Our first season with the Nissan Micra finished last year after the Trackrod in September and with Ian Jones taking third overall in the EMAMC standings, we took first in the 1300 class. We had a few problems on the Trackrod, nearly losing a front wheel as the drive shaft nut had worked loose. The bearings got a bit noisy and could be heard in the management car driving ahead of us ! In preparation for this season new front wheel bearings were fitted along with some new struts and rear dampers from Nissan Motorsport. I could not resist the kevlar floor guards, which hopefully will give some protection to the floor and rear suspension components.
This year a mixture of both EMAMC and BTRDA rounds are planned. New for this year as part of the BTRDA is the 1400 raceandrally.com championship specifically for classes, N1, A5 and B9, which runs before the main field.
The Wyedean, based at Chepstow and using the Forest of Dean, had attracted 38 crews for this new 1400 championship, running ahead of a maximum entry of about 180 cars. The strong competition in our class came from the rapid 106 of Chris Tooze and the three Micra's all fitted with the go-faster dogbox. Rupert Hopcraft, long time Micra competitor managed just about to say "Hello" before "got a dogbox yet, no, well get one, they are worth 3 seconds a mile" . They are also expensive. Scrutineering and Documentation was very slick and completed very quickly at the racecourse venue. We had booked a flat in Coleford and after about 6 laps of the Town Centre eventually found it.
Running before the main field meant an early start so we were ready lined up in the Coleford Council Buildings (Forest of Dean District Council) start venue by 8am. We were flagged away by the mayor at 8.30 and after a very short drive arrived at the first stage Flour Mill, all 1.15 miles of it. What it lacked in length it made up for by having a treacherous surface, it was slippy, very slippy, with drops down to the river. It felt very slow, 2nd and 3rd gear stuff, but we put in a good time. It was quite a wake up call.
Stage 2, Sallowvallets, 5.96 miles, was no better and was very bumpy in places. The surface was still covered in mud and very wet which made some of the corners very difficult to get any grip out of.
On to Stage 3 Speech House 1. This was just over 6 miles, very muddy and very rough in places. It made Blidworth look like smooth tarmac and upset Eddie a bit. I missed the hairpin and slid up the escape road in what felt like a small stream. The mud was getting a bit silly in places and the watersplash was really deep, well it was for our little car anyway. We negotiated the water OK but it took about 200 yards before we got the screen cleaned. There was a chance for some emergency service after this stage and Phil and Michael cleaned what they could on the car and I got shouted at by Eddie for getting out and checking round the car. Time was short.
Stage 4, Blaize Bailey was marked as muddy (now there's a surprise) and apparently had suffered water damage. We did not notice anything different. The final stage before service was actually in the Chepstow racecourse/service area. It consisted of a 0.9 mile loop off tarmac onto gravel with two chicanes. It was a nice idea providing a spectator stage right next to the service area. It was also the safest stage of the day so instead of attacking it, for some reason I took a conservative approach, don't ask...
Service was quite leisurely and consisted of about an hour in which to scrape as much mud off the car as possible.
Five stages followed after service starting with Stage 6, Chepstow Park. We were warned at the start to take the flying finish easy as Les Allfrey had rolled his 106 at the finish line. It was very fast and bumpy through the flying finish but had a hairpin directly afterwards the flying finish control board. No wonder cars had gone off.
Stage 7, Trelleck Common I really enjoyed, shame it was only 2.45 miles.
Mailscot, Stage 8, was interesting, specifically the downhill into 90 right, caution, river !! Overshooting the corner could have resulted in a trip down the river as it was in flood and swollen. For good measure it was pretty slippy here too. More water to negotiate later in the stage, large steel gateposts to avoid, ditches on corner exits and logs, everything really. A second emergency service followed with another chance to clean the lights and plates. Neither Eddie nor myself were looking forward to the next stage, the second running of Speech House, longer at 8.49 miles this time. It also had the "impossible" downhill hairpin, which in fact did not turn out to be bad at all. We were also surprised that it seemed smoother than the first run, maybe the main field had flattened out the ruts. They had emptied the watersplash though. The final stage, a short 2.36 mile run at Yorkley was completed OK before the drive back to the finish at Chepstow racecourse.
We finished 117th overall and 6th in Class, not a bad result with the conditions and competition. We had no problems with the Micra at all which was really good considering the state of the stages. It looks like the floor guards amplify the noise from the stones underneath the car as I was having some difficulty hearing Eddie at times.
For anybody interested in next years Wyedean a couple of points worth noting. The entry list fills up quick, accommodation is hard to find and the police take a healthy interest in the rally with radar traps in nearly every village and patrol the route with both marked and unmarked cars. It will probably also be muddy.
Thanks to Kath, Philip and Michael for manning the management/service car and keeping the rally car clean. Next event is the Robin Hood Stages in March.
Cheers
Gareth & Eddie
(If any body would like to buy some genuine Forest of Dean mud, I have plenty so just ask !!