The Plains Rally organised by Knutsford & District MC Motor Club started from Welshpool. There was nine stages

Woodyard 1
Penillyn
Llangower
DYFI1 West
Pant Perthog
Taliesin
Cyneiniog
Gartheiniog
Woodyard 2

with 150 road miles linking the stages. The management crew, Roger Fletcher and Craig Rodford also had the same mileage in the "Combo van" to do.

The weekend started with noise check and scrutineering on Friday 22nd with no problems. Then onto the "digs" for the night booked by my navigator Rob Hick. This turned out to be quite a shock for everybody as this was a lovely Georgian house in its own grounds with superb views and a peacock wandering the gardens! This was probably one of the most relaxing places we have ever stayed in prior to a stage rally. After a great breakfast, wheels/tyres were changed in the car park of the B & B. The main service crew headed off to the first service area, we set off to the start at Welshpool followed by our service crew, this was to be the norm for the rest of the day.

Once we were flagged off from the start line by the Lady Mayoress, it was to stage 1 at Woodyard. About 3/4 of the way through the drama began. The engine just cut out and right on a hairpin with photographer and commentator present. Trying to restart the engine with lots of backfiring we realised the fault had to be ignition timing. We found the rotor arm in the distributer had stripped the locating lug inside and was just spinning around eratically. To fix this and get out of the stage, good old tank tape came into play, a small amount was wrapped around the spindle, wedge the rotor arm approximately in place, refit cap and to our amazement the engine fires back into life! Frantic rush with harnesses and helmets we were off again with 19 minutes lost, we then collected a stage maximum of 3 minutes. This put us as the last car on the road.

A big thankyou must go to Shelly Taunt and Julie Murphy (Car 49) who had retired on this stage near the corner and had noticed the course closing car looming up. They kindly kept them talking long enough for us to get out of the stage in front of them. This then meant we spent the rest of the day racing the course closing car to every stage. Management and service crew put out a search for another rotor arm but, we were forced to continue onto Stage 2 with our temporary repair. We decided what will be will be, and attacked the stage in our usual way only to find we had beaten 60 cars with the rotor arm still in place.

The next stage passed without incident, followed by service of only 20 minutes. To our suprise Steve had found another rotor arm in the spares crate. This duly fitted, car given a good check over we were off again. Rob and I attacked the next stage with great confidence and catching a car on stage towards  the finish line the engine cut out again! We coasted over the finish line to find the rotor arm had failed again. So out came the tank tape again assisted by a spot of super glue. (This repair is still in place and working a week later).

Carrying on through the stages (still racing the coarse closing car) and really enjoying them, we got to the final Stage 8. A very tight narrow downhill right hand hairpin claimed our nearside driveshaft outer C.V. joint. We were then towed to the end of the stage to meet our Management crew who in failing light managed to change the driveshaft in only 20 minutes. We then drove back to Welshpool (30 miles) to hand in the time card and damage declaration form. Later we found out that at the point of retirement we were 115th O/A and 14th in class even after the early drama's. I now have to address the two main issues - Distributer and Driveshaft to ensure these do not cause trouble again.

Our great thanks must go to our Management Crew:- Roger Fletcher (soon to be Son-in-law) Craig Rodford and service crew:- Grant Riddick and Steve Hall.