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Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY
Been anywhere nice? Just seen you on the m4.
Been anywhere nice? Just seen you on the m4.
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Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY
It was a great day out, I'd gone up on Saturday and stayed with Derek as usual, then came straight home after the event, took about 3 hours. Same as last year (due to noise problems) there were only 2 tests but West Suffolk Motor Club had asked the MSA for special dispensation to allow 30s starts which gave time for 4 runs in one direction and 3 runs in the reverse direction, even with 57 crews competing, but there were no changes between the tests.
I was a bit worried I might have made the wrong tyre choice as I had turned up on knobblies and was told they weren't using the roughest section but looking at the roadbook there was still plenty of gravel
The seeding was odd - having won this event last year, I thought I might have been car 1 but I was seeded car 6 with a Novice at car 5 in Derek's old 1400cc Rover 200
We started off quickly on Test 1 then caught the Novice about 2/3 through the second test, who refused to let me past despite a lot of hooting
The Clerk of the Course was at the end of this test to check how people were finding it, so we "politely" asked if we could go in front of the Novice for the rest of the day and what were they doing seeding him there. The answer was we could go in front and the Novice was an experienced rally driver (and one of their club members) so they thought he would be quick - there's a big difference between being quick on a rally and quick on a targa which is more about manoeuvring round the cones and spotting where to go than outright speed. We weren't sure how much time I'd lost but when the results came up I was leading by 11s after the first 2 so I was happy. Derek had a good run through as well in his 205 Rallye and was 14th.
3 more runs through each Test before lunch and we hardly had time to stop, we literally got back to the paddock, swapped cars and went out again! The marshalls hardly had a break either and were working very hard. We were both going quicker each time through and, after sorting out a mix up with my times, at lunch I was leading by 57s from Adrian White in 2nd and David Lobb in 3rd, the 2 drivers who had beaten me in April. Derek was slipping back slightly as the drivers in quicker cars learnt where they were going.
With the tests reversed for the afternoon, the running order was also reversed which meant I got to navigate for Derek before driving myself. It's strange how things are different in the other direction - one particular cone had a big hole after it in the morning, so the big hole was in front of it in the afternoon. First time through I hit it quite hard and I nearly didn't make the corner after, the second time I thought I had a better line and hit it even harder and had to mow down some bushes to regain the track
Derek persuaded me to be sensible on the last run and my rear tyres were pretty much like slicks now so I had a clean run through the last pair.
David Lobb managed to get ahead of Adrian White by the finish but didn't get that close to me, I finished 1st Overall by 61s.
Derek had a very enjoyable day and finished just outside the top 20, having had to back off when the clutch started slipping.
Next I'll have to do a report on the Classic Tracks which ran 2 weeks ago...GavinR
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Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY
excellent, and great reading as always
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Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY
It always annoys me when you get blocked by someone
If someone catches me i always let them past and follow them
Normally making me quicker !Hexham and District MotorclubComment
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Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY
A couple of pics from the recent Debden Targa Rally
View over the airfield
Heading into the bushes..
GavinR
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Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY
Classic Tracks - 24th May 2015
This event gets more popular every year - this year there were 75 entries and 15 reserves with Carrie and I seeded at 10
Starting from West Wales Rally Spares in Llandysul there were 21 Special Tests, some we had done many times, some not for years
It was damp and raining gently which made the morning tests very slippery - we started sensibly setting times just outside the top 10 and keeping on the right track and at the petrol halt between Test 9 and 10 (after the scrutineers sent a few competitors home who had sustained damage on the earlier tests) we were 9th overall
This is from Test 4
After the petrol halt the sun came out and the Tests seemed more open, we were going well and set a fastest time on Test 15
There was the usual Test at Jamie Jukes Farm, a different format this year with a new start at the top of the hill and a couple of yumps down from the farm - we landed heavily over the second one, a few bits of rust fell out of the footwell and Carrie complained she could now see the road!!! Nothing else had moved, the panel gaps were the same, so just some welding for me to do...
One of the Tests we hadn't done for about 10 years was Ffynnon-las Farm, a great gravel loop with a couple of hairpins
At the finish we had moved up a couple of places and finished 7th overall
Always a great event in a beautiful part of Wales
GavinR
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Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY
Looks great, I'd love to do the Classic Tracks one day
MattComment
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Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY
There's plenty of people hiring out cars nowadays, not sure of the costs though...GavinR
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Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY
The Premier Rally Championship 2015 - or the reason I've done so many events this year...
The brainchild of the late HRCR Vice President and founder member Philip Young, this new national Road Rally championship was organised by the HRCR and allowed competitors to accrue points from a range of 19 Road Rallies, 15 Historic Road Rallies, plus any 3 Endurance Rallies and any 3 Targa Rallies, with the best 10 scores to count. The scoring system was different to normal as the number of points increased in proportion to the number of starters on each event, so coming 4th on an event with 40 starters would give 100 points, the same as coming 2nd on an event with 20 starters, and up to 108 points available for an overall win.
There is an overall championship as well as Drivers, Navigators and Allrounders (for competitors who drive on some and navigate on others of the eligible events).
As I have been regularly competing on these types of events over the past few years, it seemed a good championship to have a go at and looking at the included events I was sure competing on 10 rounds wouldn’t be too difficult…
1. Bath Festival Road Rally – February 7th
FLY with Bob Rutherford.
2nd out of 56 starters = 106 points.
2. Devil’s Tour Road Rally – April 4th
FLY with Carrie.
15th out of 34 starters = 66 points.
3. Wethersfield Targa Rally – April 19th
FLY with Derek.
3rd out of 72 starters = 106 points.
4. Leukaemia Historic Rally – May 16th
Scimitar with Carrie.
3rd out of 47 starters = 104 points.
5. Classic Tracks Targa Rally – May 24th
FLY with Carrie.
7th out of 75 starters = 101 points.
6. Debden Targa Rally – June 7th
FLY with Derek.
1st out of 55 starters = 108 points.
7. East Anglian Classic Historic Rally – June 20th
Scimitar with Carrie.
1st out of 35 starters = 107 points.
8. Ross Traders Historic Rally – July 18th
Scimitar with Ross.
Retired = 10 points for starting.
9. St Wilfrids Historic Rally – August 9th
Scimitar with Carrie.
10th out of 58 starters = 93 points.
This was the last Historic Rally I would do this year as the remaining 2 events did not fit into my calendar or were too expensive. With 7 good scores so far, one average score and one retirement, I was doing well in the Drivers championship, but my plans to compete for the Allrounders award did not happen as the 2 Endurance Rallies I wanted to navigate on were both cancelled. So I decided to do 3 more Road Rallies before the end of the year and Carrie agreed to navigate on all of them.
10. Mercian Road Rally – September 19th
Another new event for us, run in the Coventry / Rugby area, this event was 150 miles of plot and bash tulip navigation combined with some tight sections using whites and a couple of Tests just before the halfway halt. We had a good night, Carrie enjoyed the navigation and we were pretty quick on the whites and the 2 Tests. Although we didn’t know at the time, we were leading at halfway but lost time on the final few sections when thick fog descended and I backed off to make sure we finished. We got a special award for being fastest on the Tests and came 4th out of 40 starters = 100 points.
This shallow ford was a bit of a surprise, despite being next to a village called Traitors Ford
11. Dansport Road Rally – November 7th
I’d done this event with George in 2012 but we didn’t have a good night and the route had too many link sections between the short competitive sections, but this year the event started in Bakewell in the middle of the best Derbyshire lanes. We started badly, missing the first codeboard on a Test round Bakewell Showground, but out in the lanes everything was going smoothly, despite being overtaken by a few locals and missing a few of the trickier not as map sections, losing time by turning round and going back. There was a lot of whites, a great section round a quarry and later on a couple of laps around a large farm estate, as well as the rougher sections. Carrie got all the plotting done just in time and was calling the maps very well in the 2nd half when there was thick patchy fog on the hills. When we reached the finish we were pleased to be 8th and headed home. When we checked the final results later, we had moved up to 7th (as the first codeboard was scrubbed, not sure why). Out of 43 starters this was 94 points, making up for the non-finish on the Ross Traders.
12. Guy Fawkes Rally – November 21st
Another event I had done a few years before, this event is run by South Hams Motor Club in Devon with 99 competitive miles out of a 115 mile route. There was a disappointing entry of 21 cars with us at Car 6. There were 4 sections, the first 3 on marked maps given to us when we left the start for a short run out to the first section. The maps were marked quite well, but with a lot of not as map triangles it was going to be a difficult night. Straightaway I missed the first junction (as did a lot of other crews) but we just made it into the control on time, only to drop a minute on the next section. By the time we had got to the petrol halt, we were 10 minutes down, but everyone around us was dropping similar time so we hoped we wouldn’t be too far down. The 3rd section went well, only dropping 2 minutes in 25 miles, then we had the 4th section which was plot and bash. Carrie usually does well on these, but with the tricky lanes and difficult junctions, we had to stop a few times to make sure we had the correct route and didn’t miss any codeboards or controls. At the finish we were disappointed to be 8th overall but the 72 points was 8 more than I had scored on the Devils Tour, so definitely worth the trip.
Subject to final confirmation, over the last 3 events I had gained enough points to win the Drivers Championship from Steve Entwistle (who competes on all the Historic events in a Mini) and Simon Harris (who drove on a mixture of 13 events).
It has been an enjoyable year – many thanks to Bob, Derek, Ross and Carrie for their navigational contributions!GavinR
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Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY
Well done gavin
This championship looks goodHexham and District MotorclubComment
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Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY
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Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY
^^^ what Graham said!Comment
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