Last modified: 14/07/2002

No 53 Crew Service Crew

Peugeot 309 GTi 16v George Cooke Nikki Breslin Lawrence Fowler / Chris Rose Aron Brown / Andrew Mitchell

Round 2 of the Heart of England Championship

I was to have competed at MIRA with regular navigator Alan, but due to business commitments he was out of the country, so I asked new boy Nikki if he would like to have a go.

As Aron was not competing at MIRA following his water splash adventure at Weston Park, I had the sole us of the van and trailer and large number of volunteers to come along, including once again new boy Chris Rose - and the simple drive up the A5 to MIRA did not even require a very early start for a change, sociable hours rallying.

There was a considerable queue for noise but the 309 passed easily and then on to scrutineering where the only minor problem was Nikki had his new helmet stickered and pay a pound!

As the weather appeared dry and the venue was predominantly dry good quality tarmac I thought I would try to ‘use up’ some part worn slightly cut Colway F2s we had used with some success on the Isle of Man.

After a pre start check by the team and being forced to give the service crew lots of money for breakfast sandwiches we set off for this first stage.

First couple of stages were steady and un-dramatic with the new crew getting use to each other and despite being a tarmac event it was very difficult to see what junctions and chicanes actually were, as they were marked by cones and arrows that blended into the surrounding scenery. Car was going well although constantly running onto the rev-limiter due to driver incompetence rather than car problems. At service discussion about changing to spare chip which gives more power and has no rev-limiter, but I was concerned about over reving the engine.

The car ran well in the morning but heavy braking throughout the day required a complete pad inspection by lunchtime and a front to back tyre change as the front tyres were losing their edge, no expensive tyre changes here..

The crew had started to work well together although the driver still failed to successfully negotiate the hairpin in front of the spectators all day and insisted on a number of wall of death manoeuvres on the high speed banked sections.

In the queue to start stage six the car stalled and there appeared to be insufficient battery power to turn the engine over! Nikki had to get out and push but we successfully bump started the car.

Back at service frantic efforts to identify the problem included taking the sump-guard off to check the wiring to the alternator and when that looked all right fitting a spare battery borrowed from Dan, but that proved flat. So we charged the existing battery on the car and push started the car out of the final two services.

Half way through the final stage (stage8) the engine started to lose power as the battery had insufficient power to run the fuel pump, but we just managed to cross the finish line and get to the final control before the car stopped totally. Nikki then had to push the 309 back to the service area!

Well done to two Dan’s in their 205 for eventually getting into it and getting a well deserved finish after a few heartaches…..now you know what rallying is about guy!

Well done to Nikki who has successfully finished his first rally. Thanks to new guy Chris, and Lawrence, for the chocolate, and Andy and Aron for eating all the sandwiches.

I do not feel brave enough to do Epynt, which is now the next round of the championship due to cancelled Bramcote, so next stop will be Car-nival Stages at Abingdon on Sunday 9th June