Rally Yorkshire 03
Car 453

Had to be reseeded at the last minute for this one. So we ran 38 on the road. I found the handling problem as the Near side rear trailing arm was hanging off! A new second hand one fitted along with new rear Bilsteins and solid beam mounts means the rear follows the front a lot better now. From the start at Malton we drove out to Stage 1 which had had a lot of use and had been redesigned overnight from the Saturdays event. It was still extremely rough and was a taste of things to come through the other stages. I was committed to coming in the low 20's again this year and risked it all on the ruts and rocks of the stages. I found the engine not pulling so well and the tappets (hydraulic) were audibly noisy. The water and oil temperatures were up worryingly and I felt we may just blow the old engine up on the long straights. As it happens, we were conservative through the stages due to the way they had cut up very badly. The radiator fan had stopped working and on the start line of the second Showground stage the red warning light came on. I willed the countdown to go faster so I could get some air through the rad and as soon as we were off the warning light was out before the first bend. The car must have been in the air more than on the ground through this short stage and the same was to be found on the next. The final stage I went flat out through to try and drag us up the order.

It was a risk. It didn't pay off as about 5 miles in I snapped a driveshaft. I tried in vain to think of some way to get us to the end but it was a clean break just at the inner joint and that was it. Well it would have been if I hadn't driven to the event which meant I was stranded in Dalby forest with no drive! Enter Jim with his tow vehicle. All the way home on the end of a rope! Scarey in Sunday rush hour A64 traffic home. Even scarier was the fact that some idiot tried to filter in between Jim and I not seeing the rope cos if they don't look at you, you are bound to let them in, aren't you? Even after blowing my horn at him I still don't think he realised that there was a rope between the vehicles and he thought that I was just being rude. Idiot. Any way we made up for it in the pub afterwards but still a DNF on the last stage.