A Night Out on the town in Aberystwyth
Well nearly!
Night Owl Rally - 30th April 2005
A lot of late nights between the Bro Teifi and the Night Owl saw the McLachlan Rally car rejuvinated and fitted with uprated front brakes, new driveshafts, new complete exhaust, a lot of waterproofing, and a high ratio steering rack! It was a close call....
Rumour had it that the Night Owl was going to be a smooth event, and at the packed start venue certainly indicated that with most of the locals kitted out with tarmac rally tyres ranging from intermediates to moulded slicks. I'd taken a more cautious route with worn gravel tyres on the car - giving higher performance than road tyres on tarmac, but excellent puncture resistance.
With scrutineering and signing on out of the way, the team, this time consisting of myself and Eddie in the car with Mat and Andy Crane doing the compulsory marshalling task, had a hearty meal at the start hotel and then waited with the rest of the competitors in trepidation for the off.
We didn't make a great start. All the route information was handed out as we set off and Eddie had his head in the maps plotting on the non-competitive run out. He told me to go left and I went .........right.
By the time I realised the blunder we were on a one-way system in Aberwystwyth surrounded by the local youths spilling out of pubs. Some good scenery there was as well. So we then had to do a bit of fast driving to get back on route. Forunately this didn't count against us as it wasn't a competitive section, but starting the first real competitive eight minutes late and in a panic didn't help.
Anyway, the first section had a really muddy track on it (which we missed the entrance to and had to U turn), and I was glad straight away to have the gravel tyres on! Eddie was getting his left and right mixed up by this point so we lost a bit more time there as well.
Eddie wasn't doing too well with the extra hassle caused mainly by my inattention and was feeling pretty queasy by the end of the 1st half, which also wasn't helping with our efforts. We were being entertained though by the fantastic thunderstorm in the distance with a mix of sheet and fork lightening but no rain making the event feel more like a computer game at times! We were running 17th out of the 75 starters by half way.
A bit of calming down at the half way halt combined with some bolt tightening (the gear linkage again) set us off with better composure for the second half. Despite some heavy rain at times and really greasy roads, the more adverse conditions suited us, and the gravel tyres also were helping on the frequent tracks.
No major problems other than some more bolt tightening in a non-competitive section saw us set some very respectable times on the second half usually in the top 10. We finished 14th in the end.
Throughout the event, the car felt down on power and it appears the the mechanical advance has failed, and with that in mind I'm very happy with the result. The power the car was putting out was way lower than anyone else near our finishing position, so we weren't doing to badly at all.
The Pacemaker - due to run Mid July was moved to October so the next event was the Twighlight on September 3rd.