Bovington stages

[notax]

Our next event 15th March. Anyone else attending in any capacity? Anyone been to this venue before? Over 80 entries (organisers had to apply for permission to extend when very over subscribed) don't know our seeding yet...

[notax]

Seeded at 37th... with an Impreza STI behind to keep us on our toes...

86 entries - including some pretty tasty cars - no, not the 2 WRC cars, Lancia Stratos etc but a BMW 316i and another M3 Seems the M3 belongs to our club but never seen them before - needless to say I'll try and recruit them to this site!

Entries here FYI:

http://www.bdcc.org.uk/images/seededentries.pdf

[M3 Compact]

Good luck team notax.

[bruvs1]

spread the word notax good luck..

[notax]

Thanks looking forward to seeing how the car handles on its new PSS9s. Relieved its going to be dry - incredibly we haven't done a single wet event yet - in spite of events throughout last year and two in December...(2007 and 2008)

[jonnysprinter]

Have fun and bring it back in one piece

[is-si]

Have fun, 10th to beat....

[notax]

Have fun, 10th to beat....

I think having 46 more entries might make that a bit more difficult

Major incidents apart I will be disappointed not to beat our 37 seeding though...

[notax]

Phew been flat out all day and just got car fixed to the trailer. Had a bit of stress to and from scrutineering - see other thread - but all seems ok now. Fingers crossed for tomorrow...

[notax]

Great day - in spite of a few issues...

Just got home after unloading trailer - very long day so I'll keep this short for now...


24th out of 86 starters and 4th in class

And even better, car is largely intact

[jonnysprinter]

Great day - in spite of a few issues...

Sounds intriguing

Looking forward to more details

Just got home after unloading trailer - very long day so I'll keep this short for now...


24th out of 86 starters and 4th in class

And even better, car is largely intact

[miss notax]

Yep, a very sucessful day for team Notax! You could definitely see the M3 engine doing it stuff - the BMW absolutely flew past the spectator area

It won't be long before Chris is bringing home the silver-ware

[M3 Compact]

Congrats notaxes.

[is-si]

Looking forward to the report NT, glad you finished a respectable 24th
Any more drama's?

[notax]

Thanks for the photos Some superb ones on www.teltphotography.com (NB we are car 37 so page 20 I think)

Anyway, Miss NT is waiting for me in bed so I'd better get on with the rally report

As you may have read in my other post - the preparations were a little stressful - culminating in me having a very lucky escape when pulled over by the plod...

After little sleep we were up early and on our way to Dorset. Without doubt the best day of the year - clear blue sky and promising to get pretty warm.

Arrived at venue (first time been used in 8 years) and were immediately in awe. Quite unlike any other event I've been to - and if it is run again maybe enough to tempt you Northerners to come down...? Just check out the comments on britishrally.

As we had been through scroot the day before we arrived lateish and found it almost impossible to find somewhere to service. Eventually sorted.

Organisers decided at last minute to have a convoy run due to anticipated high speeds and nature of venue. GULP

Paul and I were already nervous and this seemed to justify it.

Temperature was still low so I put supersofts on with a view to swapping after first stage. Convoy was at 30mph and showed the venue to be big - on undulating, wide, top quality concrete. It was obvious the top speeds would be well over 100mph... Also some 'interesting' cambers in a few places - and very large lumps of concrete

Paul my nav and I were pretty nervous after the convoy - and weren't alone. I was feeling a bit ill (very unusually) and spent quite a lot of time in the portaloo

After the convoy the tyres were very warm so I opted to go for harder X12s all round. During swap noticed a leak from a bleed nipple so tweeked it up.

We were soon at the start of the first stage...and nerves not helped by downhill start, impressive looking Sccoby behind, 30 sec starts and long stages

I took things cautiously - just as well as the nerves had got to Paul - as had the fact the map had little resemblance to the stage in various places

I had big problems with lack of grip - 3rd gear wheelspin, understeer and oversteer...

Biggest problem was at the end of the stage - front offside brake was on fire Loads of smoke and when I looked at caliper it was in flames Paul grabbed an extinguisher - whilst I would have grabbed a camera for your benefit - but as an MOD base they weren't allowed Flames died down without extinguisher - but I'll add one to my shopping list.

Pretty worried that threads in caliper may be crossed - or worse a cracked caliper. Carefully tightened again - and hoped it would be ok...

On the second stage the tyres had warmed nicely, the dust on the concrete was clearing and grip was returning Paul was getting more confident and so was I...and the Scoob was never even a speck in the mirror - let alone giving me the pasting I'd been expecting

Very pleased to find us 28th OA

Next stage we were unlucky - car in front crashed and we were probably worst affected crew as held up on both our laps (stage closed before Scooby could start) We probably lost 20 secs

Down to 31st OA

Stage 4 - Paul's confidence and navving were improving with every stage and I was getting faster too...

to be continued... Goodnight!