ONETWOOFIVESIXRFOUR

Wilbarston Stages 2005, Sunday 29th May 2005

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

Fresh from our Hixon victory, but wanting to lay drive shaft demons to bed, we were mildly confident for a good result at Wilbarston. The course is a real point and squirt circuit with not much in the way of taxing corners, but plenty of straight-line speed is required – which we don’t have in abundance.

A quick look at the entry list showed strong cars making up the top ten (3 Cosworths, 2 6R4s, modded Focus’s and a brace of Evos). We were sandwiched (at 8) between Ade’s 6R4 and Ian Savages Evo 6 - 70 cars in total and 18 in our class

The course was dry and reasonably smooth, but some of the corners were very broken up, and two of the straights showed rough gravel areas at the half waypoint. The forecast was DRY meaning quick times and slick tyres.

Being always vigilant and prepared, we had failed to check the intercom and found a flat battery when queuing at the start. Sign language never really works so a quick phone call lead to my spare battery (which should have been in the car) flying through the air in our direction and using the ignition key as a screwdriver, being hastily inserted!

Stages one and two were short 6.5 mile sprints with long straights, tight 90 rights and lefts, wide hairpins and a short complex in the middle – as per last year, following cars dust into this lead to no vision coming out of it into a 90 right then left, but we knew what to expect this time. SS1 saw us 3rd fastest, SS2 came in 7 seconds quicker, but we dropped 2 places to 5th overall and 2nd in class. A bright yellow Escort managed to pirouette in front of us, which we overtook, but he was on us within 3 corners and simply drove away, with amazing power, on the long back straight - 2.5 litres of pure Cosworth power!

Stages 3 and 4 were fractionally shorter (6.2 miles) and included Wilbarstons legendary triple splits and double merges – just to confuse driver and co-driver alike. A series of double ticks on my stage maps kept us on course, and we merged and held with car 14, a 2.0L Ford Fiesta from Scotland – that was leading the class and us by 2 seconds, with Julian Jones Escort 5 seconds behind. This was going to be very tight as we were all matching each other’s times.

Stage 4 service showed a lot of tyre rub on our rears – but if we spaced them any more there would be little thread holding the nuts on – with confidence in our sidewalls we left them well alone. Andy also did his best to sabotage my stage map with most of his tea!

Stages 5 and 6 saw us back to double splits, and Erik and Ade leading the event. We still held 5th, as despite retirements Julian had now got ahead of us – by 4 seconds. The red Evo kept just ahead of us on both merges but we were unable to pass him – his traction on the loose was superb – although he seemed to be kicking up more blinding dust on every corner he came across.

Lunchtime and an hour for service heralded sausages, mashed potatoes (the food of champions) and stage reversal. The sun had strengthened and the slight breezes had all but vanished – so we discuss installing a roof vent, again. Car 14 had retired with a dead engine, car 1 was running trophy and we had mysteriously dropped to 26th! Time comparisons showed that our time card for SS4 had the wrong start time by 30 seconds – gentle negotiations ensued and after a brusque encounter with the clerk of the course all was well and we were running 4th. Erik and Ade now held second.

Stage 7, 4.3 miles, saw changes at the top with the leading Cosworth spinning and demolishing a chicane, dropping him to 5th, Ade now lead again and we were 3rd – seconds behind Julian’s Escort. Once again we merged with the Evo, lying 6th overall, and were completely blinded within 50 yards, hoping the Evo hadn’t stopped once the dust had settled as we were accelerating through 80mph at the time. Fortunately he was still going!!!

The last two stages were the shortest with only one split and we needed to find 6 seconds to take second – Erik and Ade had 1 minute 17 over us in 1st overall. Stage 9 was quick, Andy crossing the car up downhill prior to the bus stop – just trying to get me worried. Julian responded by pulling a further 3 seconds out of us. We were 9 seconds off second with one stage left.

Last stage, do or die and we did it. Andy pulled out a scorcher and executed and exceptionally quick line, we had pulled in 10 seconds. We finished and waited. Julian had also gone for broke but over cooked it on one of the hairpins – and trailed us overall by only 3 seconds. How tight was that.

Huge congratulations to our fellow Streetly club mates Erik and Ade for their first overall win and that first MSN article – you know you want to frame it. Many thanks to our service crew of Ed, Dan and Phil for keeping the car tip top. And also well done to Simon and his new co driver Ian Cozier who came in 19th overall and 6th in class. I asked Simon for a comment on his day, in his own cheeky chappy way replied “Sh*t hot rally, mate”.

James Greenwood