Rockingham Stages 2005

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

AC/DC : ROCKINGHAM WE SALUTE YOU by James Greenwood

Its been a while since I’ve sat inside a rally car, and Rockingham would be different as instead of Andy in the driving seat I was next to the DANmeister. Yes, this was to be Dan’s first rally!

Any worries - my first was finding my license as I thought that I had stupidly put it in that ever so safe place that can never be found - 2 hours later Sharon found it safe and well in my rally bag.

After a frantic week at the Team Corner garage, Andy had his car complete and Dan’s (actually Andy’s recent purchase) car was stopping in a vaguely straight line without swapping ends - brake problems.

Rockingham was typically cold (but dry), with both cars sailing through Scrutineering and noise, we settled in at service - 2 white and blue cars under matching eazi-ups, whilst sharing service crews - Ed, Tim and Nath would have their work cut out!!!

Dan proved confident from the off, attacking corners and chicanes with gusto - it was obvious that in true Andy style there would be very little left of my wing mirror! Our car is a 1600 and its lack of power compared to the 2 litre was obvious - requiring Dan to keep its momentum through the corners. This wasn’t to be a point and squirt rally.

Stages 1 and 2 proved uneventful, but we were loosing too much time wallowing in the corners with the handbrake - slow in and fast out would definitely help - as would raising the ride height as the lowered look was eating into the new Dunlop’s and filling our nostrils - nice.

Stage 3 saw us pass one car without incident, but SS4 was our first encounter with the devilish red mist - 2 great passes followed by a near spin and some poor gear changes - obviously cold tyres! We ended day one 61st overall and 3rd in class (after a start number of 85) - not bad at all.

Sunday dawned dry and bright - with rain on its way, but when?

Stage 5 saw us straight back on the pace with Dan’s corner prowess growing with every mile - we had a fantastic dice with an immaculate Escort Mk 1, sticking to his tail like glue before an awesome slingshot through a long left before the grandstand chicanes.

SS6 saw us 3 abreast coming into a hairpin left, with a red nova appearing from nowhere, chopping across our nose and blocking our attempts to overtake - fortunately several officials had observed his driving - but we lost 20 seconds in the process.

Positions? We had climbed to 46th overall and held 3rd in class; whilst Andy and Aide were a very respectable 16th overall and also 3rd in class.

SS7 saw us right on it again pulling out a 7 minute stage time, scraping every chicane and even rearranging one corner marker (sorry Duncan!), but 8 was very different. Five minutes into the stage the water temp rocketed and the throttle jammed wide open. Coasting through hairpins and chicanes and cutting the engine to change gear was a nightmare, and amid the odd blasphemy we muddled through. Last corner and all our warning lights were working overtime, steam was pouring out of the car - across the finish and the throttle started working - another 35 seconds lost!

Service showed that the throttle linkage had worn away the front hose, embedding itself in the resultant split! Andy had unfortunately stopped earlier on stage with a faulty fuel pump earth and picked up a stage max…

SS9 and 10 were 3 lapper stages in the dark - and at the end of 9 we blew the rear heater hose…indicating ominous head gasket problems. The rain also decided to arrive in force and everyone’s driving seemed to go to pot - we pulled the best part of 2 minutes out of 2nd in class and eventually finished a mere 10 seconds behind the Escort Mexico.

Thanks to our service team (who coped admirably with double the workload), Sharon, Cheryl, Hannah and Sarah for their support and some great cooking.

Final positions: Dan and James, 35th overall (out of 99) and 3rd in class (out of 15). Andy and Aide, 43rd overall and 14th in class (out of 31).

The less observant of you may have noticed that on Dan’s first rally he beat his dad - Dan noticed this and it took several goes for him to get his head through the doorway when we arrived home! Not really, but he was chuffed.

Our next outing is Loco on Saturday when I will be sitting with Andy and Aide will be partnering Dan…Happy New Year