Driver: Peter Boddy
Co-Driver: Eddie Beilby
Car No.164 Skoda Favorit Class N1 (Production cars up to 1300cc)
Day 3: Tuesday Stages 14-21
Tuesday morning, Day 3 of the RAC dawned early if not
bright. We were up at around 5am, which sounds well early, it was
made a lot worse since we'd only been in bed for 3 hours!! Oh
well, who said that international rallying was all glamour and
glitz.
As usual the Roux Brothers (Dad and Scottish Brian) were up
earlier than all of us, and being greeted with a cooked breakfast
did make the early hour slighty easier to swallow.
When we left Chester racecourse just after 7am we noticed that
there was only half a dozen cars behind us now that we had been
re-seeded. This was thanks to all of our lost time the previous
day & not because we are just dead slow, honest! (Rally
drivers book of excuses, page 14 - IJ). When it became clear that
the car immediately behind us was Michael Kahlfus in the infamous
East German Trabant, I told Eddie that the idea today was
definately to stay in front.
So a two hour road section later and we passed through
uneventfully through SS15, Dyfnant, the first of the Welsh
forest stages. Stage 16 - Hafren Sweetlamb was two normal
rally stages joined up and as well as catching car 174, the
German Lada crew, we saw the editor. Although this one man
spectating trip was well appreciated - Ian, when you do the Mini
Monte I will not be returning the gesture on the Col de Turini.
SS17 Brecfa passed without too many incidents, although
at some point in the morning, we were passed by a 2 litre 16
valve Astra.
Stage 18, Trawscoed, a 22 miler stick in the mind for a
couple of reasons. The first was that after only a mile or two
into it, a very long straight appears. Now Eddie called this and
the bend at the end, and for a change I listened and noted it (for
a change). But for some reason the bend appears a lot sooner than
you think so when a sudden loss of 60mph is required, very late
and very heavy braking begins locking the front wheels up.
The three spectators standing in the run off area can't get
out of the way quick enough. I mean I've seen people running
before but they were nearly throwing each other under the car in
their haste to get away! Much to the amusement of a photographer
who was standing in a slightly safer position. Unfortunately, at
the time, we were still travelling a little too quickly to
appreciate the humour of the incident.
A flick of the handbrake persuaded the car to turn in and in
the nick of time too, as the bend tightenedup, and a drop
appeared on the outside of the bend. as we skirted what appeared
at the the time to be a 20-30 foot drop we looked down to see a
rather dented Mitsubishi in works colours parked in a stream with
the two crew members sat on the roof. If the spectators had not
slowed us down significantly, the stream and the Mitsubishi would
have been our gravel trap. But I think the crew may have become a
little thinner.
The second incident was when I saw the Carlton marshalls who
from their vigorous antics obviously couldn't believe we'd made
it this far, Tell you the truth, Neither could I!. On the next
bend I presumed were more Carlton Bods as standing next to Paul
Thouless were two faceless persons giving it full moon, so a
lairy swerve and handbrake sent a load of Welsh slate flying in
their direction. Don't know who they were but they'll still be
picking those rocks out on next years event. Tee hee.
Crychan, SS19 swept by and we were onto the start line
of Stage 20, Cefn & as the starting flag was laid on
the windscreen the car cut out suudenly & refused to restart.
The marshals pushed us away back from the start. It took us 3 or
4 minutes to persuade them to push us into the stage on our
already issued start time as we were still in the start control
area and work on the car is forbidden. Once they shoved us 20
yards into the stage, work began on the car in earnest. This was
difficult, as not only were we working by torch light but we had
to take cover from stones every time a car left the startline.
After working on the car for ½ an hour thinking the problem was
electrical, changing the distributor, cap, rotor arm, HT leads
and Ignition pack, it looked as though the 45 minute maximum
lateness was looming perilously close.
By this time both Eddie and I were beginning to think we'd
done nearly ¾ of the event and had had a good run, so retirement
wouldn't be so bad. But the important thing was that we didn't
give up. Several marshals and speccies were urging us on. We had
decided by now that the problem had to be fuel and on checking
there didn't appear to be any supplied to the carb by the pump.
The flexible fuel lines weren't long enough to syphon any fuel up
so I resorted to sucking fuel into my mouth and spitting it into
the carb 3 or 4 times. One lady marshal remarked "Rather you
than me", and I told her that she didn't realise how much it
has cost us to stand in this forest. We got the engine to fire
up, threw the tools back in, helmets on and dived back in being
cheered on by the crowd.
Imagine our disappointment when the car refused to run
properly and conked out again only 100 yards up the road. Bless
their souls, some of the spectators ran up the stage to help us,
we then noticed that the distributor was still very loose &
rotating at will. So we advanced the timing right up and we then
dove back in the car to give it a go.
By this time all the other cars are long gone and the course
closing vehicle is parked next to us with it's rotating orange
beacons ominously illuminating the dark stage. "Oh No,"
I thought, "If they drive past us we're out." We were
by now 50 minutes late, 5 mins over maximum lateness and I'm
repeatedly asking Eddie, "Are we OTL yet?". He replied,
"It's bloody close, but just go for it"
Thankfully, the course closer was still there when we screamed
off. Now due to the Schedule road timing system, the stage time
counts toward the following road section so I knew we had to
drive the 11 mile stage like our ar**s were on fire. We flew
through that stage with the car pinking its nads off due to the
timing being too far advanced.
Eddie had sussed that we might still get back within our time
lateness as we had around 65 miles to cover in the road section
to the next time control at service. I don't really want to say
too much on paper about this section except to say 65 miles on
Welsh country roads with 15 to 20 of them comprising the
Aberystwyth Mountain Road, thank God for helpful spectators on
the road and I can see why old style road rallying was banned,
although it must have been great fun!!.
When we booked into the service area control we were back to
only 10 minutes late, well inside maximum lateness.
We now desperately needed fuel though, as thanks to driving
the road section slightly quicker than anticipated, the fuel
consumption had also increased accordingly. Not surprising really.
We raced down the 2 mile road which was allocated as the
service area, and right at the end, just about to leave the exit
control was our van. On realising that we were behind them,
Steve, Don and Brian dived out and proceeded to open the bonnet
only to have the nearby control marshalls come charging over,
warning us not to touch the car, as according to them, we were
"In control, you're in control", "Makes a change"
Thought I "we're usually well out of control." So we
had to slam the bonnet down and move back up the road so the guys
can put some fuel in. They only had one full jerrican left in the
van so that went straight into the tank. There was simply wasn't
enough time to look at the fuel problem, so a spare pump was
thrown into the boot (Just in Case) along with a jerrican.
The scrutineers would have had a fit if they'd seen the
jerrican bouncing off the roll cage.
Apparently, the guys had been advised that we were out of the
rally, crashed off the road and they were heading off to find us.
We were told that if they hadn't paused to look for the van keys,
we would have missed them.
It was now important to try not to incur any more road
penalties.
So when we arrived at Stage 21 Sweetlamb-Hafren, a
reversed SS16, we were alarmed to find it totally shrouded in fog.
For the first 2-3 miles we had to turn off all the spotlights
& main beam. Also, I had to re-read the road back to Eddie so
that he knew exactly where he was on the notes! I've done the
Sweetlamb stage several times in daylight, but not enough to
really know the road. Just enough to know that there were 50 foot
drops off some of the edges.
Fortunately, the remaining 15 miles as we entered the Hafren
section of the forest had better visibility and apart from
dipping everything for the odd fogbank we emerged unscathed apart
from a few more road penalties.
At the main Pre Parc-ferme service back at Chester the fuel
pumps and carb were changed.
We were very relieved to make the end of this day, which had
been very fraught to say the least. It was refreshing to see Dad
and Scottish Brians' cheerful faces back at the farmhouse while
we filled ours, as everybody was now very tired. We hit the sack
around Midnight.
Although 5 hours sleep doesn't sound a lot, it felt a positive lie in after the previous nights paltry 3.