Opposite Lock Rally 21/7/01
Car 33 Graham Steggles/Emma Bain
Drinking til 2 am the night before with Chris and Lorraine Leeming and being
woken by the hot water system at 5 am doesn't make for feeling fit and raring
to go at the Manby venue for the first stage.
Trackrod was well supported with Andrew Apperly/Dave Hammond in the Escort cossie,
Darren Moon navigating, Jon Neale/John McNichol in the 4wd turbo small engined
effort and Aurthur Heaton navigating for Mick Moore.
There were a few delays between stages but apart from that it was a good day
albeit a little repetitive due to the loose not being used.
We were in the late teens throughout the day and although Emma tried to control
me on the last stage I took a gamble and drove the wheels off my Pug. On the
last chicane before the last finish board on the last stage I had a 1/2 spin
braking from around the 100mph mark and ended on a tyre. We dropped 30 seconds
but finished in 17th O/A and 6th in class obtaining best mixed crew award in
the process.
The car went well with only the clutch starting to let it down on one stage
but this seemed to clear. Having only changed the plate with a recon £15
cheapo a few rallies ago I can't really complain. Time to get the spanners out
again. This meant my service crew, Jan and Malcolm with Simon and Caroline staying
for the first half due to commitments and Michelle had not a lot to do apart
from dole out the butties and tea, sleep and watch the event. Thanks go to them
all again as because of the delays it seemed like a longer event than it was
a long day. We worked out that for the 11 hour day there we only rallied about
45 minutes over 8 stages!
Darren, Andrew and Dave retired, Arthur received 3rd O/A and Jon and John received
3rd in class awards. So all in all not a bad day for Trackrod.