Riponian Stages Rally (Lightwater valley theme park and N.Yorks forests)
Car 53 Graham Steggles and Emma Bain. 4/2/01
“Look Jim it won’t snow”, “where have you seen that its gona snow?”, “I cant find it”, “anyway I’ve got a new Quaiffe LSD Diff!”. Sunday am and my Service crew, Simon and Caroline, Malcolm and Jan, and Management Jim and Michelle set off for Ripon in the SNOW! Time to eat my hat again. Having to drive the car there with a snatchy and grabby diff that’s meant to be smooth in operation made lane changing on the A1 quite interesting only needing application of throttle to go from the middle lane back to the nearside lane and not used the car in anger on the loose never mind snow and ice was going to be a learning experience again.
Stage 1 was Lightwater Valley which I had been told was difficult. I enjoyed this stage immensely but came out with a smashed front indicator and a grinding from the rear brakes. At first service we found the offside rear pads to be missing along with the slide and lock pin! Luckily for me, Russel Dykes was servicing not far away and he had a complete 306 rear beam in the back off his van! I duly blagged the pad, slide and pin from him and off we went from service. Boltby was the only stage I was looking forward to as I used to marshal on it when Trackrod ran it for the RAC in the 80’s and being the next stage I was enthused only to find it cancelled cos the marshals couldn’t get in for the snow!
The next two stages were close together but even with my diff it was difficult just getting to stage start because of the conditions. It was totally unpredictable in the stage with first no grip and straight on from the front then absolute opposite lock and no grip from the rear. The second of these stages saw me left lock right locking it on a steep downhill approach with logs and a drop on the left and a high mud bank on the right. Its funny how when you know your out of control completely and only moments from a horrendous accident everything goes quiet, in your head you make a decision that the banking looks better than logs, a drop and a probable roll and somehow your body goes through the manoeuvres to hit the bank. Which we did going backwards and navigators side into it quite quickly. Now we were wrong direction with a car less than a minute behind and nowhere to turn as it was very narrow. A quick blast up the hill and handbrake put the bonnet onto the bank again, reverse saw us spinning backwards on the diff and 1st before we stopped off we went down the hill to the hairpin left and a cheer and applause from the crowd who had seen everything. All the way through this stage there were spectators stood on the track with hardly any intention of moving which I deemed dangerous as they made concentrating hard. We lost it trying to miss a group of about 6 people making us ride into the snowy edges and again a near spin with only the bank and navigators side rear wheel keeping us in check.
Second service saw the nearside rear brakes had done the same but we still had our pads. “Ruuussssel!!!”. His other side slide and pin were duly appropriated from the spare beam and I do thank him for helping us out. A set of new ones are posted off to him immediately. The car in front of us that we usually see on events told us they were retiring here not for any other reason but for they couldn’t get grip any where and needed pushing just to get going from the line or if they stopped in stage. We knew we had to do the last 2 stages again and weren’t looking forward to them so we just trundled through without any drama and going for a finish. On these stages we saw lots of cars off over 20 foot banks and in the woods so maybe we made the right decision. At the end of this stage I applied the hydraulic handbrake to find it came up to the roof! We had ripped our offside rear brake pipe off. 20 odd miles and down Sutton bank to the last stage Lightwater 2 biased to the front and no handbrake or rear brakes meant another decision of getting to the end by doing one lap and taking a maximum. Which doesn’t sound bad as we did the first stage in 15:20 and a maximum was 16 minutes. We were slow but knew we would get a maximum anyway but to compound matters half way through it felt like we lost the rear wheel through a badly rutted bit. At stage finish the marshals told us the wheel was there so we drove out . Suddenly it decided to drive right again and the finish was only 1/2 mile away. The offside rear tyre was flatted to the canvass most of the tank guard was missing! Must have run over it and wedged it between the wheel and arch.
I hope we don’t get many like this again but still, after the event, it was enjoyable and we finished once again. After an extremely well deserved meal we drove the car back home for lots of beer. Oh, and I now believe that Jim has a black hole behind his navel ! Soup and a couple of rolls, 3Kgs of beef on his plate and everything else piled on top with a couple of Yorkys and a pud to finish!! Thanks go to the service and management crews and also Russel Dykes without him we would have been going home very early. Last but not least Emma who treated me to the entry for my burfday. Thank you. 48th O/A 12th in class.