Three wheels on my wagon!

This was the second attempt at the Winter stages for the Tomsport Astra and it's crew of Aron & Erik. Being seeded at car no 22, thanks to a good result last year, confidence was high (probably a little too high!).

Saturday morning dawned bright and early, after an enjoyable night in the B&B, Aron, Cal, Andy and Jamie, met up with Erik, James and Flash in the service area in Sweet Lamb. No major concerns with noise and Scrutineering apart from a 99db reading (a bit close!). The boys gave the car it's "pre flight" checks, we all then had a long wait for our start time of 10:49.

Sweet Lamb had not been used competitively since this rally last year, apart from a few works teams testing, so in theory the roads should be fairly smooth (or so we thought!). Aron & Erik's agreement was that we should take it easy on the first stage, as neither of us had done a loose surface rallying during the last 12 months. "Bloody slippy" was the only way you could describe SS1, a major tank slapping moment followed as we understeered off the tarmac road and a nose dive into a field did not help our confidence. SS2 was less slippy and was a good fast and flowing stage to the East of the service area, some good calls from Erik meant we felt happier. A 40 minute road section followed on the run around in to Hafren, which gave us time to reflect on the first 2 stages, we came to the conclusion that we had the wrong tyres for the conditions (Colway plus 4's are better for hard dry stages). Also the fact of running a standard diff does not help on the tight hairpins. SS3 had a 3 mile run through Hafren (proper Rallying!), through in to Sweet Lamb.

At service the boys gave the car a thorough check after our couple of trips into the undergrowth. Stages 4/5/6 were a repeat of stages 1/2/3, with the stages drying out our confidence was growing, although we did seem to be having a few problems on some of the tight left hand corners; Especially on a hairpin where we had to be pushed out thanks to some enthusiastic spectators. Erik had undone his harnesses ready to get out and help push, but had to quickly buckle them up again as we speed off up the stage, he quickly picked up where we were on the map, even without his Poti, as this was wedged underneath the handbrake!

We arrived in service, minus part of the front bumper. During service Andy noticed that the steering had a very full right hand lock, but very little left hand lock - now we know why we have been having problems with left hand bends!

Stages 7/8 were short stages, and we seemed to be setting some better times, even on the tarmac section. The only slight mishap was when the back stepped out slightly, and the rear o/s wheel hit the bank at the side of the track and bounced back, I kept the right foot hard down, no time lost (who needs Swedish snow banks!).

Then came SS9, which started on the fast up hill section at the far eastern side of sweet lamb (one of my favorite parts). All was going well until we entered a square left, as I slid the car into the corner it suddenly shot towards the apex whilst Erik commented there was a strange smell, as we exited the corner, the car was all over the place. The commentary from within the car then went something like this:

"Puncture"! Said Aron. As a loud bang from the rear of the car was heard. Aron felt the back of the car drop, "I think it is a bit more serious than a puncture" said Aron. "I know; the wheel has just overtaken us and is rolling off down the hillside"! replied Erik. We then managed to stop the car at the side of the road even without any brakes.

Erik then did what any good co-driver should do and set off down the hillside to retrieve the wheel! I felt a bit guilty and went off to help him.

So what lessons did we learn from this rally:

Colway plus 4's are not suited to wet slippy, and muddy conditions.
The Astra needs a LSD when funds are available
Aron and Erik are so unfit they cannot push a wheel back up the side of a hill!
Change the rear hubs when they have been bounced off dry stone walls in Jersey!
All you need to keep your service crew amused is lots of mud, so they can make dog poo shapes!

Overall it was a very enjoyable rally, thanks must go to Erik for being as cool as a cucumber, and some excellent servicing from Andy, Cal, Jamie, Flash, James, and Martin.

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...neither of us had done a loose surface rallying during the last 12 months.

...we had to be pushed out thanks to some enthusiastic spectators.

...the wheel has just overtaken us and is rolling off down the hillside!