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My first real rally was the 1981 Romer in a Two Stroke SAAB 96. My navigator for the day was Colin Batten, the Clerk of the Course for the Fordrace Tyres Epynt Stages. With 42 BHP we were never going to set the world on fire, but we did finish. Although we did have a couple of memorable incidents. The Skere Point Stage had a huge jump, which came up faster than expected! Then there was the 2 wheel incident on the second run at the old POW camp Island Farm. Then on the final stage almost in sight of the flying finish we spun! The car lasted for a couple of seasons of mostly Forest Stage Rallies, before going to a new home. But before then I had a light roll with Ian Howells later the CoC of the International Welsh Rally. After repairing it and a repaint (Dulux best) Colin and I did the WAMC Silver Jubilee Rally which used Epynt and Swansea Airport as venues. I then upgraded to a SAAB 96 V4. Again it was mostly used on Forest Stages. Again there was limited success and as is traditional with SAAB 96's I managed to roll it on the JC Van Hire Stages. That was with Colin navigating again - What is it with organisers navigating! I then decided to go traditional and aquired an Escort. Initially it had a very tired 1600 crossflow. It also marked the change to Tarmac Rallying at the then new venue - Pembrey. The transition from Front to Rear Wheel Drive took a bit of getting used to, particularly as my only previous experience of rear wheel drive was with a Morris 1000 traveller. I think it was on the second visit to Pembrey the engine was retired, as did we. A second Cross Flow followed, and the results improved. A change to a 2 litre Pinto improved things again and the final season with the car was probably the most successful I have had, although I never did use the car in 2 litre form on Epynt which was a great disappointment. This was followed by a Skoda Estelle. My main navigator during this period was Jeremy Dixon, Secretary of the Coronation Rally. Should be safe he wasn't the CoC! We had mixed fortunes. We destroyed the gearbox on Dears Leap (going towards the triangle). This lead to the only photograph I have ever had published of me in a National Magazine. Coming down to Fourways Bridge we couldn't change gear properly. I managed to get one (third I think) which I knew would get us up the hill after the bridge, but only if I kept the speed up. Coming out of the bridge we were sideways but kept it on the black stuff. Jeremy commented that we had almost had Frank as we went up the hill. Well Frank survived, got his photo and we had our moment of glory. In 1987 we entered the Welsh International Rally. There were a couple of incidents and we arrived in Aberystwyth Service with very bent steering. Chris Love who was servicing for us set to and got it not only looking right, it handled as well as before. So off we set into the night and were doing better. Every Stage finish we were coming into the Finish before the previous car, a Lada had finished booking out. Until about as far from home as we could get, the Skoda exhibited it's one charachteristic it has with a Porsche. Being rear engined once it decides to go you have to be quick and a little lucky to catch it. Well we weren't lucky. We didn't roll, but slid down a bank and couldn't get out out. After the stage was over it took 2 Range Rovers to pull us out and we could then drive home! Divorce put things on hold for a while and the chance for a SD1 came up. It was a Rover Competition Department show car, so needed a complete rebuild. It wasn't a great success, but when it was performing properly great fun. It was a bit to big really and spent most of the time I had it in the garage whilst I had a sabbatical - about 10 year sabbatical. The last 2 events were at Pendine, where we had 3rd in class on the last outing. Then the current car appeared. A 1300cc Micra. In 2006 we did 2 events - Caerwent and Brawdy. Caerwnet was a steep learning curve. A venue I had only visited one, to marshal, a new car and a new navigator. We started slow and got quicker during the day. Brawdy was much better. It was a new venue for everyone, so no one knew what to expect. There was a mixture of quick and twisty bits. So often we would loose out to cars on the fast sections and make some of it back in the tight bits. We managed second in class so were quite pleased. Last updated 26/1/2007 |
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