Elvington Stages Rally 2000
Car 33. Graham Steggles/Emma Bain and 34 Ann /Darren Lawson.
We all decided to go to bed at 10.00pm Friday night for an early 4.00am start to Elvington (that is in separate rooms ) but as you all know the best laid plans etc.. So 12 midnight comes up after final preparations (Budwieser and elvington videos) and we all retire only to find that Emma and I can’t sleep and after cat napping for a while the 4.00am alarm goes off. I look outside and see the morning day, but wait, this can’t be, its , its, its RAINING. Bugger. We all set off at 5.15 and arrive smack on 6.00 for noise? check. We all passed. Scrutineering went well apart from my brake plate falling of in his hands. (crap rivets) 9.00am and its still raining. We have forgotten our waterproofs, the blanked off sunroof is leaking in two positions, yes right over our seats, and the track has a lot of standing water on it. Well the good thing about running a standard vehicle is you don’t have to choose what tyres you run, so I left my 6 year old Fulda Y2000 slick, inter, nobblies (jack of all tyres) on and watched everyone else try to outguess the weather. Ann and Darren fitted their inters and filled his box with gear oil and were ready.
The rain stopped for the start of stage 1 and off we went. The stage was very wet but we managed to slither through without any problems. Stage two was a repeat of one and we took ten seconds off our first stage time. Ann came in and had to be pushed out of the finish control with clutch trouble. It only needed adjustment and out we went again on stage three. Half a lap from the finish my car started pulling violently to the right. Puncture I thought, but no it was alright in the corners I tried accelerating again but pull it did. I limped out of the stage barely able to keep it straight. In service we found the offside outer CV joint to be greaseless and welded in places. Out with the shaft but not having a spare I borrowed one of Darrens. Only thing is 1.9 and 1.6 CV’ s are different. Why hadn’t I brought a spare?? Ann came in having lost fifth gear and on inspection the gear oil filler plug had unscrewed and deposited its oil. Things were looking grim and the clock was ticking. Jim (superman) Plevey to the rescue. He turned up in the nick of time and raced to a motor factors in York to pick up a very expensive drive shaft for me and Darren found the end of a brolly that was interference fit enough to hold back the gear oil in his now group A 4 speed box. Luckily the next stage was delayed for 10 minutes but we were ready and out we went. At the end of stage four it was pulling left but not as bad and knocking on right bends. “Oh no, the left shaft was gone”, I thought. In service I checked it but it felt alright except it was red hot. I put the shaft problem down to the grease getting hot and breaking down so the joint was wearing and not having another I decided to go out on a very short stage 5 to see what happened. Ann and Darren had a very big spin on stage four and took a maximum and a tow out of the stage and retired.
My car was alright on stage 5 and so out on six we went. The noise started as we entered the second lap so I backed off and finished. We made a decision just to complete the rally so out on the last stage we went (in the rain again. I do like seeing everyone running about changing wheels at the last minute.). The rally was stopped for 20 mins as a cow had escaped onto the track allowing the first half of the competitors to come in that were on the track whilst it was captured. It was misty and raining and as we were sat on the start line we were counted down and got to 3 our right hand wiper blade fell off! Well, doing about 110 into very tight walking pace chicanes without being able to see and getting nervous instructions off your navigator as to where to turn in , brake etc. is all a bit much after 40 hours without sleep, a massive head ache and a genuine desire just go home but we persevered and came out of the stage dropping 2 minutes to our previous time down the same. If you think about it we probably would have lost more waiting for a marshall to try to work out how the wiper fitted and then actually fitting it.
So, all in all a good day but a tiring day with a final position of 10th in class and 22nd overall having dropped from 8th in class 19th overall on the last stage and having a TR8 in front of us in position. Well, two starts and two finishes for us and learning all the time. Next job, when I’ve got some cash, is to convert to 1.9 hubs, shafts and brakes and maybe a rear beam that has discs on it, but then I have to go to 15” wheels as well which is going to eat into my already non existant budget. I think Ann and Darren will be forking out for a Group A 6 speed box. I would like an obvious thank you to all marshals involved and a special thank you to Jim and Michelle Plevey who saved the day for us and then drove us at 8.30 that night to get a takeaway.