Driver: Stephen "Dec" Shephard
co-Driver: Anthony "Ant" Brackner
Car: Opel Manta i200, 1979cc
After the very rough Dukeries 3 weeks before, I was looking
forward to the smoother airfield and farm stages of the Armstrong
Massey Viking Tour. The event started in Driffield, Yorkshire so
we had an early start from Nottingham to get up for scrutineering
at 7:30 on Sunday morning. The weather didn’t look to good
on the way up, it was even foggy on the M1!
All the formalities passed with no problems, so we then had plenty of time to wait for our start with the rest of the 85 strong field, including no less than 13 Cosworth's, a Subaru Impreza and a Mitsubishi Evo 4! I was surprised only a few Roadrunner championship contenders entered as it’s only 2 hours drive up the motorway from Nottingham, for a 60 stage mile event for only 175 Quid.
Having looked through the road book and service route we decided that we were going to have to use Dad and Neil in the chase car for some fast tyre swaps on road sections. This was because they were running Elvington Airfield (very good tarmac) then Escrick (Forest/ Farm track) without any service time in-between. We reckoned if we could change the tyres in 5 minutes then thrash along the road section we might avoid lateness! We opted to start on Knobblies for the first 4 stages, which comprised broken concrete, tarmac and gravel and it was still raining, British summers eh!.
Stage 1 was a very short blast through Dalton Hall. The stage started amongst the Rhododendrons in the Botanical Gardens, passed the Hall, then a high speed finish down the main drive, over a cattle grid to the stopline. Good fun, and a nice, but slippy tarmac road surface (a bit like Wollaton Park!).
On to Stage 2 at Beacon Farm. This was an all gravel stage, fast and smooth, and it had stopped raining!
SS3 and 4 at Gunby Airfield. We enjoyed 2 good runs through these stages, I was well pleased to set 17th and 22nd fastest times respectively.
We changed to inters at service ready for the tarmac at Elvington Airfield, Stages 5 and 6. On the arrival road we passed through a farmyard, the smell was unbelievable, “shig pit” everywhere!! The stages were 6.3 miles of fast, flowing, smooth tarmac! I couldn’t believe how much grip there was, I was braking way too early. The oil light kept flicking on in the slower corners, so I took it relatively easy (slowly!) not revving the engine above 6500. We were only 33rd and 35th fastest, dropping around 30 seconds, but I expect most of the locals knew the airfield well and the more powerful cars had an edge.
With just a 17 minutes to get to Stage 7, Escrick, 8.2 miles away and change to Knobblies we had to get a shift on!. We arrived at the lay-by Neil doing his Ron Dennis impression over the CB guiding us into the space past the other chase cars waiting with their tyres, it was like an F1 pitlane without the speed limit! A 5 minute tyre change by Dad and Neil (with 2 wheel braces!) and we were off on our way. The management crew weren’t best pleased with the smell of shig pit in the car though!! We ended up only dropping 3 minutes of lateness at the arrival control.
The stage was 4.9 miles, all smooth gravel and brilliant fun. Some tight and twisty sections in Holliacres wood, followed by well fast straights and sweepy corners in the park before the final part around Common wood. Ant did a great job on the maps calling the corners accurately. It’s totally different to Clipstone, loads of different corners not just straights and 90’s. I must admit to thinking “this is a bit too fast” on the flat in top gear straight, as wide as the car, yumpy, with grass down the middle, exciting? you bet!
Back to service at Gunby Airfield and 40 minutes service time. Chance for a rest and some lunch. The car was running great, so all that was needed was a oil top up and a spanner check. With 8 stages still left we were 35th overall, of the other EMAMC class 3 crews, Mick Cox was 20 seconds ahead in 33rd and Chris Bown was an impressive 11th in his 16v Chevette. Other notable crews were Jon Godbehere, 40th o/a in his 2.4 black MKI, Donovan Jenkin was 7th, Steve Humphreys 3rd, Kevin Vaites/Richard English 2nd and Rob Barry leading the event in the Mitsubishi Evo 4.
The third leg started back at Beacon Farm with a reversed repeat of the mornings stage. We were 29th fastest over the 1.5 mile gravel stage.
Then we had to do another “pit stop” for tarmac tyres before thrashing up the dual carriageway to Elvington at 6000 rpm, until Ant realised we had got 17 minutes instead of 12 to do 14 miles!!
The Elvington stages (SS 9 and 10) went very well, I was getting the braking points much nearer the limit (but still felt I could be a few metres later), I was concentrating on getting the lines right and trying to be smooth. Ant kept an eye on the oil pressure gauge for me, but all was well this time. We had one iffy moment when I thought that a left hander was the 3rd gear one , but it was the sharper one! whooops! locked wheels, handbrake and I made it round without going into the field! I was 27th on these stages, much faster than the first time.
After Elvington we had another quick stop to change back to Knobblies, Dad and Neil were getting good at it now only 3 minutes this time!
SS 11 Escrick Park again, but longer at 6.6 miles, all gravel. Again we really enjoyed this stage, no problems 25th fastest. After the final service of the day at Gunby we were up to 29th overall, but now 28 seconds, 2 places behind Mick Cox. Chris Bown was up to an amazing 6th overall in the Chevette, The Cosworth of Kev Vaites was down to 4th, Steve Humphreys 3rd, Donovan Jenkin 2nd and Rob Barry Nearly 40 seconds in the lead in his Mitsubishi. 4 stages and 14 stage miles to go.
The penultimate pair of stages were on Gunby Airfield. The same as in the morning but in the reverse direction. We chose to run on inter’s as it had stopped raining again and it paid off. We set a time 3 seconds faster than Mick Cox, 9th fastest on the stage!! On the second run we improved on the first by 12 seconds! and caught car 80. We only beat Mick by 2 seconds, but this time we were joint second overall on the stage!!!! This was partially down to having dry roads, but even so I was well pleased.
After a drive over to Elloughton the last 2 stages were at British Aerospace - Skillings Airfield. There was a Sea Vixen Jet next to the startline! These stages proved to be amazingly grippy with a brand new tarmac surface, fast flowing and damn good fun. We even caught our 30 second man, the Darrian T9 on the last stage! We took a further 25 seconds out of Mick Cox and set 17th fastest time.
This final push gained us 3 places to finish 26th overall from the 85 starters, and importantly for me, finishing 2 seconds in front of my Roadrunner East Midlands class rival Mick. This leaves us 30 points behind him with 2 events to go. Although neither of us are doing the Quinton so it’s all down to the Premier in October!
In the end the event was won by Rob Barry in the Evo 4.
The rally was well organised, had a good variety of long stages and a very accurate and informative road book. Give it a try next year!
Steve Shephard.