Seeing as it'll probably be a while before i get the proper photo's from the rally i figured i'd do a write up and let you all know what went on and how we did.
June 15th was the date, and with a tank full of shell's finest we set off northward heading for Myerscough College for the start of the GP Memorial rally.
As with any other journey in a mini, things didn't even go to plan on the trip up to the start venue!!!! Just north of Bolton the car suddenly started to vibrate from the front. One minute all was fine....next everything was a blur!!! I pulled over to the hard shoulder to investigate......nothing!!!!! Set off again thinking everything was ok, but straight away the same vibration and then less the a quarter of a mile down the road, the vibration turned into a loud banging noise.....RUBBISH!!!!!!!!
Another trip to the hard shoulder and eventually spotted something suspicious......
So...not wanting to hang around on the hard shoulder and get flattened by a european lorry driver watching his DVD player, i set about changing to my spare. Trouble is the spare is a standard road tyre and not a Maxsport. Just as i'd finished, a member of our motorclub pulled in to check we were all ok. I said yes but could do with another standard tyre - to at least run two matching front and rear. As luck would have it (jammy this or what?) he deals in mini bits and has got heaps of wheels and tyres in his workshop. A quick trip to Bolton in his rally car and we discovered that he had a rover alloy (like mine) with a decent Pirelli on it....result!!!!! Only issue was it's covered in red overspray.....but i ain't no fashion victim and a wheel is a wheel!!!!! Did get a few funny looks parked up at the start venue tho!!!
Soooo.....Noise test done.....91dB......Scrutineering done (they were all impressed with the little car!)........Signing on done.......Phew!
Couple of other mini's doing the event so had a quick look at them.....very nice Aqua coloured car run by a local driver....totally sold me on Aqua (my cars original colour) looked stunning....can't wait to repray it now (all in good time though)
So, drivers briefing done, and then on our minute we got the route and set about plotting....not that easy wrestling with 4 OS maps in a mini!!!! Easily done within the allowed time limit (had bags of time spare) we set off to the first Time Control. Lesson learnt from our last event, we got there in plenty of time and set off on our minute. First section was easy, and my wife called the junctions and bends out perfectly.....we were clearing the section (not dropping any time) and even had time to pull over and let a car past who had wrong slotted (took a wrong turn) and needed to make up time.....all was going so well......and then the first white.
This white in question wasn't rough and could be taken at speed thanks to my raised suspension and sump guard for peace of mind. Trouble is....this white crossed the river Conder near to Lancaster Uni. 'Kit Brow' as it is known locally and is infamous with road rallies. I was kinda warned about it at the start, but didn't know what to expect....all i was asked is 'How is yer mini in water?'...."Dunno" I replied!!!!!
Now i know what my mini is like in water......it leaks and doesn't swim!!!!!! It was 100% my fault, and if i'd known how deep the water was, i wouldn't have minced my way into the ford crossing with such low rev's. As soon as the exhaust hit the water the car stalled and wouldn't restart!!!!!
I wound the window down and was a little alarmed to see the water level above sill height...above the bottom of the door too!!!!!!
"Oh dear" were my words.....well....something to that effect!!!!
Jeers came from the spectators who obviously expected the drowning of another car!!!!
I climbed out of my open window to retrieve my tow rope from my locked boot (won't do that again!) and by then some brave speccies had waded in to help me.
Car pulled and pushed to the river bank, i whipped off the dizzy cap and dried it out. By now the battery was dead, so a bunch of speccies push started us and after a few splutters and probably a jet of water out of the exhaust, the car sprang into life and off we went into the darkness. We dropped 7 minutes thanks to the early bath, and now we had a car full of water to deal with....floating carpets and soaking wet feet and jeans (for me anyway!) too.
After a few miles the slight misfire caused by our soaking cleared, and we were back on track, making our way to the mid point petrol stop.....squelching into the petrol station to pay for my fill up....leaving wet foot prints all the way to the counter....giggling to myself that we were even still competing!! Fuel tank full, and a can of WD40 stashed (just in case) and away we went to start the second half.
The second half of the rally was more 'full on' than the first, with fatigue setting in and proper moorland roads with drops and yumps, and blind crests in the mist all to contend with. We wrong slotted at one point and dropped many minutes before realising the mistake (rookie error), but more importantly we sorted it and got back on route without picking up any fails. The route took us through Gisburn Forest and into a carpark (we mountain biked from here in december) to pick up code boards and do a noise test....all done to make you drop time!!!
Some of the roads were just awesome!!!!!! I had the car 'flowing' and it all just seemed to feel great. A few TMF members were marshaling and doing Time Controls....cheers to Brad and Si for braving the weather....must have been grim! We ended up catching and passing a Citroen Xsara VTS at one point but then had to backtrack to pick up a missed code board, so he repassed us!!!! We caught him again down another white...passed a stricken BMW on its side in the hedge!!!!....and then smacked into a big pothole/crater that i missed as i was on the bumper of the VTS!!! Ouch!
I expected the exhaust to be gone!!! but everything seemed quiet (ish)....so off we went on the last blast down to the final TC. One long straight was all that was left and the VTS left me behind (as you'd expect) but we blasted past a Corsa....bet that woke him up!!!!!....and a final hairpin right into final TC right on the VTS' bumper.
Made our way to the finish venue for a we deserved (and needed) bacon butty and a couple of coffee's! To even make it to the end was a great feeling after the events earlier in the evening.
We finished 6th Novice, 2nd Historic, and 32nd Overall. If we'd not dropped the obvious mistakes of time we'd have finished far far better...next time eh?...ha ha!
The British Road Rallying Facebook page has got a very fine car heading up their homepage........Famous at last (kinda!)
Proper pic's to follow once i get them.
Edited by rally1380, 22 June 2013 - 08:04 PM.
