Brean Stages 30-31 January 2010

This event consisted of 12 stages over 2 days
After 1st couple of stages I was really getting into it, and setting brilliant times all day.
However going into stage 6 which was the last the one for day 1 of rally we were flying and up to 5th oa.
Then just half mile from end of stage the car overheated and came to a stop.. sadly this was the end of our rally as they would not run a trophy rally on the sunday which was a shame

 

Wyedean Forest Stages, 13th Feb 2010

On the 1st stage we were 2nd fastest, very slippy with some icy/snowy bits which was a bit hairy in places!!

2nd stage we set fastest time which was very pleasing only had one moment in there on a 5R into 1L coming into it slightly bit fast but got round

3rd stage was very loose and most of the stage could hardly hear anything in our intercoms for noise of outside felt like we had a puncture but we didnt

4th stage racecourse stage would of set fastest time in 1400 if we had not of practically stopped at the second chicane as they were very tight but managed 2nd fastest time going into service leading the 1400's.
In service we changed the front tyres and put on 2 new ones to go back out for the remaining 3 stages

Stage 5 was 13 miles something to get our teeth into we pushed really hard and only had one moment where we were off the track but still going then got stuck on the impossible hairpin as it is called. Lost about a good 5-10 seconds at least, still we set a quick time but not as quick as Julian Wilkes.

Stage 6 was a repeat of 2 in the morning as we had a good clean run in there but lying 2nd behind Wilkes now but in front of Matt Edwards and leading in the BTRDA points as Wilkes is not registered.

Last stage 7 we went into this one 1 second in front of Edwards/Collis and needed to really go for it as we wanted the max points to start off our season. A mile into stage our exhaust broke causing us to lose some power but Darren really pushed to the limit and it payed off beating Edwards on last stage by 2 seconds to take max points in the championship.

We finished 25th oa in the whole event , 2nd 1400 claiming 2nd in class, and also I got highest lady codriver, and highest lady codriver in Gloucestershire taking top points in the championship making it a good start to our season

 

Malcolm Wilson Rally - March 6th 2010

This is the 2nd Round of the BTRDA Championship starting from cockermouth.

We were starting this event with top points in the championship, and were looking for more on this event.

The weather conditions were not brilliant in the 1st 4 stages as there was a lot of snow and ice about making the conditions very hard and tricky, a bit frustrating for us as the proton just doesn't like that weather at all and our times were unfortunately not the best.

Coming into 1st service we were 2nd behind Matt Edwards in the MG.
As we set off for stages 5 and 6 we knew there was no snow or ice so we decided to give it a good push, and we did !! taking fastest time on stage 6. For the last stage we decided to drive for a finish and be happy with 2nd place in championship points.

We finished the event 20th oa, 2nd in class.

Thanks as always to our service/management crew. Tim, johnny, and Davo

 

Bulldog National Rally - March 27th 2010

For this I sat with Nigel Jenkins in the Team GMF Motor Factors Vauxhall Nova 1400cc.

The event of 5 stages consisting of 3 stages, service then remaining 2 stages before finish at welshpool.

Myself and Nigel are registered for the Hankook Welsh National Championship and having both collected valuable points from the Malcolm Wilson back in beginging of March and we were both hoping for some more.

Day went smoothly with no problems, car ran brilliant and Nigel was pleased with all the hard work he had put into car had paid off, as we led from start to finish in the 2wd, setting fastest times on all stages and finishing a brilliant 7th oa, 1st 2wd and 1st in class. Something which we are both pleased with as it has took 5 rallies since 2005 that nigel and I actually finished an event together and I think we did it in style, also collecting some good points for the championship too.

Thanks to Ray, Sid and the boss Luke for looking after us in service and to Nigel who drove faultless all day.

 

Somerset Stages. - April 24 2010

Sunny Minehead on Sat 24th of April, Darren and I were seeded car 201 on this event and definately a good place to be if the stages are dusty.

11 Stages lay ahead of us and we wanted a win and nothing else
1st stage went well and Darren manage to play bumper cars round the chicane which was better than last year when we were stuck in it !!!

SS2 was Croyden 1 this was one of the long stages, everything was going well until we nearly gave a radio marshall the fright of his life when we nearly parked on his bonnet on a HPR !! even with stalling the car and losing a good 10 secs we set 2nd fastest 1400.

Remaining 2 Stages before short service to change tyres to tarmac and we arrived in service leading the 1400 field by 12 secs.
Our next 2 stages were the ones Darren was really looking foward to, having already set a record for the 1400 field of 3min 51 secs he was looking to improve on this time.
Darren drove brilliant and I had such a big smile on my face the car is awesome on tarmac.

we completed stage 5 1st run Porlock 3 min 51, and stage 6 2nd run Porlock 3 min 45secs so we were both really pleased to have set new record .

Back into minehead for 2nd service, and after changing back to forest tyres and spanner check we were ready to go back out and complete remaining 5 stages.

The afternoon went really well with Darren really pushing all the time, we set some fastest times of the day in the 1400's along with some joint fastest times, Edwards in the MG and Lewis Brothers in the Nova, sadly the Lewis Brothers retired after 9.

Going into Stage 11 we were 17seconds up on our next competitor and the 1400 oa victory was nearly ours and after completing the last stage and taking increasing our lead by another 5 seconds from our nearest rival 1400 victory was ours.

Darren and i have long awaited this win and are both really pleased with the result finishing 18th oa, 1st 1400 winner and Best mixed crew as well as taking those important max championship points.

As it stands at moment Darren and I are leading the 1400 Milners Oils championship, with myself leading the lady co-driver and also I am 2nd in the Welsh National Championship Co-Driver Overall and leading B9 Co-Driver

Thanks to Tim, Den, Jonny and Harry for keeping the car running faultless all day....... Top job as always

 

Plains Rally. - May 15 2010

Starting from Welshpool this event had 7 stages with only 1 being used twice.
We were car 202 on this event with our main rival Matt Edwards leading the 1400’s away.

Stage 1: We had a steady run through to the last part of stage which was flat all the way to finish, as I was calling the notes as flat all the way to the Finish, while Darren was telling me in return he had no brakes !!!!! thankfully they came back before the stop line.

Stage 2: Was brilliant with only a 3 second gap to the leader, on the next road section we started having concerns with the car as it was overheating then it developed a misfire

Stage 3: We had to start with the car still not right, about halfway through the car lost power and I thought our day was over, we managed to finish this stage setting a good time considering the problems with the car. After arriving into Service and checking results we were now 2nd overall in the 1400’s which was a pleasant surprise, considering our problems up until then.

With the car still not running right, the Service crew set to work changing things eventually after using some of our lateness at this Service, they managed an excellent job getting the car sorted.

Stage 4: Whow!!! Well that is all I can say I did not expect our rally to end so abruptly. With Darren really driving well, the car appeared to be back on form also, sadly over halfway through we clipped the inside which flipped the car onto its side, it then rolled Darren managed to re start it only to discover the ground was too soft and we were firmly stuck, end of the rally for us, we are both okay apart from being bruised and sore.
Hopefully the car will be fixed in time for the next event.

We are very pleased to report that we are still leading our championship even though we failed to finish the event, as bad luck struck our nearest rivals very late in their days rallying giving them a non finish also.

 

Severn Valley Stages. - Sat 5th June 2010

Round of Welsh National championship I was sat with Nigel Jenkins for this one in his Vauxhall nova 1400. Hoping to repeat our success from the bulldog back in March but things didn't quite go to plan

This event the clubmans rally consisted of 5 stages inc 12 miles through Crychan.

On way to Arrival of 1st stage we lost all gears except 3rd and occasionally 4th when it wanted to so after completing SS1 we got to management and tried to fix the problem, having changed a couple of things Nigel had hope he had sorted it but on the start line we realised we still only had 2 gears which made 12 mile in Crychan hell!!!!
Nigel manage to get car to end even though very frustrated but with the dust conditions as well made it even harder, especially when we should have been slowing down into the tighter bends but Nigel had to drive through them to have enough power to get up some of the hills.

After arriving back in service the lads got onto the problem to find that a tiny pin & nut had broke so with this fixed we left Builth to do remaining 2 stages with all 5 gears or at least we thought we had. We ended up doing last 2 stages with no 1st gear which was a challenge to say the least and very relieved to get to end of Crychan 2 all 12 miles
so back to finish at Builth Wells and collected some valuable championship points. For now I am leading the 2wd Codriver and B9 class co-driver next round is Swansea Bay in July

 

Dukeries Rally. - Sat 12th June 2010

Picture says it all true legend and never gave up.
His smiles and laughs and banter on rallies will never be forgotten and a big hole has been left in our 1400 group.
You will so be missed by us all

Martyn Lewis
RIP 1.3.1978 - 12.6.2010

 

Corinium Stages - Down Ampney. - Sat 26th June 2010

This was my first taste at driving and managed to convince Nigel Jenkins to be the guinea pig in the Co-Drivers Seat!!!

Altogether there were 8 stages at the Old Airfield, Down Ampney Nr Cirencester, this event was organised by by Cirencester Motor Club plus help from other Motor Clubs. 1st stage was over 6 miles long and it had to be one of the hottest days of the year, after handing Nigel his best friend for the day THE WATCH !! I just sat chilled out and waited to be told when and where to go, not literally I may add!

Stage 2 was a repeat of 1 and I manage to improve on the 2nd stage by taking 30 secs off my Stage 1 times, by now I was starting to get used to the car, and really enjoying having a go 3 & 4 went well, then we had 5 & 6 and finally 7 & 8

I was feeling more confident and pushed myself on more and more each time and as I had pointed out to me it would be nice if I left the wing mirrors on in the chicanes !!!

As I got more daring as the event went on, I must admit by the end of the day I was so tired that on the last few stages fair play to Nigel not only was he navigating for the first proper time but he manage to do the handbrake as well around some of the tricky tight cones which made me look quite good from the outside ha ha !!

All in all it was a good fun day and that is what I had set out for it to be, I manage to finish 23rd overall (not last) and 3rd in class so a trophy as well, a nice surprise from the organisers was that they had a trophy and bottle of bubbly for myself and another competitor as it was our first event and we finished.

I am sure I will be back out again in the drivers seat in the future watch this space.

Big thank you to Andy Gwynne & Holly Robinson from Gwynne Speed Rally School for the car which was faultless all day and to Nigel Jenkins for putting up with me I think he is ok and not too traumatised lol.

 

The Quinton Stages. - Sat 10th July 2010

The rally started from Llandovery and covered 7 stages, inc the 1st stage of nearly 12 miles with halfway and route 60 being joined together.
We all knew this would be a tough event as a very special fellow 1400 competitor was going to be missing our friend Martyn Lewis who sadly lost his life on the last round, as a mark of respect as he would have been 201 this year after winning last year we held a minutes silence in his memory at 8.31 when Martyn & Richard would have been setting off.

We headed off for the start of the first Stage, one little problem I was suffering a sore throat with a lack of voice which normally Darren would say is a good thing but not when I need it to call the notes.

We both knew the day was going to be hard and strange but was determined to give it our all, off we set about halfway through my voice was giving up and I really was having to use all my strength to get my notes out but we had a good clean run through and considering Darren and I are not keen on Route 60 we both really enjoyed it especially the part coming from Halfway and through to Route 60 was awesome to use over the crests and jumps.

The only problem we were having on the first 2 stages was the car appeared to be under steering quite a lot so in service Darren changed the tyres and Stage 3 went really well with the car feeling so different and Darren a lot happier with the car, by now we were behind Matt Edwards our Championship rival but we just wanted to finish and collect as many championship points as possible.
Stages 4, 5 & 6 went well with no incidents and then we had service before last stage of the day.
We were 3rd 1400 but 2nd in the Championship points so decided to just finish last stage and bag the points. 3 miles into stage we had a little moment due to the wet conditions from the rain earlier, we got caught out on a right hander going into a hairpin left clipping the logs hard on my side but managing to keep going, sadly there is some damage to rear of car but nothing major and still finished reasonably well even though we thought we had a puncture.

Arrived back in Llandovery finishing a fine 17th overall, 3rd 1400 and taking 2nd BTRDA Championship points. I also managed to get the award for Highest Placed Lady Co-Driver.

Big thank you to Tim, Jonny , Rich and Luke for looking after us all day, to Quinton Motor Club for an excellent event and to Darren for driving really well under the circumstances.

 

Neath Valley Stages. - Sat 14th August 2010

6 stages in the welsh forests Walters Arena started the rally off with the famous big jump in the arena and Nigel didn't disappoint. Taking the jump flat !!!

Good start and then on up to Rheola and Resolven we had brilliant runs in both just slight problem in stage 3 with 1st gear not going in which made the tight bends slightly hard bit we still put in good time.

Back to service and having an hour had plenty of time to sort problem we were lying 19th oa 1st in class and over 2min lead the afternoon stages were a repeat of the morning and we were looking foward to having a good run again.

Going well and took jump just as good but that 1st gear was still playing up and we struggled in the arena as it all tight and twisty and we practically came to a stop on a SQL into HPL losing quite a bit of time which was dissapointing but carrying on to last 2 stages Nigel manage to solve this and we put in a good couple of times to finish 17th oa win our class by 2mins 5secs and also 1st front wheel drive so not bad for a little 1400 finishing in front of quite a few bigger engine cars.

Nigel drove perfect all day and quite a few people commented on how tidy his driving was our class win was well deserved.

Thanks to Ray, Sid, Walby and Jack for servicing.