Three Of The Best

By James Greenwood, Photographs by Simon Clarke (www.sc-photography.co.uk)

My recent rally reports have been few and far between, as time seems to be beating me – so here is a quick resume of our last three escapades with the Peugeot

We will go back to December, and the inaugural first Rockingham stages at the racing oval. This was a strange venue as I found myself unusually nervous. The venue was vast and rather barren, with not a tree in sight or a hint of gravel or undulations – the whole circuit being visible from the sprawling grandstands that encircled our stages.

80 cars made the start of which 22 were in our class – we were seeded 20th.

With a very tight twisty (but fast) stage ahead we floored it from the first with the odd grass excursion (to avoid spinning Escorts) we climbed to 16th overall.

Five seconds from the start of SS 2, every warning light decided to come on.

By the third corner half of them had gone out – as we nearly did on the 4th as Andy was looking at them intently rather than at the road! SS 3 and 4 were blasts with some real racing style drifts as we decided to use every inch of the circuit drifting the back end and skipping over kerbs. I am sure I felt the car dance over the left/right/left from pit wall to banked oval hairpin and no lift off – MAGIC. More stricken cars were passed – Guy Wigley had unfortunately embedded his Peugeot Maxi in the grass only for a stray Astra wheel to rearrange his grill.

We nearly didn’t make SS5 as a little fiddling had knocked off the ignition live circuit connector so the car was dead – with 2 minutes to go. I think Ed was keeping us on our toes with this one!! Andy scorched the stage with another flyer and taking another 2 Peugeots.

Up front, there was a very close battle between 2 beautiful WRC cars, Hyundai vs. 6R4, with a brace of Imprezza’s and Cosworths laying down rubber whenever they could. I also spied in the field a couple of Stratos replicas and an immaculately prepared Clio V6.

SS7 found us 13th overall and 4th in class, behind some flying Escorts and daylight slowly disappearing – a quick time took us to 3rd in class and 11th overall, but only by 4 seconds.

SS8 was pitch-black, so with Blackpool illuminations strapped to the bonnet we set off for the final time. Our light pod was so concentrated, forward vision was great, but trying to gauge where we were was impossible as racetracks are so wide. Andy was convinced that the back chicanes were new – no, the same ones but we just couldn’t see them. The blind crest on the back of the circuit with a 45 right was brilliant in total darkness!

No mistakes, we ended SS8 as we started – and a little “man of steel” as our reward for 3rd in class.

Fast forward past Christmas, the turkey, cured hams, fantastic presents, alcohol and plentiful chocs and dive down to Sussex for the Loco stages, December 28th. Rockingham was cold, Loco bloody cold. A stage inspection showed patchy ice and

plenty of it – straights and corners, with greasy wooded parts linking it all together – only the brave would survive. Using the softest tyres we had we went for it, Andy feeling for ice and gunning it as much as we dared – we had 2 spins, fell off corner 12 (which we do every year) and kissed a set of pallets as the ice refused to let us turn, and made it to the finish. The gentleman at time control reckoned our time was excellent but we weren’t convinced, as we were only seeded 16th. SS2 was cancelled due to a Nova having a major off (very destroyed but driver and navigator OK).

We drove back to service to find we had posted fastest time on SS1 and were leading by 5 seconds – WOW!!! (60 cars overall and 29 in our class)

SS3 and 4 saw no major dramas, 5 cars overtaken, a great battle to pass an historic Sunbeam in full works livery – except that we lost the clutch on lap 3 and drove it stuck in either 2nd or 4th – thus dropping 10 seconds but still keeping 1st overall.

With the clutch cable bracket welded up we had 5 back in the box, had all the stages reversed and a 24 second lead over the terrific 205 Ayabusa (mid-engined). Peugeots were now in the top 3 spots. SS 5 and 6 saw us all swapping seconds with each other whilst maintaining our positions. The only scare we did have was the tightening of the chicane prior to the infamous “bump” – we weren’t told, hit it flat in 4th and took out half of it…. it shouldn’t have happened.

SS7 and 8 loomed, our lead was cut to 19 seconds and our minds wandered (slightly). Time to refocus. We had the stages to complete, our lead to preserve and no mistakes to make. We needed 100% concentration and to keep charging. Rob and Liz very kindly let us pass twice on the merge, as did all the competitors – they all knew we were on a mission. It was very strange being the centre of attention. SS8, 16 seconds in hand and Andy needed calming. “We will keep it smooth and just think about the stage – 4.2 miles, and I’ve got some whale music if you want it!”

That last stage came and went, no catches or passes and no mistakes. “Andy, we may be kings of the world!!!” Smiles and handshakes and ½ hour wait for the results – I reckoned we had done it by 10 seconds. Pete greeted us with a big smile to say we had done it by 9 seconds – we were indeed ‘Kings of the World’.

Two trophies, big smiles and an article in Motor Sport News – one hell of a Christmas bonus – our first FIRST OVERALL!

In to 2005, first round of Oakington and everyone had great expectations, but not us. With a small entry list (35 overall and 11in our class) including a 6R4 clone, Group A Evo, 2 Escort Cosworth and V8 special, this would be no walk in the park.

With a seeding of 4 we were right at the front. The circuit was very flowing and very very fast – not perfect for the Peugeot. SS1 had to be good for us to stand a chance. We were on the max from the start – tyre choice was spot on with no hold ups on the merge. It was slippier than expected but we posted 3rd fastest for the stage. SS2 should have been equally fast but trying to pass a Lotus Cortina on his out lap put us off our

braking line into the loose for the first chicane and with no grip and him following we took out a large oil drum amid a shower of glass. Seven seconds slower the penalty.

SS3 and 4 caused some concern as we were deemed too loud, but managed two readings under 98db allowing us to keep going – Andy had just fitted £200 of repackable silencer the day before! We had moved to 4th overall and 1st in class (by a couple of seconds).

After lunch, stages were reversed and more new tyres needed – we had destroyed 2 sets of part worn fronts and 1 set of rears. The new (old) rear tyres were cold and crusty so for the first 2 corners the back end had a mind of its own but settled down, passed 2 Peugeots, one of the Cossies going slowly and found the new back chicane very loose and slippery – right in the middle!

SS6 saw another noise test, and another pass, but off the line Andy was only just belted up but with just one glove on. Through the tight and twisty he proceeded to try and put the other one on –I told him to wait till the straight! So steering with his knees and looking around Andy coolly put on his glove.

“That will look good in the in car video”,

“Very cool”, I replied.

The following chicane nearly wasn’t – very uncool!!!

Unfortunately Steve Tillbrook (Escort Mi 16) and harrying us in 5th overall / 2nd in class, stopped with fuelling problems and the Blood Red Evo had snapped a front drive shaft. So for stages 7 and 8 we were the first car running and now 2nd overall. We disturbed the time keepers tea break with “I think we are on”, did two excellent stages, wrote off another set of fronts – and were awarded a 10 second penalty for our earlier chicane fracas. Another fine finish, maintaining 2nd overall and 1st in class .A great start to our 2005 championship campaign.

Huge thank yous to our ever excellent service team of Ed, Daniel, Darren, Jules and, Nathan; to our ever supporting wives Sharon and Cheryl, to Hannah, Sarah and Stacey for their mad cap humour, to Pete for his ever present statistical analysis and to all the organisers and marshals for allowing us to enjoy ourselves so much.Sunday, 24 February, 2008