Trackrod Rally, Yorkshire, October 2006 - James Potter's Report
“I have recently competed on the Trackrod Rally in Yorkshire and finished 10th overall but only 5th in class out of a total of 71 starters.

The event was run from the Yorkshire showground in Pickering and even had a short spectator stage in the showground.

The first stage was an 8.5 miler in the Dalby complex and we stopped the clocks 11th fastest. I was not too disappointed in the time as I have not competed for a couple of months. I did not compete in previous two events in the calendar, the Manx Rally on the Isle of Man is just too expensive both cost wise and holiday wise to do and the Rally of Flanders in Belgium I also had to miss due to ill health. I felt quite good with the handling of the car and decided that if all went well I could only pick up speed as the day went on.

Unfortunately stage 2 had to be cancelled as a car running ahead of us on the road had a very bad accident. The stage doctor and ambulance were called to the accident and once they had assessed the crew they even called out the air ambulance to take the crew as quickly as possible to the hospital. Luckily both crew members are now out of hospital and recovering from some severe bruising.

That then led us into stage 3 which at 18.4 miles long not only counted for the majority of the remainder of the event but is also the longest stage of the season. The forests in North Yorkshire are very fast and this year even though it has rained up there quite a lot was no exception. Due to the high speeds the forestry commission has even had to build some chicanes to slow the competitors down as the is a maximum allowable average speed and without these chicanes we would all beat this average. I finished the stage in 19 minutes 53 seconds and was 9th fastest but was very disappointed with this time.

On the long fast straights the engine would only rev to about 6250rpm where it should have gone to 8200rpm. This meant my top speed was limited to about 98mph instead of about 115mph and this cost me dearly. When we left the stage we went to service and we tried to find the root of the problem, however, we could not find what was to blame so all we could do was to carry on with 3 stages ( one the showground stage of only 1 mile ) to the finish.

The showground stage was very rough and being so short you are not going to win the rally there, all you are likely to do is have an accident playing to the crowds. I took it steady in the hope that we could move up the field on the lst two proper stages. The penultimate stage was 9 miles long and I drove well through it but the car still would not pull well through the corners, we were 12 fastest and at the end of the stage I met a friend who had watched us through a couple of corners. He said that although we looked quite quick the engine sounded a bit flat and not as crisp as it used to.

I decided that I would not push the engine too hard on the final stage and to just nurse the car to the finish. We completed the final stage a lowly 17th overall (very embarrassing) but it did mean we finished the event.

After now getting back to Kent we have had a good look at the engine and firstly found that the fuel pressure was on the low side. We initially hoped this was all of my problems and that the pumps could just not keep up with the demand from the engine down the long straights. Increasing the pressure is just a matter of turning a valve, however, whilst we were checking the engine over we decided to carry out a compression test and a leakdown test. The results from the compression test indicates that cylinders 1 and 3 are a little bit low but within tolerance.

The leakdown test however which checks the integrity of the headgasket and the valves told us a different story. It seems that the headgasket has failed between cylinders 2 and 3 and therefore this is the main reason for the engine to sound flat and not pull as well as it used to. Unfortunately with the final round of the 2006 championship, The Somerset Stages being only two weeks away I have no time to repair the engine and therefore am not able to compete, thus a bad ending to a not very good year good year.

On a better note at least the engine did not blow itself to bits so at least the rebuild cost should not be too high !!. It looks like I will finish the season 9th overall which is not a good as I would have liked, all I can now do is start the laborious job of winter strip down and rebuild in time for the start of the 2007 championship.

To the right are photos of my accident on the Kerridge Rally earlier this year which happened whilst I was winning the event. I think I sent them to you previously but attach them again just in case. I know it is not as impressive an accident as the KoS off shore powerboat in Plymouth, however, this is as bad an accident as I would want. As I am sure you are aware from their accident when speed is involved things get very dangerous for those competing not to mention the expense when things do go wrong.”

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Severn Valley Stages June 2006 - James Potter's Report
“The Severn Valley Stages is a rally I have competed on over the last four years. Last year saw my best ever result on this event I finished second overall, only being beaten by a mere 0.2 of a second!

This year the event was very dry making the stages very fast, this suits my style of driving. The event was also using some new stages in the South West of wales that I had never been to so it had all the makings of a good rally.

The day started well for me and i set 2nd fastest time on the opening stage only 0.7 seconds down on the leader after 4.5 miles. The next stage was 6 miles long and I tried really hard through this and was surprised to have set the fastest time by 8 seconds. We entered the first service with a 7 second lead after 10 stage miles and the brand new set of Dunlop tyres I started with on the rear of the car completely shot.

The championship leader and pace setter Gareth Lloyd was down in 5th place and i thought a comfortable 30 seconds down on me due to a spin on the second stage, as we went into the longest stage of the day, a 14 miler in Brechfa, a new stage to me. Many parts of the stage had been regraded with new gravel so I decided to take it a bit easy through these sections as it is very easy to pick up a puncture on such road surfaces. In hindsight I took it too easy, I stopped the clock second fastest only to find that Gareth had taken 19 seconds out of me. This really annoyed me so I pushed hard on the Brechfa stage again finishing second to Gareth after 9 miles but only loosing 1.5 seconds this time.

All we had left now as we entered second service was an 11.4 mile stage in Crychan between me and my first ever event win. However I new full well that Gareth lives only 5 miles from the stage so would know it quite well. I only had a 10 second lead and knew that I had to push hard to get that elusive win.

The first 7.5 miles went very well and I felt very comfortable with the speed, the way the car handled and the pace notes, that was until we came to a slight crest going into a fast left. I took this at about 75mph and as we came over the crest the car was slightly airborne. I had already set the car up for the slight left but unfortunately the momentum of the car as well as the lack of grip caused me to slide onto the grass at the side of the track. I kept the power in and the car started to feel as though it would come back onto the track with no great problems until that is we dropped the front right wheel into an unseen ditch. Then it all started to go horribly wrong.

The ditch and the speed we were carrying caused the car to launch skywards, from this point I was not in control at all and in the lap of the Gods. We landed on our two left hand wheels and then got pitched off into the undergrowth. We were very lucky to both not hit a tree or to roll the car, it eventually came to a halt very near the track, my first instinct was to start the engine and finish the stage, however being inside the car i could not see the damage to the front end.

I had the front left tyre off the wheel as well as the suspension and steering were completely deranged. I tried to carry on but decided after 100 yards that it would be impossible to complete the last 4 miles so I pulled over and retired.

This left Gareth to take the win, however, he nearly didn't make it either as he had a big moment on exactly the same corner. He also entered it at a very fast speed and drifted wide, he was a bit luckier when he hit the ditch, it didn't launch him in the same way and he managed to struggle on with only the front right suspension broken.

We are both out again this weekend on The Mid-Wales stages and hopefully I can try to beat him and bring the car back in one piece!”