 |
Howford Hydraulics Ingliston 11-04-09 - Event Reports
9th overall, no details
11th overall, no details
An eventful day at ingliston. I can''t thank my service crew (and most of my neighbours service crew) for the effort put in to my car today, had loads of brake problems with calipers seizing on and the the pedal going to the floor intermittantly so changed the master cylinder (cheers to Tommy Morris) then next stage the alternator bracket snapped so was whipped off and welded not an easy job, just when i thought the car was sorted bang, the diff went. so limped in to service and out with the diff replaced it with std one and new shaft only to find the last stage stopped and we went otl.
Great day for class battles, 5 of the top 20 were in class 3 and we were hanging on to 20th just about. Frustating day!
Neil.
Finished 21st, no details
Retired after a fire on Stage 4.
Snatch and run. Gutted. I could leave it at that, but I feel I should explain myself.
SS1 and we've made it to the line despite me forgetting Greg's helmet (Big thanks to Alan for driving home to get it!) and having to bleed the brakes with no spare brake fluid (it was in the back of Alan's car, doh!). Mild panic over we set out with the aim of setting a quick time and seeing where that would place us in class, 6.58 and 25th overall. Hello!!! Tracey-Louise Muir's reaction summed up the general feeling: "No way!!"
I certainly didn't think we went that quick and thought we could go even quicker on SS2, there in lies the problem, me! Over excited I out braked myself going into the scrutineering complex and found myself slightly off line on the gravel and muck, you can guess the next bit… Round we went! "it's quite interesting going backwards at 60mph" remarked Greg. Clipping a bale on the way round and the cars reluctance to start raised the heartbeat and the stage time to 7.12. This left us 2 seconds behind Class 1 leaders with 6 stages to go.
SS3 saw a return to normality with us catching Tracy-Louise (don't think I'll be able to write that again) and a mk2 escort but both pulled over as soon as they could (thank you!!) so minimal time was lost. It was nearly all over at the finish line jump with a bit of a sideways flying moment (see the video on www.cmr-rallying.com) but we made it to the stage end unscathed 6.59.
SS4 was completed in similar fashion but this time the cars we caught spun out in front of us, two of them!! Some time lost behind them but we crossed the line with a 43 second class lead and a stage time of 6.56.
During the lunch break Greg and I were filled with BLTs and advice from the crew and BMM Motorsport to take it easy in the next 4 stages.
Enjoying this new feeling of being in front we set off round SS5 putting in a clean run and a respectable time.
SS6 is where our dreams went up in smoke (literally).
On stage looking for a clean run, the driveshaft shattered. Spat out all our gear box oil onto the sump and the grippy Ingliston tarmac. Like so many others we had broken a drive shaft and had to face the fact that we were out of the running. Our crew and friends were gutted, but not a patch on Greg and I, kicking the car was only thing I could think to do at that moment in time.
A super fast drive shaft change by the service crew (Gordy and Alan- Superstars.) got us back out at the end of the field for stage 7 and 8 for a little play. Crossing the line on stage 8 with a puncture, then stalling the car and it not starting, merely summed up our day.
A big thank you to the service crew once again and congratulations to David Cranston who couldn't make it out on the day due to having a little baby boy!
Check out our website to see in car footage from the day - www.cmr-rallying.com
See you at the Clark (hopefully)
Lacky
Finished 31st, 5th in class 2 after a Friday night "Help I need a navi for tomorrow morning" panic.
Worldwide Rally News
