage, despite Aron pulling off the gearstick knob and having to drive the rest of the stage with just the stick! As the day progressed Aron & Andy were soon getting back into the swing of things and started to settle down and enjoy themselves, the car ran perfectly all day (a tribute to the hours put in by George and helpers!) and needed only routine servicing, apart from one minor "off" when the Peugeot slid a little bit wide on a square left into a fence, luckily only minor damage was incurred and we carried on our way.

Our final position was 39th overall from a start number of 65, a reasonable position, from an enjoyable day. Our thanks as usual to George for lending us the car and Lawrence for servicing.