50 Miles of Forest Stages on Loose Gravel - No Bother
Dry Tarmac, Grippy Tyres, Perfect Visibility - UH OH!
Twighlight Rally - 3rd September 2005
The discovery of the fact that the distibutor mechanical and vacuum advance was not working explained why the car had been down on performance on the last event. After a lot of effort a suitable replacement was located and fitted. This dramatically improved the performance and along with a set of new PIAA spotlights, won at the 2003 205 Challenge Awards, the car was all set for the Twighlight (the Pacemaker has been moved to October).
The regs took a bit of deciphering, but it turned out that the Twighlight was a bit unusual. The start was early evening on Saturday and the first 50 miles basically consisted of Forest Stages! These were disguised as off-road regularity sections and indeed were run as such. A bit different to a real forest stage event, what with having to stop for codeboards and actually having to be careful about coming in early, but mostly the same! A good decision to get a pair of new A035 before the start then!
. . .
The first 'stage' was in a quarry at the start (Manmoel camp site) overlooked by the car park - so at least our night section marshalls saw a bit of action! A stall on the last corner prevented a really good time, but not a bad start. Then it was a road section into the forests proper! A bit of navigator and driver daydreaming caused us to miss the first codeboard (nav didn't call it and I didn't see it), but by a bit of luck (the marshall signed across both spaces) and some brinkmanship with a fellow competitor "What did you get for that first codeboard" style, saw the box completed. Phew.
The rest of the 'stages' flew by with no mechanical or human faults! The section following the forests was a 'jogularity' to the start of the night section proper. This was basically a regularity and good use of the Brantz Rally Computer saw us drop only a few seconds on this part of the event.
A little fettling of the always troublesome gear linkage bolt saw the car ready for the night route. Even more encouraging was the news that we were running equal second following the early evening forest sections! This really focussed us, now knowing that we were in with a chance for top honours.
The first few sections went well, and we quite easily stayed ahead of the timed to the minute schedule. An Impreza Turbo got in our way but was quickly passed as he missed a slot, and then dissapeared out of sight in the rear view mirror...
A four minute section loomed and we really went for it. I might have been going a tad faster than Eddie thought, as he was a little late calling a 110 right. I saw it as he called it - and had no chance. Unfortunately a big muddy bank was in the way and this brought things to an abrupt halt and with the coolant draining across the road it was rally over - the first time I've retired from a road rally due to accident damage.