Flying High on the Great Bustard
Crash Bang Weeee, its Glanstonbury
Salisbury and Shaftesbury Car Club Great Bustard Rally - 18/19th April 2009
Having had good fun on round 2, we had high hopes for the Great Bustard, and even managed to get a front cage manufactured and fitted in the short gap between the two events. The 'Bustard kicked off with a run around Worthy Farm, the home of the famous Glastonbury Festival. Things proceded well at first, with a few rough bits, but then a really fast downhill over another track and oh... we're flying.
That felt really high in a car, and the landing was certainly less pleasant than the flight. Fortunately the car took the abuse and we carried on. We were stuck behind a car on both laps, got passed the 2nd one, then massively overshot a corner, so I'm quite surprised we were 10th fastest. There were some really rough bits though, with a lot of rocks and several cars were changing tyres at the end.
Two very short sections around Wyke hill followed, and we climbed to 9th. Then it was back to Worthy Farm, and once again I overshot the same corner - over enthusiasm I think (or stupidity). Then we got a puncture, so only managed 12th fastest this time - but up to 8th overall. Here we are having failed to get round a left hander with a flat tyre.
We then had two runs around Slait Barn with a nice lunch (at 1900) in-between - this was an awesome little test, and I'm amazed that eight crews were faster on our unimpeded second run.
Then some forestry. Like the Audi SW, I found myself wrong footed by the lack of route information and having to drive the forest tracks completely blind. There were also a couple of really big bumps without cautions, that doesn't inspire confidence in the middle of a straight. The sections kind of blurred into one not very competitive phase for me and by the end of it I'd slipped to 9th o/a.
After a short break for tea, most of which I spent trying to tighten the guards, we were off on the night section. This kicked off with some really quite rough tracks - the sections led one into the other, and we were going fairly well. After the first few night sections, we'd climbed to 7th. We're looking happy here!
Unfortunately things then took a turn for the worse - we returned to the forests used earlier in the day, and picked up a rear puncture early on one section. To compound the problem we slotted up the wrong track (which was VERY rough) and ended up rejoining route that we'd already done. It was faster to get back down the VERY rough track so that's what we did and struggled on to the end of the section with a very bent tank guard. We then had to change the puncture, and with all the sections leading into one-another it was all done with the clock ticking (another 5 mins gone). Eddie was stuggling to keep hold of the potty, never mind find the junctions, so a bit of a stressful section for him.
If there's one thing I'd say to the organisers, it would be please put a non-competitive (even a v. short one) after every rough section when we're all on road tyres, otherwise its just a tyre lottery.
So now we're down to 11th with no spare tyres. Fortunately most of the rough stuff was over as we had to take it very easy on anything that might result in tyre damage. Then followed a load of proper road rally sections on the excellent lanes with a smattering of nice whites and private tracks. I loved this bit, and despite the odd overshoot (tricky to correct now with a non-functional handbrake), we gradually dragged ourselves back to 9th.
Not a fantastic result, but looking back on what happened, perhaps we weren't going so slow ;). Overall a very enjoyable event and certainly one that I'd like to have another go at.
Thanks to Andy Manston for the on event photos. http://www.mandh-photography.co.uk