Rockingham Stages 2005

Rockingham Motor Speedway, Corby - 10th/11th December 2005

ROCKINGHAM – AN ANGRY RALLY by James Greenwood

Rockingham is a bit like Longcross for us – promises much but delivers little. We never seem to get into the swing of things with it, and this year wasn’t any different!

Having to replace the gearbox twice before we even started the event wasn’t the greatest start – and neither was ripping the exhaust off over the finishing line of a cancelled stage 1. This ripped the manifold flange off leaving nothing to clamp the system back on to. Heating, bending and fabricating a mount under the car caused it to catch fire three times but after an hour of total hassle we made it out for stage 2.

Off the start line and only 3 gears out of 5, our exhaust mods were fowling the gear linkage, which had also been bent. More frustration for the full 8 miles of the stage, only to finish and find that our newly powder coated wheels had vibrated loose and were about to part company! Out with the sandpaper then…

Stages 3 and 4 saw us fair better with improved times, nearly all 5 gears and we actually passed some fellow competitors – but we only managed to take half of the grandstand chicane, stopped to let the following car through – only to be penalised 15 seconds – DOH!

Dan and Ed fitted our racing box back in on Saturday night. We were sure Sunday would go better but Stage 5 showed a total lack of clutch and a rough feeling box. More fettling in service revealed a poorly adjusted clutch and loose gear linkage being the culprit.

Back out for 6, and lying 14th overall we were desperate for a good stage. Andy delivered, the car delivered and after an excellent dice with an Escort, we both came in smiling – hurrah!!!

Stage 7 saw 2 cars off at the flying finish due to oil from a Cosworth’s broken gearbox in and after the tunnel. This shortened the stage slightly but was OK. Again another quick one, despite the track feeling greasy in places, saw us catch, nearly collect and pass a very enthusiastic welsh Darrian (that needed working wing mirrors). Still smiling and ready for more we looked under the bonnet, only to find a very worn cam belt, a shredded cam belt cover and a vernier pulley in three pieces (held together by the thickness of the anodising) – game over.

For the first time, circumstances had conspired to make me angry – grrrrr. But that is rallying, isn’t it. So another DNF and a sombre end to the year. Huge thanks to Cheryl and Sharon for cooking up a fantastic breakfast and fetching the gearbox on Saturday for us, to Sarah and Del for their support, and to Ed, Dan and Allan for some great servicing and pure hard work.

Happy New Year!