Grizedale stages December 7th

After last years fiasco with 3 punctures I wasn't going to take any chances. 7 spares, 2 new front tyres, which were far to tall at 620mm diameter giving a theoretical 141 mph top speed, (no wonder I only used 3rd and 4th gear!) and a fresh cold virus just to make things interesting with obvious inner ear hence balance problems for me. Having said this, it will now be known as Grinsdale not Grimsdale from now on for me.

We missed scrutineering and signing on on the Friday evening, again, but made it to the pub in time to down some Old Peculiar beer, sometimes mixed with a rather lethal 'white beer' from Germany. The walk back to the digs seemed fast although I'm sure it was 1 step forward and 2 back!

Up in the morning and through scrutineering and signed on, then back for a full English breakfast. In service we met up with the crew and Dave Hemmingway who holds the key to us getting 3rd O/A in the ANCC championship or not. We tried to nobble him by telling him we were just out for a finish and he needn't go too fast.(yeh right) He replied, and will probably maintain that he wouldn't go mad and didn't. (yeh right)

The first stage went well but was a little slippy in places. The second started wrong as we entered 2 minutes early due to having a discussion with Emma about how the car was handling! First time we've made a blunder like that and I hope it will not happen again. That meant 2 minutes were added to our overall time as a penalty! The 2nd stage then needed to be attacked to try and get them back but we hit a banking on a 90 right. We didn't lose too much time but I made a conscious effort to keep it on the track and finish this one. (Plus I can't afford another shell!)

Photo courtesy of Simon Clarke

Stage 3 and 4 I really liked and got in the swing of it again, but at the start of 3 a Escort cossie lost its front suspension on the first 90 right and I had to squeeze through using his front strut and spring for traction. (Sorry mate) Stage 5 and 6 were a copy of 1 and 2 but we were taken a longer route to it from service this time. The funny thing was that we didn't see much rally traffic on the road and cars were facing the wrong way waiting to go into stage!? Is that wrong direction technically? Any way it looks like any that went the wrong way got away with it.

We finished the rally with no punctures and 68th O/A 16th in class which has been amended to 69th and 16th for some reason. 126 started this event with loads of reserves! The thing is I now know why because it is a very good, if not short event at 44 miles, and not the usual straight, 90, straight, 90 type of rally. The surface can change from corner to corner and seems very technical to what I'm used to. Also the setting is fantastic being in the heart of the Lake district and the post rally pub action is good too.

Oh, and where did we end up in the championship? Well Dave and Jim finished 4 places up in class, which help them keep 3rd O/A (Well done lads) Still it looks like I will finish 4th O/A. Not bad for an old 'un in a home built 13 year old car?