Swansea Bay 205 Rally - 20th July 2002

Final Result - 9th 205, 2nd Novice (award)

"Utterly fantastic" was all Rich could say having finished his first proper forest stage event - and with an astounding 2nd in class, and 9th overall.

The stages were the usual fantastic South Wales Forestry stages taken straight from the Rally of GB. The weather
was baking hot all day, with dry hard stages. By all accounts it was a great event with excellent organisation and brilliant stages.

After regaining his composure at the finish, Rich said "I was unsure how I'd get on as my only previous attempt at a forest event had been cut short by a mis-positioned gatepost, but I loved every minute of it. I'm still trying to do a mental reset from driving the Escort and a spin on the 1st stage which could easily have turned into a roll reminded me what I should be doing with the throttle. I think I had the rear suspension a bit high which was making the car a bit tail-endy and twice more during the day I found myself sliding very sideways out of corners at 60+mph and kept having to tell myself mentally to keep it nailed!"

On the Pace (notes!)

Co-Driver Mat was great on the pace notes and kept cool composure throughout, without a single lost in the notes moment. Not bad for a 1st attempt!

Photo courtesy of Simon Clarke Photography

The four stages (approx 9.5, 14.5, 5.5, and 14.5 miles), provided a variety of thrills with some really on the mountain edge corners and scarey steep downhills. Our 1st stage placing was only 21st (but we did spin), rising steadily to 7th fastest on the final stage.

The Oily Bits

Mechanics Rhyd and Eddie did an excellent job of keeping to car going but didn't have too much to do other than to fix a hole in the exhaust after the 1st stage - mid mounting bracket tore out of the exhaust (Pug Sport exhaust as well) which Eddie masterfully solved with a Red Bull can and various jubilee clips. No punctures all day, but three bent wheels.

Special thanks to Tim and Kit's Mechanics who leant us some fuel at the last service!.