Woodpecker Stages 2006

Ludlow, Saturday 2nd September 2006

Report by Simon Clarke

Well we decided to bite the bullet and go into the forest with the Astra, we looked for a rally quite close by so we didn’t have far to come home if we crashed on the first stage! After a lot of preparation on the car we had to then prepare ourselves for a culture shock!

Me being me set the car up like a normal single venue rally or doing chauffs at Vision, worn tyres on the back, good tyres on the front so I could slide around as usual, (but back to that in a bit!)

So off to Ludlow Racecourse on the Friday for noise & Scrutineering, thanks to some friends (!) from Prodrive I had a nightmare getting through noise until the marshal laughed and said it was fine he knew the guys from Prodrive and was just winding me up! With no other problems we were ready to go the next morning.

We all woke at 6.30 and went to set up service thinking we would start about 9.30!!! How wrong we were, we had hours to wait making us both extremely nervous. We lined up at 11.15, found the first road section (all new to us) to find our first stage. Sat at the start our backsides were eating the seats for breakfast! Then it was us, 5,4,3,2,1, GO

It was raining hard and instead of cones to mark the course someone saw fit to plant chuffin’ great trees to define the tracks!(GULP). I pulled away fast thinking Loeb had nothing on me, then we got to 3^rd gear and my right foot just didn’t want to push the gas pedal any harder and my great idea of bald rear tyres made the car feel like I was driving the front wheels and Stevie Wonder was driving the back end!

We kept it on the road with no scary moments so I know I wasn’t really trying hard enough! At the end of the first stage I said to Gonz, “You ok?” he mumbled “I feel quite ill actually!” Stage 2&3 were much the same, gaining more confidence on each of them and still no ‘moments’, Back to service 3 before stages 4 & 5, time to put some proper tyres on the rear.

We sat at the start of stage 4, a 12.9 mile stage, for nearly 2 hrs, only to find out somebody had gone off and they’d cancelled the stage, we were gutted, I’m sure we would have won the rally if we completed that stage!(Honest!)

Stage 5, Haye Park, a lot more relaxed now, or at least I was, Gonz still didn’t look great. 5,4,3,2,1, Go!

The car now felt like Stevie Wonder had got out and given us the rear end back, Jesus I should had done this on Stage One, we were the quickest we had been all day-confident in every move, then from my ear piece I heard “I’m gonna chuck!” Gonz looked almost dead at this point, fair play to him he loosened his belts, opened the window to get fresh air but didn’t miss a note, well done mate just need to sort a strong sickness cure for next time!

The only moment we had was when Gonz said “hairpin right through posts” I thought the post would be after the corner, so I slid the car in only to be greeted by a big gate post, nearly hit it.

Great day, even our chase crew managed to drive the Range Rover into a hedge, lucky they didn’t roll it (thanks Martin!) Next date in the forest will be The Bulldog Oct 21^st.

Cheers
6^th-sense