The Loco Stages 2006

Longmoor Camp - 30th December 2006

LOCOMOTION SHOCK: ANDY DREAMS OF MAD WELSHMAN AND LOOSES TRAIN OF THOUGHT! by James Greenwood

Expecting a frosty start, howling winds keeping the ever present ice resident with screaming ayabusas on our tail, this rally would be as close as ever….11 degrees, blue sky and sunshine, clear (but slightly damp surfaces), no bike engined 205s - this would be different!

A quick scan of the entry list showed a plethora of screaming Escorts, indeed we were to be the filling in a Holland sandwich - Mick on pole, myself and Andy holding 2 and Dave (Micks dad and main sponsor) occupying 3rd position. 250 plus bhp Escorts filled 4 and 5, closely shadowed by some hot 205s. One Darrian (packing £8k of Integrale power) brought up the top 10 seeds - with the very sexy Nissan 240rs down in 16th. Barry reckoned that this place would allow him to sneak up on the leaders without anyone noticing!

Dan and Ade wore 50 having 60 cars in total, including Simon Mauger as a late reserve.

Scrtineering and noise came and went as Ed and the crew took the cars through so we could show Dan and Aid the course via leisurely pedal power. Initially it looked fairly grippy and a lot of the surfaces seemed to have been swept. The course was a 3 lapper of just over 4 miles with predominantly sharp 90s and several hairpins and only one major chicane during the afternoon runs - our longest straight a mere 350m - but we could still slot into 5th! Times would be tight and any mistake would see anyone plummet down the leader board.

Stage 1 and the clean tarmac metamorphosed into slippery slime with volumous puddles on every cut. As usual, the first right over crest into the woods saw the back end sliding away and showering mud on any unsuspecting photographers. A 6 minutes 30, and no traffic saw us post 2nd equal overall with the Nissan, 6 seconds off Mick. SS2, a rerun of 1 saw us find our only traffic for the whole event - one corner later we were waved by and maintained our position. Robertson’s big bad Nissan took ballet lessons and dropped away by 30 seconds.

The Pug behaved generally well but the gears were refusing to slot into place, especially first and second. We wanted to take all corners in 2nd, saving 1st for the tighter hairpins - but 2nd proved too tall and 1st caused us to bog down whilst lighting up the fronts.

SS 3 and 4 kept the same direction but brought in the half chicane and water splash - which proved deeper than we had imagined. Dave had managed to sneak ahead of us on 3, but we pulled out a scorcher on 4 matching Mick’s time and taking 2 seconds from Dave. Unfortunately a big accident involving tree hugging and some paramedic attention caused SS4 to be cancelled.

How were Dan and Ade doing at the halfway stage? A stonking 15th overall and 3rd in class - progressing nicely then.

Stages 5 to 8 were reversed, and minute intervals allowed us uninterrupted driving. All breaking points were now covered in mud and leaves dragged out by the earlier stages. The gear linkage was really playing up, skies were looking darker but an ok stage time, albeit even slippier kept us in position - Dave unfortunately picked up a slow puncture early on , costing him 25 seconds and placing us back into 2nd. My notes for SS6 stated "V.V. Wet", but the stage obviously didn’t hook up for us as we gave away 13 seconds to Mick and 25 to Dave. Back to 3rd then.

Simon Mauger flew around to post fastest stage time - making up for his extra lap on SS2!

At this point, mizzle gave way to a monsoon and tornado rolled into one. With Ed furiously cutting extra treds, and Alan tightening up that gear linkage, the Team Corner pits were busy. Stages 7 and 8 saw Andy on mission speed - early breaking on the main chicane gave way to fishtailing acceleration.

."If anyone gets in the way we are going through them…"

This was vintage Andy, just as I felt we had done our perfect lap, the breaths came quicker, I was side on to everything and we were pushing the edge of spin. On the ragged edge as ever, it felt good - and fast. We posted fastest times for both 7 and 8 - and vaulted back to a solid 2nd overall.

Dan and Ade kept consistent whilst their opposition crashed, retired, and even ran each other off the road, to gain their first class win together and a brilliant 10th overall - they were within a second of us on SS6!

Thanks must go to our service crew of Ed, Tim, Stuart, Alan and Nath, who kept both cars running superbly; to Cheryl for some great video footage (steady), which rapidly travelled the cyber airways - and to the dedicated marshals who had atrocious weather to contend with.