BITTER SWEET LAMB
Sweet Lamb Stages - 14th September 2003
The rally took place at the Sweet Lamb Motorsport complex near Aberystwyth, which provides tricky gravel tracks around the steep mountainside. Hafron forest was also used where many an RAC rally has been run. After a stunning 3rd overall in August's Swansea Bay Rally, the boys had high hopes for Sweet Lambs Stages. However, the day turned out to be a bittersweet experience; a slow start meant a lot of work had to be done to get back onto the leaderboard.
After the first four stages Rich and Mat were uncharacteristically running down in the middle of the 205s. As the results of the first sector were posted Richard groaned "Maybe I should have stopped at eight pints last night" and headed off to the burger stand.
Events were set to conspire further against the McLachlans as a puncture at the end of the next stage put the pressure on further. With no service stop until after stage 8, the tyre had to be changed by the team on the road section to stage 6. Stage 7 went really well with good time being made at the start of the stage. By the end however the brakes were becoming very unpredictable with the pedal going down to the floor. Frantic checking and tightening of brake unions between stages 6 and 7 failed to fix the problem and stages 7 and 8 had to be handled with virtually no braking, however the clock showed that the team were significantly faster than earlier in the day!
Split brake reservoir seals were diagnosed at the service halt, but without spares a temporary repair had to be effected. The last three stages went faultlessly for the team, with the good performance hauling them up the tables to finish a creditable 7th overall and to take the 3rd in expert class trophy.
