Red Dragon Rally - May 2006

We got to Swansea in plenty of time for scrutineering, the only problem was the weather lashing down with rain, which was going to make the next day intresting.

We met up with Iain one of the service crew and off we went no problems with the car so we had two new tyres fitted and off to get signed on.

We managed to get to the hotel with plenty of time and managed to get to the pub by 10pm. With a few pints gone missing the three of us ended up in a curry house till 1.30 in the morning,

The next morning the head ache was massive no alone the bad stomach but once I had a shower and a hand full of pill I started to feel a lot better.

Our start time was 10.29 so we had plenty of time to get the car ready, final spanner check, fit the tyres and a general once over.

So off we went getting to stage one there was a small delay but nothing to worry about we were told the stage was very slippery. 54321 and off we go within the first mile the intercom went wrong giving a high pitch noise so I resorted to shouting and they were right “no grip anywhere”.

The car was struggling to pull up hills and generally seemed to be underpowered which was strange as it was not long ago rolling roaded, finally we got to the end without putting it in a ditch and there were some near misses.

Stage 2 was cancelled due to an accident Mr Radford had a big off rolling it and hitting a tree and blocking the stage, I think he’s started to get used to it now.

Back in service the crew set to work on the car managing to borrow a another intercom unit and trying to sort the engine problem, Iain had worked out the since ther changed the fuel filter which was faulty it was now running to much fuel pressure so set to work on a temporary fit to lower the pressure.

Stage 3 was much better the car had some more power but still not right, we were still a bit off the pace but a least Darren could hear me now.

Stage 4 This was Walters arena which was the first stage I did last year and it was my first event in the co-pilot set, and what a complete mess I made of it, so understandably I was a bit on the nervous side, but in reality there was no need to be nervous we had a cracking stage with the notes bang on and we were back on the pace. Shame we still had engine problems.

After another service we headed of to Margon park which was a 9 miler and we were rearing to go, at one point in the stage you could see other cars on the stage and we were at least 15 seconds up on the car behind and we were really going for it until the car started be a Bit twitchy with about 2.5 miles to go Darren thought it was just slippy until we got out of stage a found we had a puncher, the first one we have ever had.

After a quick tyre change we set off on the final stage, after about 2.5 miles we came around a corner to meet Mr D Childs Peugeot 206 upside down after a big roll, with seeing the ok board we carried on to come across a mk2 secort pulling out in front of us and as Darren was on a bit of a mission trying a catch up some lost time there was no way the escort was going to get out in front. With about 1 mile to go there was a huge jump and Darren asked how fast, I replied lets just get home and get the points and Darren replied sod it and hit the throttle hitting the jump about 70MPH and sent the car flying through air about three feet up, with a good landing we flew through the finish.

With all the problems we finished 4th in class 1.30 behind the winner which was brilliant.

A big thanks to all the crew for all their help and to the lady in the ford Ka who lent us her spare intercom and finally to Paul Gunter’s crew for there food and support.