Interassociation Road Rally 2000
061/High Peak MC - 21st October
Result - 7th Overall
The Interassociation Road Rally for 2000 was hosted by the ANWCC (North Western), or more specifically 061 MC and High Peak MC. The rally was running under a ‘road rally’ rather than ‘navigational rally’ permit following rule changes after the 1999 event was ridiculously banned by the MSA. A challenging route was promised with 5 miles of un-surfaced roads. The London Counties entrants were Mike Biss/Cath Woodman (Nova), Richard McLachlan/Paul Barrett (Escort II), Paul Wright/Mark Goodman (Escort II) and for the first time a reserve crew was allowed in case of any DNFs, this being Jeremy Rogers/Mark Fearon (MG Maestro).
An excellent entry of 61 crews suggested that this would be a tightly fought event, and this was certainly the case. The ANCC and ANWCC boys put in a strong entry, but many other regions were also represented right from the South of England to Scotland. The event couldn’t have got off to a better start from a PR perspective, with the Mayor of Buxton (self proclaimed environmentalist) in attendance to say a few encouraging words and wave off the first few cars.
At the start of the event, a large amount of navigation was dispensed, combined with a long neutral section in which to plot it. This included all the transports/neutrals and some of the competitive route. This was repeated after the half way halt. The rest of the instructions required to get the route were handed out at the start of each section and were very simple in nature, re-enforcing the idea that this was a rally not a navigation test. All the sections were tight leaving crews no leeway for dithering!
The first sections were however a problem for us as car 6 (Carl Hawking/Ian Tullie) mistakenly decided that they’d gone the wrong way up a narrow yellow, and tried to handbrake turn their Nova but this only resulted in a broken drive shaft and a blocked rally route. Car 7 got there first shortly followed by us. There was no way round so we had to wait for the Nova to be pushed out of the way costing a huge 3 mins (which the organisers weren’t interested in talking about at the end with only 4 crews affected). This dropped us to the middle of the field, leaving us to play catch up for the rest of the night.
The next few sections were equally tight, and we cost ourselves another 2 mins by missing a LWR triangle at the start of a sections and having to go back for it. We weren’t the only tops seeds having trouble though, with only Stone/Holmberg, Biss/Woodman, and Jones/ Duck clean at STC13. Car 1 - regular northern competitors (and winners) Guy Robinson/Charlie Wheeldon had also retired from Nova driveshaft problems. Toward the end of the first half, an excellent forest white (Fernlee) was used allowing some sideways fun in the woods. I was wishing that I’d got some more tread on my front tyres, but posted a respectable time at the IRTC. We then had some fun on the ‘neutral’ section down an A road trying to catch Paul Wright/Mark Goodman before they left the next TC (for reasons best left unsaid), with them running 4 mins ahead of us.
The shorter second half was no less taxing than the first, with an extremely tight section round a lot of triangles near Youlgreave all being observed for failure to SGW. We just cleaned it and making up 3 places in the process. The next eventful part for us was Tissington Ford, which caught me somewhat unawares. Paul had called Slot Right into Immediate Ford, but I’d been expecting a few metres after the turning before the splash. This was not the case and as I swerved off the main road, we were suddenly blinded by a wall of water. Fortunately the Rain-X did it’s stuff and I just managed to make out a hedge coming towards us end on. I took a 50/50 guess as to which way to go and luckily managed to choose the road rather than the river. Now a 1.0 Escort, we spluttered up the hill away from the ford, expecting the fire to go out at any minute. Fortunately the third cylinder decided to play as we dropped to about 5 mph, and we managed to keep going, the full 2.0 coming back a km of so later.
Still maintaining our position, we were hopeful for
the last few sections, all pre-plot by this point. Unfortunately for us, a
couple of muddy whites (Hartington) were used, and with tread down to about
2mm on the front tyres, we dropped a few more seconds than I would have liked
although this didn’t affect our final placing. A near miss with a dry
stone wall marked the end of the last white, with a quick blast to the finish
over the next section incorporating a very tight uphill hairpin (Wheeldon
Trees), which proved no problem for the hydraulic handbrake.
This left us 7th overall at the end with around 7 mins lateness, which was
fairly satisfying given the competitiveness of the event and the minutes that
we lost at the start. Definitely an event to be recommended for the future,
and what Road Rallying should be like.
Car 3 - Jason Stone/Paul Holmberg took overall honours, with Mike Biss/Cath
Woodman taking 3rd place. Paul Wright/Mark Goodman finished in the teens somewhere,
showing the competitive level of the entry. The ANWCC team took top association
honours, with LCAMC coming 3rd, (the best of the rest of the country).
