Richard Burns Rally..Aug 14-15th

[Ptrs14]

RBMR Report
Arrived at the venue early Friday afternoon, giving plenty of time to set up camp / tent etc. Got to see the only remaining ‘Vulcan Bomber’ take off & do a very low level fly past ( one of the most awesome sights ever !!) Unfortunately managed to coincide the tent erection with a huge downpour....not funny, I can tell you. Having set up, got thro scrut / sign on all ok, time for a few beers / Barbie & settle in for the evening. WHAT A NIGHT !!! didn’t manage more than 30-40mins sleep all night due to TORRENTIAL RAIN Tent p***ed in, got almost everything soaked. Was up at 1st light just to get out of the tent!! (not camped in over 25yrs..now I remember why.)

Must admit to being VERY apprehensive prior to 1st stage, mainly due to this being my co-drivers 1st ever rally. 1st stage was treated with utmost caution, get a feel for the car & co-driver etc Managed to wrong slot, costing @25-30 secs....had to reverse 500 yrds to re-join. MY fault....wasnt listening !
Stage 2 was a re-run & was much quicker as we had both settled in. Must say was hugely impressed with co-driver & could drive with much more commitment & confidence. Great improvement on time. Arriving back in the paddock, a few people commented on ‘smoke’ coming from the rear. Turns out to be the NSR arch catching the tyre (almost slicing thro the tyre..wouldn’t of done another couple of miles). Crew subtly massaged the arch, peursuading it not to mess with the tyre again !
Got thro the Saturday stages with no other dramas....happy to be in 16th o/a. Spent Saturday night in the warm, luxurious surroundings of a locally sourced holiday cottage (B****ks to camping)

Sunday:
Having done the Saturday stages on 1 set of tyres, didn’t really want to change too much, so just put 2 fresh tyres on the rear.
Forgot to say, we had a wager with Alan (Aston Vantage) £10 per stage..we were up 3:1 after Saturday.
No real dramas thro Sunday, other than loosing the wager 2:1 to Alan (only 3 stages timed, due to stage 7 being red flagged)
Have to admit to being chuffed at the final result of 8th o/a....genuinely didn’t expect that. Knew the car was capable, but thought it might take a few more attempts to get to that level.
Have come away with a few jobs to do, but looking forward to getting the ‘clicky’ box in for next time out.

Great to speak with Ady ( great result for Ady 1st time out), & commiserations to Chris & roadrally-nova with their ongoing difficulties thro the weekend.

Peter

[roadrally_nova]

cheers mate i am chris the other lad is mark. excellent result well done to all forum lads entered. Clicky box would be a nice inprovement should help the times a little go for a podium next year.
stripped the rear end every bush is knacked from the rear all the way to the gear box and center bearing.
Iam changeing everything this time for powerflex bushes with mark so we know what weve got and not , and cut down on garage bills a bit sorced a 12.9 bolt for the diff slightly modified so we can change it in 5 mins if it snaps again. brakes were spot on so weve sorted that problem now. also got a x brace for the front on its way.

[notax]

Team Notax Rally Report

The event started for all of us with the very long drive to Norfolk - Granville and Sam from south Wales towing the car and us from Southampton. Paul my usual nav is on holiday so Miss Notax bravely agreed to sit in his place.

The event started with a very wet surface and we were warned in the briefing that there was deep standing water Granville got busy with the tyre cutter and I decided to run hard tyres due to stage length (15 miles!) and abrasion. We were hopeful of a decent result after coming 2nd in class last year, but were disappointed and confused by our lowly 62 seeding

Stage 1

Really good to be back in the car with Miss Notax (Sarah) As you may remember Sarah retired from co driving due to repeated car sickness, but was fine on the last short event we tried (where we also won a pot for third in class) so we thought we would risk it again... We soon found ourselves on the start line and as we headed to the first corner I was feeling confident. We came across a merge almost immediately and suddenly found two cars ahead of us. One, a new Mitsu Evo car 35, kindly pulled aside for us just as we went into a 90 left but I managed to spin as I passed him caused by cold hard tyres and worryingly the steering jamming as I tried to apply a dab of oppo... Not the start we wanted... but the tyres soon warmed and we were able to build our speed. The steering was still jamming occasionally which was far from ideal!

Sadly half way through the first stage we realised Sarah was not well - the stage length and complexity got the better of her We carried on and had an incident free stage.

Stage 2

Sarah was feeling very poorly but agreed to try sitting in the car not looking at the map and I remembered most of the stage. We again caught car 35 and we were comfortably faster than them, although this time

[notax]

Web page went funny so posted half done!

I decided not to try and pass the Evo for fear of cocking up again and kept behind him costing us a lot of time but pleased to have someone to follow with Sarah out of action. Then disaster. I followed him to the finish and missed a split as a result I was so close to him I hadn't seen the board and before we knew it had got a stage max

Sarah was very poorly by this stage and although she agreed to continue sitting in the car it was obviously going to be no fun for her and I would have to continue driving blind. As a long shot I decided to see whether the organisers would allow a change of co driver. I had asked before at previous events and never had permission granted but remained positive...

Against all odds the organiser agreed and not only that, he knew of an available nav too

I raced around trying to find this mystery nav before the next stage having no idea who he was. Eventually I tracked him down and found I'd been recommended to a semi pro who is used to winning events A very nice chap called Steve McNulty who navs for Dick Mauger in his WRC cars!

Off to bed now...tbc

[notax]

Due to Steve's experience and expertise he is in great demand and often turns down offers to nav - particularly if he has any doubts about the car or driver. I was very relieved (albeit pretty nervous!) when he accepted my invitation.

Granville meanwhile was flat out trying to fix the car's steering and a badly blowing exhaust.

We were soon in the car and ready to go. The next couple of stages went well although I was aware that I was braking too early and driving a bit too cautiously whilst getting used to not having to drive blind and to Steve's co driving style. As my confidence grew | started to push harder and I was soon out braking myself! We passed quite a few cars and were getting on well - although Steve had to put up with my occasional grunts as the steering still kept jamming, particularly on the hairpins We had a couple of near misses, one at a hairpin when I went for the handbrake and nothing happened and to make matters worse the steering jammed at the same time! We spun and just avoided hitting a road sign...

Back in service we found the pin for the handbrake had come adrift so that was rectified, although the steering was due to a knackered rack (no doubt caused by the previous engine mount issues) and so my grunting would have to continue!

Day two

We found that after our stage max (giving us a massive 15 minute penalty) we started the day in 74th place... not where I'd hoped to be!

[notax]

With the handbrake now fixed and tthe track dry we were able to really get on it and Steve and I were working well together. We passed a lot of cars and I was getting noticably quicker each stage. Steve encouraged me to go ever faster and in the first stage we climbed 15 places!

With the handbrake now working I was really enjoying the hairpins and look forward to seeing the video footage In spite of Granville's efforts he had been unable to fix the hole in the exhaust and we were losing top end power as the Lambda sensors were getting confused, but all was going well.

We carried on and the rest of the rally was pretty uneventful for us, we just kept getting a litlle bit faster. In the end we finished 51st (my lowest ever finish ) but take away our time penalty and we would have been 13th OA

A massive thank you to Steve, Granville and Sam and to Sarah for offering to continue even though she was so poorly.

Overall not the result we wanted, but a great event, fantastic stages and I'm definately now faster as a result of Steve's input This is the car's last event in my hands and I will be extremely sad to see it go - it is now for sale.

Our new car is being launched at Rally Day in a few weeks time...I'll keep you posted!

[is-si]

nice report Notax, always fun to read , is Grist up for the next event?