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“My last event of the 2005 season is now over and I have ended up 1st in class and 3rd overall in the ANCRO National Clubman's Rally Championship.
The Bulldog Rally was run out of Oswestry in North Wales last weekend and although it did not rain on the day itself the stages were very wet, muddy and slippery. I went into the last round lying second in the championship ( first had already been won ) with Alistair Adams in third, only one point behind me. Nine points further back was fourth place.
The first stage was 10 miles long and I decided to take it carefully and get used to the conditions. I stopped the clock 3rd fastest out of the championship contenders but unfortunately 12 seconds down on Alistair. Stage 2 was the longest of the day at 15 miles so I decided I needed to push if I was to beat Alistair, everything was going very well for the first 6 miles but then we went round a hairpin and I must have been a bit too sideways as we picked up a rear puncture, the first of the season.
I have driven on punctures before and am happy to do so for 3 or 4 miles, but it is a big risk trying 9 miles as the wheel could break up. After 3 miles with the puncture I could feel the tyre was just about to come off the wheel, this is the most dangerous time as it can only go one of two ways. If it comes off the wheel to the outside of the car it can damage the bodywork but will eventually be left in the woods, if it goes to the inside of the car you run the risk of it damaging the suspension as well as ripping the rear brakes off. I decided at this point it would be safer to stop and change it rather than risk a retirement. Three minutes later we were back in the rally but knew that unless Alistair had an accident (or puncture) all we could do was drive for a finish and try to rescue third in the championship.
The rest of the day went without any problems for us as well as Alistair. We eventually finished fifth out of the championship contenders which was enough to secure third overall, also finishing the season on a high with fastest time on the final stage of the season.
As I mentioned to you before I have already started my winter rebuild. My present engine has been sold and is already out of the car and on its way to the new owner in Ireland. My new engine has been delivered this week to the engine builder as well as the gearbox has been sent away for overhaul.
The first event of the new season is mid March and my plans are to hopefully have the car fully rebuilt by early January. As mentioned the National Historic Rally Championship which I intend to compete in next year is very competitive and uses completely different events in different parts of the country.
I hope that I can continue to take King of Shaves to the front of rallying in Britain next year as I have done in 2005. One disaster that did come at the weekend was that the TV crew had their car stolen, not only was all their equipment stolen but also the footage from the event, so unless the police do a good job I do not think this round will get any coverage, however, I hope you have been happy with all the coverage I have gained KoS over the rest of the season.
I look forward to hearing from you soon and hopefully discussing our continued success for both myself and King of Shaves in 2006.”
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“I have just got back from competing in my latest event the Park Systems stages rally in Newton Stewart in South West Scotland. My backside is still numb from the nine hour trip in each direction!
We spent all of Friday travelling to the event only to fail scrutineering. The cable for the remote firing of the fire extinguisher on the outside of the car had corroded and when the scrutineer tried to see if it worked the cable broke, not good if we had caught fire. We had a minor panic for half an hour till we managed to borrow one from a fellow competitor and then managed to pass the scrutineering and were given permission to compete the following day.
Unusually for Scotland and unlike the whole of England ( who were all watching the third day of the final test match ) we had lovely weather and not rain at all. It had been raining a day or so earlier so there was no dust to contend with either.
The spectators were out in their thousands to watch the event. Not because it was a national rally, but due to the fact that ex world champion Colin McRae was running as course car in a works Skoda world rally car as a shake down for the Rally GB next week. Colin is a national hero in Scotland hence the turnout. Most stayed out on the stage to watch at least the top 50 cars through, I was seeded 32 and was amazed by the number of spectators.
Scottish stages are renowned for two things, the speed of them and the fact that they can be rough. This years event was no exception, on the first stage I lost the brakes after knocking a rear caliper on some rocks on a very rough corner, this lost me quite a bit of time as it is difficult to stop a car with the handbrake. Luckily we managed to repair the brakes at an emergency service after the stage and went off to stage two which was 19 miles long with good brakes.
The beginning of this stage was a bit twisty and tight before it opened out into a very fast and flowing track through the Scottish forest, we stopped the clock at 20mins24secs. This is an average of about 56mph over the whole stage, not bad considering the first five or so miles were twisty. After the first two stages we were lying second overall out of the championship contenders.
We had 3 stages in the afternoon, some of which were also a bit rough, you would come round a corner only to find a rock the size of a football in the middle of the track. It is too dangerous to try and avoid them so you just drive over them and hope they do not damage the underside of the car too much or give you a puncture.
At the end of the day I just got beaten into third place by 3 seconds but am now second overall in the championship with one round to go on October 22nd. It is not possible to now win the championship as the man who is leading has too many points but hopefully I can finish in the runners up position as long as I beat the man in 3rd position.”
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“Luckily last Saturday was hot in South Wales and it did not rain, it was my first dry rally for about eight months.
I was hoping that being seeded at number one was going to be an advantage due to dust. We start at minute intervals and if there is no breeze then the dust from the previous car can take more than a minute to settle and thus cause the following cars a problem. Unfortunately there was a slight sea breeze which was just enough to clear the dust therefore taking my advantage away.
The stages in South Wales are very fast and the nature of the surface is such that even in the dry they feel quite slippery, there is a lot of fine gravel etc on the surface which does not seem to disappear even after 100 cars have driven over it. Due to this I started the day cautiously taking 4th fastest over the opening stage, a 15 mile stage through Rhondda, I stopped the clock 5.3 seconds from the fastest time.
The second stage was called Tyle and was 6 miles long. Very near the end there was a 45 degree right bend after a 250 metre straight. If you got the corner wrong there was a large pond straight on in which you could end up. The big boys in the National rally had already completed this stage and we were warned to be careful of this bend, when we got there we could see why. Marcus Dodd (of Sunseeker Powerboats) had gone off and his world rally car had nearly sunk in the water (doing an estimated £150K of damage to the car) and Kent driver Paul Jones had rolled his Mitsubishi into the pond upside down. if it had not been for Marcus being there and helping get Paul out I dread to think what could have happened.
However, on a lighter note we had no problems and carried on setting reasonable times all day but unfortunately not the quickest. We had one big scare during the day when we were flat in fourth gear, the car got onto the loose gravel on the side of the road which caused us to snap violently sideways towards the trees at an estimated 80mph, luckily I managed to just control the car in time and we carried on after loosing a few seconds.
At the end of the day we finished without any damage to the car and were fourth overall and first in class. This leaves me equal third overall in the championship and first in class with two rounds to go. The next round being in Scotland on September 10th.”
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“I sometimes wonder if lady luck travels with me in my rally car or if is too much of a frightening ride for her!
The weather at the weekend was appalling, with constant rain making conditions very muddy and slippery. I decided to try and not get the car too sideways (my normal flamboyant driving style) as this is when you usually get a puncture and the last thing I wanted to do was change a wheel in the middle of a rainstorm in a muddy forest. Apart from the conditions my day went without any major problems.There was one deceptive corner that caught me out, however, talking to others at the finish it seemed to catch everyone out. I only lost about ten seconds with a small spin whereas some others lost minutes stuck in the mud or worse still stuck on small tree stumps.
The stages were obviously not as fast as they would have been if it had been dry. It is not possible to corner or get as much grip for high speeds in these conditions, I am hoping for dry conditions during the rest of the year as it suits me and the car better. The driving style however worked and I finished the event without any punctures. I also ended up second overall and first in class, but missed out on first by two tenths of a second.
Most people would be over the moon at finishing second overall on an ANCRO clubmans rally. However I was a little bit disappointed, having missed first place by a mere 0.2 of a second. Again, most would be ecstatic to have completed 52 stage miles and be so close to the lead, however this is what caused the heartbreak. I have never won an event overall, I have won my class, been first two wheel drive car and first ANCRO Clubmans competitor, all on many occasions, but the elusive first overall still eludes me.
To make matters even worse, I have had a result like this in the past. On the Swansea Bay Clubmans Rally in 2003 I finished 2nd overall, this time missing out on a win by 0.3 seconds to Bob Morgan in his Escort Cosworth. Am I ever going to get a first overall? Based on my improvement since 2003 i.e. 0.1 of a second and the fact that both rally winners beat me on the first stage, it looks like it might take me until 2011 to improve enough to get onto the elusive top step of the podium! I do hope I don't have to wait this long as I do not think my car has enough strength left in her! I will be out on the next round of the clubmans championship The Swansea Bay Rally on 23rd July trying my hardest to find a few tenths of a second and hope it will be enough to finally reach the top.
The result has catapulted me up the leaderboard to 3rd overall and in sight of the leader. Another good result will help greatly.”
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“Some people say that local knowledge on a rally is an advantage and helps give faster times. As far as I am concerned I think it helps on the fast corners, however on corners where people have had accidents in the past it makes me slower. I go round these areas carefully in the full knowledge that it is quite possible to have a bad accident whereas other competitors enter the corner at a much higher speed, scrabble round just avoiding an accident and take a bit of time out of me.
Apart from this excuse the rally went very well, the stages were hard ,very fast and did not cut up at all. I started the day on soft tyres which worked very well, at the first service halt I opted to go for a slightly harder tyre as I did not believe the soft ones would last the 16 miles. This in hindsight might have been a bad move, the tyres at the end of the 16 miles looked brand new and soft tyres would have lasted and maybe given me a bit more grip and therefore faster times. I elected to go back out on soft tyres for the final 14 miles and they held up well.
The championship contenders are all very equal this year and after a total of 46 competitive miles there was only 10 seconds separating the top four finishers. I was first in my class but unfortunately fourth competitor home, I believe that slowing down too much on some of the corners cost me at least the 10 seconds that separated me from first.
I did however pick up top points in class and a good tally of points in the championship overall. Due to the weird looking points table after the first round in the snow I am only equal 10th in the championship at present, however two competitors also tying on points with me are those who I class as potential winners. The highest competitor in the championship who I also class as a potential winner is lying 3rd overall and is only 11 points ahead of me. It is still early days in the championship and I expect thing to change drastically as the season continues.
The next round of the championship is The Mutiny Rally based in mid Wales and is not until 4th June. This gives me a good break to get back in my wife's good books!”
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“We went up to Pickering over the weekend to compete in the opening round of the championship, the Kall Kwik Rally based in Dalby Forest in North East Yorkshire. These stages are famous for their very long straights, some of which have had to have chicanes built in them to keep the average speed on the rally cars down. However these chicanes were not exactly required this weekend due to the inclement weather !!!!!
We arrived in Pickering at about 1500hrs for scrutineering on Saturday afternoon and the sun was shining. By 1700hrs the first few flakes of snow were starting to fall so I decided to purchase some extra tyres that would work well in the snow if it did start to settle ( unfortunately no tyre manufacturer makes proper snow tyres to fit a MK 2 Ford Escort ).
On waking from a good nights sleep on Sunday morning we were greeted with a 3 inch covering of snow, something I have always avoided of driving in too fast due to it's slippery properties.
When they organise a rally all competitors are seeded in the entry list on merit and previous results. It is normally better to start as high up the seeding as possible as the condition of the track is better enabling quicker times, you know you are also seeded with others of your speed and ability so baring a problem or a spin you know you should not catch anyone or worse still be caught. I was seeded second on the road so thought I was in for a good day, how wrong I was.
As soon as the flag dropped on the first stage the wheels started to spin, no matter what gear I chose the wheels kept spinning and it seemed impossible to get any grip. This stage was 8 miles long and it seemed to take an age to get to the finish. About two miles from the end I could see car 1 about 200 metres ahead of me, I thought I must have been going well to pull a minute out of his time only to look in my rear view mirror a mile and a half later to see car 4 catching me.
I could not believe the fact that I had been caught as I did not make any mistakes and did not believe I could have driven much faster, also on talking to car 1 and finding out he had no problems on the stage could I understand how I managed to catch him. Anyway we only has about five minutes to think about it before starting the second stage. This turned out to be a repeat fiasco of stage 1, I caught ( and overtook car 1 as he had a spin ) and car 4 took a lot of time out of me.
At service they gave us some interim results which told a very sorry story. Car 1 was last overall, I was fourth from last and car 4 was eighth from the bottom of the leader board. All the cars seeded from about fifteen down were setting very fast times compared to all the top seeds, we were obviously acting as snow ploughs clearing the surface and leaving them a hard surface with lots of grip. Unfortunately I was already a vast six minuets down on the leader, car 18, too much time to ever be clawed back.
We booked out of service ten minutes late to try and run a bit further down the field and gain some traction from others clearing the snow, this helped a bit and by the time we visited service for the second time after stage four we had climbed to tenth from last, car 1 still being last.
Stage five was a repeat of stage 1 so I knew we had as much grip as anyone as the snow had all been removed. I decided I would attack this stage hard just to get my confidence back that I am not as slow a driver as the results were showing. We stopped the clock a massive 5 minutes 6 seconds quicker than the run through in the snow, fourth fastest overall, but even this time could not help recover the time I had lost on the opening two stages.
The final results showed what a weird event it had been. Out of the top 10 starters 2 cars retired, the highest classified finisher from the rest was car 2 who came 21st overall, I came 27th overall, car 4 was 30th and car 1 was last. On any normal event we would all have expected to be in or very near the top ten.
The eventual winner was a local seeded at 18. We will all have to see how quick he is when we all can have a clean run and he is away from his local forests. Luckily I was not the only top seed in trouble and all the main competitors from last year have come away with very few points. The next round is my local event in Kent, I hope to have a clean run and put some serious points on the board.”
Update from James - 8th February 2005
“I have been spending the last few weeks working on the car which is now finished and ready for it's first outing. I have had the bottom half painted (where it suffers with stone chips), completely replaced all the vital components in the suspension which should make it handle better and managed to fit bigger brakes to the front which should enable me to brake later for corners and therefore be that little bit quicker. I am really looking forward to the first event of the championship "The Kall Kwik Rally " which is based in the Dalby forest complex in West Yorkshire next weekend.
There are a few of my old rivals signed up again for this year as well as a few names I do not know, it will be interesting to see what other people have done to their cars over the winter months to make them quicker or handle better. One major thing on my side is that over the last five years my car has been 100% mechanically reliable (lets hope it stays that way), it has just been the driver who has made the odd mistake. If I can keep the reliability and stop my own stupid errors then I am sure we are in for a very good season.”