A good entry put us seeded at 40. The event was well supported with Trackrod crews being us, (and them) Andrew Apperley in his Astra, Darren Moon in the pug 205 gti, Dave Hemmingway/Jim Plevey in his Escort Mk2, Mark Midgley/Robin Shuttleworth in the historic Escort Mk1, Dave Parker/Kate Jobling in a Mazda 323, Nigel Drayton/Graham Wride in the Sierra, Simon Marston/Stephen Lancaster in the Mk 2 Escort, Andrew Mathers/Chris Hudson in a pug 205 GTI, Caroline Marston/Michelle Plevey in a Skoda and Sean Deaton/Paul Martin in a pug 205GTI.
The course was wet but it wasn't raining on the day and the first stage was entered on time with the adrenaline pumping. Second lap and I took the muck piles a little too quickly which had the rear up the banking. I carried on but at service it looked like the N/S/R wheel had a few more positive degrees of camber. A bent stub axle pin. (Knew I should have bought a couple spare) Never mind though I've driven with an O/S bent for a couple of rallies before I noticed it. Stage 2 saw the gear linkage pop and as it was brand new I thought it was just a one off as I got out on stage to pop it back on. Coming into the flying finish there was a tight chicane and barrelling along in 5th I decided to brake and change down…oops no gears, it had done it again! After fighting with the pug to try and make it through the chicane I realised we wouldn't quite make it with no engine braking and dipping the clutch only served to lock the front wheels so I had to bypass the chicane and carry on at a very slow pace in 5th gear.
Stage 3 saw the clutch arm loose its bearing and I could not disengage it properly, fine whilst on the move but trying to negotiate controls became interesting.
Stage 4 and everything seemed to have settled down with our first proper speed lap. The car was actually handling not bad and the new pedal box was hauling our speed off well. Off the grass strip and back onto the concrete drifting it nicely when all of a sudden the N/S/F dips and there is a strange grating noise from the box. It also isn't responding to the steering wheel! Parked on the verge and its obvious we're not going anywhere as the brand new bottom rose joint has sheared! Bugger…end of rally.
We were suspended back to service where Dave Hemmingway's mechanic and Andrew Groves, my service, put a standard bottom arm on and we were ready to start the Trophy rally.
For the trophy rally we did stages 5 & 6 back to back. Coming out of 6 saw the return of the clutch arm problem but it happened ¾ of the way round so wasn't that bad. In service I changed the N/S rear tyre that kept going down to find that not only had I bent the pin but the disc had sheared completely off! No wonder the handbrake wasn't working as it should. A decision was made to remove the fully floating disc and a spare 1.6 front pad used to space the calliper out for stages 7 & 8.
Stage 7 went well except as we came in the clutch problem was back. Fearing that to go out on 8 straight away would not be possible I thought that we were out of the Trophy rally as well except that due to the late finish stage 8 was cancelled. Phew.
Time for a proper rebuild methinks!
I must say that the event was particularly rough this event especially around the hammer head and up to the muck piles, which could explain the high retirement rate. On the whole though we enjoyed the day and at least could use some service time up instead of getting bored waiting for the next stage.

G.Steggles