Longmoor Stages 2003

5th January 2003

Report by Peter Wood.

Ask anyone locally and they will explain that Longmoor was formerly a Training Camp in the true sense of the word - as the Home of Corps of Transport Military Railway. Tracing its roots back as far as 1903, Longmoor Camp provided a Military Railway Trade Training School to the Royal Engineers until 1969. With tracks running from Liss in the South to Bordon in the North the track was branched off the L & SW Railway network.

Nowadays, Longmoor Camp is used by the broad spectrum of the Armed Services for training scenarios of all kind ranging from Fighting in Built Up Areas (FIBA) to Special Riot Control by the Police Authorities.

This season opener offered 32 competitive miles in tight and twisty conditions through the buildings and outlying tracks. Entry was limited to 2wd and 60 cars, but attracted only 41 starters on an icy, foggy, morning.

Unusually, crews were allowed to walk the stages to appreciate the tight nature of the venue – this wasn’t as difficult as it sounds, as each stage was 2 ¼ laps of the venue.

The organisers had sensibly decided to go for 1 minute starts to spread the field.

Thame had three entries for this one:

	Andy Corner and James Greenwood seeded at 8 in the 205 1.6.
	Simon Clark and Henry Whitfield seeded at 22 in the Alfasud 1.5.
	New member Justin Middleton (Dingo) and Pete Gillam in a BMW 323 (Fitted with M3 4 cylinder engine with 230+ bhp) at 27.

Andy started well and was running 7th overall until stage 4, when the drive shaft went again (getting to be a regular problem), and things got worse on SS5 when they missed the split (along with 12 other crews), and two stage maximums dropped them down the field. The good news here was that with short, tight, stages the penalty for a Maximum was about 2 minutes a time (unlike Abingdon, where a maximum on 11 miles+ is more like 11 minutes). Andy battled back to finish 5th in class and 14th Overall.

Simon and Henry also had a good day, in that at least the front discs kept in one piece. They also suffered a maximum at the split on SS5, but battled on gamely to finish 7th in class and 19th Overall. They caught and passed a Lotus Cortina onSS8. Simon said that it was the best venue he had been to and would be back.

Justin is no novice to rallying, having competed down under with great success, and Pete Gillam started rallying even before me! (Peter Wood). They both work for Vision / Drive & Survive but the car was new to both of them in action, and a small collection of tyres made for some interesting choices! The car ran faultlessly all day, and they finished a creditable 7th overall, 3rd in class.

All reported that it is an interesting venue, with an unmarked yump on a tight corner to get your attention (Andy said it was fine if taken flat, but he would!).

Only 27 of the 41 starters made it to the finish, so cars were back on the trailers by 16:00 to face the freezing fog on the way home.