The Curse of 'Kings Lynn Car Boom’

Spring Stages 2005, Sculthorpe, Sunday 10th April 2005

Report by James Greenwood, Photograph by Simon Clarke (www.sc-photography.co.uk)

This wasn’t one of our greatest rallies so I have been very lax in writing a report, but with Erik nudging me for some copy here it is.

Last years visit to Kings Lynn was a complete disaster in that the car only managed 3 full stages out of 8 – problems with noise, drive shafts, ignition and ecu’s, and a puncture as well if I remember rightly. So we were hoping to put our jinx to bed with a solid result.

Again we had the pleasures of ‘van sleeping’ – meaning we awoke on Sunday more fatigued than when we went to bed that previous evening! Oh, the glamour of motor sport. …Noise and scrutineering posed no problems; we even managed 92db, our lowest ever. The road book proved interesting, with stages between 8 and 16 miles long – translating to 20 minute run times. Not the usual 5-minute sprints! Indeed SS1 had 98 corners and was the shortest stage!

Our seeding of 5, sandwiched between 2 fearsome 6R4’s, I felt was optimistic, but more importantly meant we were very early on the road, a lot of which was greasy mossy concrete which hadn’t been rallied on for over10 years. Coupled with some dampness in the air, it meant we would be sweeping the way clear for the later cars, especially if it dried off. The increasing wind and clear skies indicating it would.

Despite the long stages, no straight was longer than 650m and the corners were very sharp and tight. SS1 was very slippery and with all the changes of direction and associated gear changes, Andy was working the car frantically whilst I had to get my directions out doubly quick. The 6R4 behind caught us near the ¾ mark, spun out on the next corner nearly taking out our front valance causing a minor hic-cup, but we retook our position and carried on to finish the stage cleanly. Our super softs on the front were struggling but we made it through setting 4th fastest time. Andy looked drained – I hadn’t seen him work so hard for some time. Initial thoughts of the new venue were good with a fantastically challenging complex at the back of the stage and some lovely flowing bus stops at the southern edge.

More of the same beckoned with SS2 but disaster struck – bang went a drive shaft giving us a stage max and catapulting us to last position. Not much more I can say really.We decided to carry on however and enjoy the day as pots and prizes were well beyond our reach.

SS3 saw us now starting at the back of the field and we immediately overtook 2 cars making up 1 minute straight away, passed several broken Escorts but still seemed to be slithering a lot - 8th fastest on stage. Pulling into service we saw why; for the first time ever we had worn out our rears! As we weren’t going for position, we decided to not run our new tyres but stick on some old ones. For a laugh, Andy elected to run a set of road tyres on the front and some Colways on the rear. The car managed the first 8 corners fine and then started to under steer horrendously – for Andy the fronts were feeling like jelly. We carried on as best we could, laughing to ourselves and watching a couple infront have their own private battle through the twisty complex – as if we tried to pass we would just fall off somewhere! We only actually lost 10 seconds but this put us about 16th on this stage.

SS5 and 6 were the longest, and last stages, at 16 miles apiece. Colways all round at various stages of wear were fitted – we were now running 14” wheels as well as we had no serviceable 15” ones left. A slight drama to begin with as these wheels didn’t fit over the new brakes. Out came the angle grinder and the car was now shod with specially lightened 14” wheels!!! It went well with Andy compensating for our less than perfect tyre set up. The course was rapidly drying and with a change in direction the stage flowed superbly. We had a grandstand view of Corsa vs Peugeot vs Escort all playing last of the late breakers – and still managed to pass 3 others. 18 minutes 3 seconds gave us 4th fastest for SS5 and we had held back for the above 3- way battle. Things were looking up.

Stage 6, we had made it and had nothing to loose so we went for it. Bullet notes were answered with precision cornering, slick gear changes and Andy’s usual flowing and flamboyant driving. It proved to be our most enjoyable stage of the day, and at 17 minutes 36 seconds, 5th fastest….and 14th overall (out of 46) and 8th in class (out of 17).

If we had matched our Stage 1 time on stage 2 we would have finished 4th overall and 2nd in class – how much better we would have been with our correct tyres is anyone’s guess, but ifs and buts don’t really count, do they? The day was great and the venue very different to our usual rallies – a shame that the entry was so small though.

We came away with smiles all round – and huge thanks to Dan and Nathan for servicing (sorry we couldn’t get a pot), and Cheryl, Stacey, Hannah and Sarah for their support.

We are unfortunately only on the reserve list for Hixon, but will be out at the end of May for Wilbarston.

James Greenwood