Wet and Gearless on the Bro Teifi
A finish at last! but not without drama!
Rali Bro Teifi 16th April 2005
The first big off road section was a 'super-special' designed for spectators to watch at - even with it's own car park. It has been dug out of a couple of fields and was top class entertainment, even with a big drop into a water splash.
The format started in a similar way to the Bro Caron with constant stop starts, but we'd got ourselves more organised in the car and fitted electric windows to ease the task of getting the clipboard in and out. As the event progressed, the checks became more sparse with the event flowing in a more familier manner for Eddie and I.
We were quite happy with progress by the half way point. As always seems to happen with me, the second half was not quite as good as the first. Our first incident was with a gatepost which I clobbered on my way past due to it being very slippery and muddy. At the end of the event I got out to inspect the damage and Eddie said he couldn't even remember hitting it - old age I think.
Anyway, we only made a hole in the bumper and scraped with spoiler so nothing too serious. The next event was however a bit more of a problem. One of the gear linkages that's held in with a B clip managed to come apart - the B clip had disapeared and so did ten minutes of our time as we struggled next to a rediculously hot manifold putting it back together. The manifold was hot as I'd just done 2 miles at 7000rpm in 1st as it was the only gear I could get.
The Rali Bro Teifi is the 3rd round of the WAMC (Welsh) Road Rally Championship for 2005. With the Gremlin clashing with Easter weekend, this was Rich and Eddie's 2nd event of the year. As usual, there was a capacity 75 car entry and reserves hanging about hoping for a drive. Scrutineering went without too mucsh bother, although the exhaust was 1dB over. Time for a new one before the Night Owl!
The start venue was in Cardigan, and we made the most of the seaside town by wandering off to get some food while waiting for the start. Fish and chips on a bench was ideal!
With the route plotted in the 75mins pre-plot time, we were off. The roads were excellent - generally very dry, but the event takes in a number of 'whites' which were anything but dry in places.
So I was now changing gear very gingerly with the linkage lible to come apart again at any point due to not having the clip. But to compound matters, a ford managed to put the fire out and we lost another five minutes or so trying to get it restarted.
We eventually made it to the end, but only finished 23rd out of 47 finishers. Not too bad considering the mishaps, but must do better...... Still, we really enjoyed the mixed surfaces and excellent roads, not to mention the enthusiastic supporters. One however who put a huge congrete block on a track which has badly bent the sumpguard needs something unmentionable doing to him/her.
Another driveshaft died on the way home meaning we're going to have fun getting the car ready for the next event in two weeks time!