Leigh Rallying

Mini Epynt stages

2011-05-23T20:54:00.002+01:00

The Leighrallying crew are taking on the Epynt Ranges for there next challenge. This is taking place on the 5th june 2011.

The Car is ready, the crew are not so ready, but are really looking forward to it.

Agbo stages

2011-03-29T11:50:00.004+01:00

Leighrallying completed their first rally after major rebuild.

The day started with the crew getting used to each other, as it was the first rally that Rob and Lizzy had done together and it was Lizzy's second ever rally.

The car was perfect the driver was very rusty (spinning the car on the very first hairpin) but totally enjoying himself .

The first 4 stages saw the crew getting quicker and quicker and by stage 5 there were setting fasted stage times of all the minis (6 in all). The next five saw the crew pushing on to try and take the top mini position and at the end of the day they missed out on taking the top spot by only 1 second.

The crew came home 53rd o/a 9th in class and second mini. This was deemed to be a great result as there was some great competition out on the stages, and the car is in one piece with only one little scratch from a hay bail (see Photo).

Rob and Lizzy had a great day laughing there heads off half way round the stages.

Big thanks to Lizzy who did a great job on getting us round and to all the crew who kept an eye on the car all day.

Thanks for all the photos from Peter Owen from www.britishrallyphotos.co.uk

First rally after rebuild

2011-03-14T00:08:00.003Z

The team are to do the Agbo stages on the 20th march 2011, it will be the first outing for the car as well as the new crew, they have been seeded no 65.

The car is in the last stages of prep with just a few small checks and adjustments to be made.

The crew are looking forward to having a great day and hope all goes well.

Leighrallying has a new co-driver and her Name is Lizzy Brain and this is her second ever event taking 2nd in class on here first effort Well done.

Hope she not expecting the same next weekend

2011-01-11T19:39:00.002Z

The mini is road legal and pretty much finished, more photo's in the gallery, Breaking news I have found a co-driver her name is Lizzy Brain and she seems to really nice and keen our first event is on the 20th march on the Agbo stages near Telford Cant Wait!!!!!!!

Mini re-build update

2010-08-17T11:10:00.003+01:00

The re-build is coming along nicely all the brake are done all lines are in the car as well as the seats, plenty of silly little jobs that seem to take ages to be done, Dash is all fitted up and now been sent away to be flocked, engine ready to run once electrics are done.

New KAD quick shift is now fitted.

Mini is having a major rebuild

2010-07-24T02:32:00.002+01:00

The mini is having a major overhaul, it's been stripped to a bear shell and has had some major changes, colour being the main one. this has become a nut and bolt rebuild and has cost a bloody fortune. but I'm sure it will be worth it in the end

Photo's will go up soon, Hope to have it's first major outing to be the Malvern mini show on the 24th oct 2010.

Quinton Mixed emotions

2008-07-10T00:57:00.003+01:00

The Quinton rally saw the crew have a day of ups and downs. The day started of bad with the car not running properly with the engine seeming to have lost 30 bhp, and within 2 stages they were down by 25 seconds. The crew tried in vain to solve the problem to no avail, with a constant worry of doing some major damage the crew carried on, not pushing the engine to much.

Stage 5 saw th crew spirits lift when they came across their main championship rival parked up with only three wheels on the car, but at the end of the stage while on a road section the engine started to misfire and smoke badly. Fortunately they were on their way to service. Again the crew worked hard to solve the problem changing the plugs, coil and filters and the car seemed to be ok.

With only 2 stages to go they set off and the car was running well on stage 6 but they were being careful not revving the engine above 8000rpm. While sitting on the start line for the final stage the car started to misfire again, they managed to get the car to the end of the stage losing 40 seconds but managed to get 2nd in class and 30th overall.

The crew only need to have 1 more good result to take the BTRDA 1400cc Title.

It looks like there was a fault with the fuel injector that caused all the problems and not a head gasket failure as was stated in Motorsport News.

Dukeries

2008-07-10T00:40:00.003+01:00

Leighrallying took a major step towards the 1400cc title taking 2nd in class, but taking a championship win to leave the crew well in front of the chasing pack.

The day was not without drama with the crew loosing complete brakes on stage 4 due to the hub nut coming loose again. The crew managed to change the hub in service to restore the brakes.

The afternoon saw the crew ease off a little as the knew the leading crew of Julian and will were not registered for points.

The crew finished 33rd overall and second in class.

Event Announcement for the mini

2008-06-19T01:16:00.002+01:00

The Mini will be making an appearance on the Fat Albert stages at the end of July with Rob driving and Darren in the co-pilot seat

The car has gone through some major improvement, A new more powerful engine and straight cut gearbox and limited slip diff. Looking forward to the event looks like there may be some serious competition.

Punishing Win

2008-06-15T22:33:00.005+01:00

Leighrallying took top honors at the Somerset rally.

The Somerset rally saw the service crew work hard to keep the Proton on the road, the rally was one of the roughest events that they could remember.

The first two stages went without problems and they pulled a 2 second lead, but from then on the rally got tough, on the third stage the front hub nut came loose with 4 miles of stage to go. This left Darren with very little brakes, but still managed to set an equal time and still lead by two seconds.

The next two stages were run up Porlock Hill a 3.5 mile tarmac stage. After both runs they had pulled another 5 seconds clear of the chasing pack, the crew had managed to set a blistering time up the hill 19th quickest on both runs and on the second run set a new 1400 record of 3.51. See in-car film at bottom.
In the process of setting that time the car had broken a engine mount and a quick fix was carried out.
Stage 6 saw the crew lose 1 second in a very short stage, but the next stage saw the guys struggle with only 2 mile in, a brake pipe ripped off leaving the car with no brakes at all, and still 5 miles to run.
Thinking the worst, that they were losing time, they pushed as hard as they dare, only to find that they had only lost 2 seconds to the best time set and that their main competitor had not completed the stage.

The service crew worked wonders in auxiliary service managing to blank off the broken pipe, bleed the brake system, replace the front tires remove and replace the fuel pump and fill if with fuel in less than 20 minutes.

The next two stages were a bit of a struggle only having three brakes and a handbrake that didn't really work but they were still managed to set fastest in class.

At main service the car's brakes were repaired and another engine mount was replaced, it was starting to get really expensive this rally.

With 3 stages to go and a lead of 20 seconds the lads only needed to hold station and not take any risks, they only needed to get the car home and take the win.

With no dramas to report they made it back in one piece and had won the class by 18 seconds and were an amazing 24th overall.

They now leaded the 1400 championship out right.

North Humberside Rally 2008

2008-03-30T17:29:00.004+01:00

The North Humberside Rally set in the North Yorkshire moors, A rally that has defeated the leigh rallying team for the past three years, breaking driveshafts at every attempt.

Darren and Rob were determined to finish this year.
We were seeded 202 running behind Graham Middleton our main BTRDA contender. Running second on the road felt a little daunting, being used to following other people's tracks on stage, this would be the first time that we had to make our own lines.

Stage 1: A 9 mile run through Landale, The stages in this part of the world are fast and flowing with the car reaching well over 100 mph so is a bit of a test of nerve and skill as you try and hit your braking points as late as you dare and balance the car in the fast corners.
We set off at more of a controlled approach than normal with Darren not attacking the stage as much as he normally would, so we had a good clean run with no major dramas and setting a good time only losing 3 seconds to Middleton, while pulling 30 seconds clear of third.

Stage 2: A 3.2 mile run through Blakey. Again we seemed to be a little too cautious still trying to get used to the new car, things were going well until the exit of a hairpin right when the car was struggling to grip and the front of the car started to hop, in doing this it managed to break the engine mount and we lost another 3 seconds, but still was pulling away from the rest of the field.

Stage 3: Another 9 mile stage called Cropton. With the engine mount broken we pushed on as hard as we dare but to no avail, Middleton had done some damage to our attack and pulled 14 seconds further away. Coming in to service feeling a little despondent the service crew worked wonders fixing the engine mount with some rubber hose, it was a work of art.

The next three stages were re-runs of the morning stages.

Stage 4: With the mount fixed and some new tires Darren pushed hard really attacking the braking points and carrying much more speed through corners, we managed to cut 16 seconds off the morning time and pulling some time back off Middleton, but not enough to really make much of a chance of winning.

Stage 5: With the heavens starting to open the stages turned to ice, which made it hard to judge the levels of grip. The further we got into stage the worse the car was feeling and unfortunately we lost some more time.

Stage 6: With only 9 miles left the decision was made to get the car to the finish, with over 2 minutes to third place we only needed to drive sensibly and not take any risks as it was still belting down. Which turned out to be a good decision, with 2 miles to the end as we approached a chicane the car seemed to cut out and then restart but on the exit it died altogether slowing to a crawl and then fired back into life. A mile or so later we came into a square left and hairpin right and the car spun in the hairpin for no apparent reason. We got the car straight and managed to get it to the finish.

All we need to do now is drive the 30 mile back to the finishing ramp in Whitby but with 10 miles to go coming down a huge hill the car died again and ground to a halt.

Having a frantic play with everything the car came back to life and off we went, now losing the brakes completely, until you pumped them back up and if you left them for more than a minute the would go again.
With about 2 miles to go there was a very strong smell of burning but we had to carry on with Armed with the fire extinguisher we crawled to the finish.

After the finish the car failed to start, having found the problem to be the battery cut off switch shorting out, and I now have a nice burn on the end of my finger. The braking and handling issues in the last two stages was not the rain so much but the fact that the passenger front hub was starting to fall apart so the wheel was moving all over the place, thank god the wheel didn't fall off!

After all the dramas we achieved a fantastic finish, with 2nd in class and 36th overall.

The next event will be Somerset stages on 26th April, see you there!

Thanks too all the crew for their hard work and to Darren at www.dhopwoodphotography.co.uk and Ant at www.antjacksonimages.co.uk for the photo's

Just slow down will you video

2008-02-10T21:09:00.000Z

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ4JiK1Ozf4

You Tube Video

2008-02-10T20:44:00.000Z

Fantastic Forest Win

2008-02-10T09:42:00.000Z

Leighrallying took it's first step into the Btrda 1400 championship this weekend.

With an early start the crew turned out and to be honest, both driver (Darren Pinchin) and co-driver (Rob Leigh) were feeling a little bit nervous as this was the first time out in the new car, as they only picked it up the week before.

The day was set to be glorious sunshine a major improvement on last year, as it had snowed. The aim for the day was to get to the finish as the car from the previous owner hadn't finished a rally in 5 starts, they were hoping to get a top 5 finish.

The crew set off to the first stage Cheptow Park running 5th on the road. At the start all the nerves went away and they set off. The first mile was catching out driver and co-driver as things seemed to coming at them a lot faster than usual. With both the crew trying hard to get to grips with things they started to get into a rhythm until they entered a square right a little to fast and ended up stalling the engine. With 3 or 4 seconds lost they carried on to the finish setting a second fasted time, only 4 seconds behind Julian Wilks, the crew were stunned at the time and the performance of the car.

Stage 2 Serridge saw the crew pushing hard but in doing that made a few little mistakes, stalling the car again and not quite getting around the acute right onto the tarmac, with the car bogging down they struggled to get going again. As they were nearing the end of the stage they hit a crest a little off line, which sent the car flying in the air with Darren desperately trying to get hold of the car, as it bounced around he managed to get control thankfully, as we were probably doing in excess of 80mph at the time and would have made a big mess of the car. At the end of the stage they had set another 2nd fasted time and unknown to the crew were leading the 1400 class.

Stage 3 saw the crew ease off a little after their scare from the previous stage, in which the lost a little time, but still had the lead.

Stage 4 was a short run around the race course in which they took a cautious approach to as there were some really big hay bales which can do a lot of damage so a few seconds were lost, but coming into service they still had a lead of over 11 seconds.

Stages 5 and 6 saw the crew push hard again to try and keep ahead, but another competitor had a flyer and had drewn level for the lead. Stage 6 saw the crew respond and they set a flyer of their own and pulled out a 18 second lead, coming into the last stage.

With a comfortable 18 second lead Stage 7 was just a case of not pushing too hard, and not making any mistakes, they cruised home to a class win by 10 seconds, an outstanding finish.

Photo's of new car

2008-02-05T23:26:00.000Z

Some pictures of the new car in Gallery

Wyedean Seeding

2008-02-04T15:11:00.000Z

Rob and Darren have been seeded 206 So have a look out for us you can't miss us we'll be in the bright Yellow Proton.

New Car New Championship

2008-02-04T14:57:00.000Z

Leighrallying is about to embark on a new challenge, the BTRDA 1400 championship.

A new Proton has arrived with a nice new John Beattie all steel 1400 lump. just for the record it sounds awesome. The car only arrivied on Friday, which gives us only 1 week to pull it apart and put it back together.

The Wyedean Rally is on the 9th Feb if you see us come and say Hello, we are going to need as much support as we can get.

EXTREME DISAPPOINTMENT

2008-01-26T12:53:00.002Z

I think the Title says it all.

The Cambrian was the venue for the showdown for the B10 class the winner would take the championship. The weekend didn't get off to the best of starts with the car refusing to start at the garage as we were trying to load it on to the trailer.

To Cut a long story short the car was struggling for power on the first stage and with no time to fix it until after stage 2 we had to carry on and hope we wouldn't lose to much time.
Unfortunately the problem got worse. The fuel pump was not holding pressure and as the engine was running weak on fuel it ran hot and blew the head gasket and eventually the engine cried no more and it seized up as we crossed the finish line.

looking forward to 2008

Plains rally small video

2007-10-10T18:04:00.000+01:00

Have a look in the Gallery to watch a small video of us bouncing off a bank

Our Tribute

2007-10-10T17:21:00.000+01:00

This was Our tribute to a legend on the Plains rally, he will be sadly missed.

2007 to date

2007-10-06T04:33:00.000+01:00

Wyedean

The first rally of the season was the Wyedean in Feb. The rally turned out to be quite different to anything we had done before as it had dumped six inches of snow. The car had had some major work done over the break and a new dog box was fitted There was mixed emotions on this rally as we were second in class by one second 33^rd overall which was our best ever finish, but sadly another competitor had a bad crash and he had lost his life. A very sad day.

The Humberside Rally

The Humberside rally turned out to nice a dry and dusty, it was going to be fast and a good test for the gearbox as it was a bit to slippery on the Wyedean to give it a proper test. We set two second fasted times on the first two stages leading our main rival in championship by over 10 seconds. And after service with only two stages to go we decided to really push to the finish and get max points but after 6 miles into the 9 miler we came into a hairpin left only to hear a bang and the n/s drive shaft had broken and that was the end of that. Just a long drive home. That is three years on the trot we have broken a shaft here “we will never come here again”.

Somerset stages

The Somerset stages saw us with a newly revised car with the new diff, shafts, and hubs that cost a bloody fortune. There was a lot of big competition out for this rally and it was going to be a very big battle there was two ex-works cars Skoda Felicia s1600 car and a s1600 Vauxhall Corsa, as well as some of the normal guys.

After three stages we were second in class behind the skoda , next was the two tarmac stages of porlock hill, we only had some horrible calway inters for these two stages, which turned out to be a big disadvantage as we now had lost second to Rob Price in which we trailed by 2 seconds..

We pushed hard on the next two and we pulled back so we were joint second, we swapped times over the next to and still there was nothing between us. On the last loop of stage we pushed really hard on the first to pull out a 4 second lead over Rob and the skoda had retired with a drive shaft problem, so with one stage to go could this be our first class win, At the start of the stage we were told the Rob had lost his exhaust.

This had to be it now all we had to do was get it home as we thought. When we got back to the rally HQ to my horror Rob had mange to pull 12 seconds out of us and we lost, unfortunately nerves had got the better of us both and we bottled the last stage.

“This is never going to happen again”

Red Dragon

AT LAST CLASS WINNERS

The Red Dragon saw us still hurting from the Somerset stages and this time we weren’t taking any prisoners, after four stages we were 28 seconds up on Rob and with only two to go all we had to do was keep doing what we were doing I decided not to tell Darren the times as he has a tendency to slow down in the afternoon.

At the end we had indeed got our first ever class win winning by 22 seconds.

After watching the in car footage we discovered that Darren stops attacking and that why we lost time.

Dukeries

The Dukeries saw a big turn out with some good bits kit out on display, after two stages we were leading the class and from then on the day got worse and worse, at the end of stage 2 Darren was complaining of struggling to get second gear at times but did not think to much of it. We set off on stage three and after about a mile Darren was really struggling to keep the car in gear having to hold the stick in gear as it would come out on its own, after 2 miles or so we came into a square right and another Square right and the car just came round and we spun and ended up with the front end on the inner bank it took 4 minute to get off. We were now 12th

Having found the one of the gear linkage clips had come off and was repaired at service. We set off to try and get ourselves back up the leader board to try and salvage some points for the championship.

We started stage 5 just as is started to lash it down with rain and after 1.5 miles something else broke on the car and we only had 1 gear third, with only 10 miles to go. After the stage we met up with the service crew for them to find that the bracket that holds the linkage to the gearbox had come loose which was different to the one in the morning. And to top it all off we had a new gearbox casing fitted due to cracking the last one and now this one was leaking.

We did manage to fight our way back up the leader board to finish 2^nd in class for the championship. A good result in the end I surpose.

Quinton

The Quinton had a bad turn out for B10 class with only three starters the rally was really good though as we battled with more expensive and powerful machinery from other classes, we only had one moment on the rally which was on the last stage when Darren didn’t hear me call crest into square right and we ended up in a field opps.

We finished 42^nd overall and won the class by over 7 minutes.

The Woodecker

With only three round to go the battle for the championship is very close between ourselves and the crew of Rob Price and Carl Whitehouse. Whoever takes two win out of the next three will win.

After two stages the time are identical but after four Rob has a slender lead of 3 seconds.

As we left service we were told the times and we new we had to push as hard as we could in Radnor to pull some time back, an inspired drive by Darren pulling nearly 20 seconds out of Rob.

Rob almost instantly starting pulling time back on us and with only 1 stage to go we had a slender 1 second lead, at the end of the stage the proton cut out as we passed the line with desperate measures we set away trying to fix it, only to find that the fuel pump had taking a big hit and had fallen apart somewhere in the previous stage. Darren had said that he felt the car was under powered. We did get going and got to the finish by the skin of our teeth.

Unfortunately we had lost 9 seconds to Rob in that stage and we had finished 2^nd in the class.

The Plains Rally

With Two Rallies to go we need to win both, Now that the car is fixed, on the previous day the car was remapped by John Beattie and we were feeling confident but also feeling the pressure.

The rain dance that I’ve been doing for the past three weeks seemed to have done the trick rain, rain glorious rain had been falling for days and the stages we very slippery.

The stages were what we wanted and we set off at a steady pace as the car felt totally different to Darren, he was struggling with it, but we did have a 7 second lead after two stages and at the halfway stage you guest it we were all square with Rob coming out of service. In the morning we had been running with cut medium compound tyres and the stages were far wetter than anyone had thought so we changed to soft compound with a heavy cut.

On the way out to stage six I had to try a wake Darren up and get him to push hard as historically Rob always pulled time out of us in the afternoon, so if we wanted this championship we had to push hard, and by Christ he did pulling 26 seconds out of Rob in the next two stages and with only one to go.

In the previous stage we had a small visit to a ditch, it does happen when you push that hard, so we decided not to push as hard to get the finish and we finished 25 seconds up on Rob to take the win.

Quinton Stages - July 2006

2006-07-09T19:44:00.000+01:00

A good weekend at the Quinton Stages where everything came together and we achived a 3rd in class, our best result to date, narrowily missing out on 2nd.

The weekend started off well with the car flying through scrutineering and two new tyres fitted, we set off to the B&B and then to the pub!

In the morning we set off to get the car ready and give it the final once over, having done a lot of work to the car in the search for more power, throttle bodies and a new exhaust was fitted. Tim and John met us at the start before they headed off to the service area.

Our start time was 10.35 so at 10.20 we set off to join the queue, our two main competitors were seed ahead of us, so we were going to be able to keep an eye on them.

We headed off to the first stage and arrived to find an hour delay due to an accident, so we sat and waited for the queue to disappear until it was our time to go. We pulled into position and waited for the clock to tick down 5,4,3,2,1 and off we went. The car was amazing with lots more power and grunt, it started to catch me out a little as the corners were coming at us quicker than I expected, so I had to adjust my notes as we went along. The end of the stage was quick with a huge drop off to the left. Darren was really pushing hard but bottled out about 110mph and I don't blame him as the gravel road we were on was only 10 feet wide.

Stage two was pretty much the same, Darren pushing hard and the car screaming it's head off.

Stage three was route 60, the man-made stage used in rally GB. We did this stage last year and we couldn't seem to get to grips with it, so we were quite concerned about it, and to make things worse before we set off a marshal told us that a lot of cars had rolled at junction 10, great just what we needed to settle our nerves. We got through with no major problems and after all of our concerns we managed to set a good time losing only a few seconds to the leader of the class.

Service was next and we had some small problems with the exhaust, but Tim sorted it with no problems. On the way out of service we got some stage times and after 3 stages we were 2nd in class, only 11 seconds behind and only 15 seconds covered the top three so the fight was on.

Stages 4 went well but the tyres had started to go off so we were struggling to keep pace and lost some time as we ended up in a ditch as we exited a corner.

Stage 5 was going well until about 3 miles in when we came around a corner and some spectators we messing around and they forced us off the road into another ditch losing 15 to 20 seconds, Not impressed!

Next service we fitted two new tyres as the others were now scrap and were causing us lots of problems, when I looked at the times we had lost 2nd and were 35 seconds down on the leader. With two new tyres and with two stages to go we decided to push and try and get 2nd place back.

Stage 6 was awesome we were on a flyer Darren was pushing extremely hard hooking every corner and staying completely committed till the end.

Stage 7 was a repeat of route 60 and we really went for it. Near the end we were push so hard we ended going up a bank on a 2 right Darren managed to get us back on track and we made it to the end in one piece. Only to be disappointed as Rob Price who was in 2nd place pulled out all the stops and took some major risks to try and catch the leader, so we managed to lose some more time. But we did finish 3rd in class and 47th overall, which is our best overall finish ever.

After our initial disappointment we were really pleased as we had pushed our competitors really hard, normally we would have been one and half minutes down after 3 stages not 11 seconds.

So bring on the next event, hopefully we can push them just a little more.

Next Event is the Woodpecker in Ludlow 2nd Sept, But before that the Mini is coming out to play on the 29th July on the Fat Albert in Trowbridge come say hello if you are there.

Red Dragon Rally - May 2006

2006-05-30T19:38:00.000+01:00

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.

Wydean Rally - March 2006

2006-03-30T20:30:00.000+01:00

Well the weekend started off badly with both Rob and Darren getting stuck in traffic, Rob on th M62 and Darren on the M1.

With only 15mins to go before scruteering closed the car was unloaded from the tralier and was raced around to noise testing the off to the scruteering tent.

With the car all passed the boys were off to get signed on and then off to find the hotel and bar.

In the morning after breakfast they set off to the start to make their way to the first stage which was a grueling 2 hour drive.

First stage was a nightmare with no grip and plenty of scary moments, they made it through setting 5th fastest time. The boys admitted that they backed off half way through the stage after Darren lost control and had a very close call with a post.

Stage two was much better with quite a bit more grip the set the third fastest time and were starting to build some confidence after the first stage scare.

Stage 3 was the longest of the day almost 12 miles, With a bit of a delay at the start I had a chance to have a look at the times, we were running 5th in class with only 30 seconds covering the top 5, so we decided to really go for it as we had 2 new tyres put on the front at service.

As we entered the stage the ground was alot better offering more grip, so the Proton was given the thrashing of a life time, with a straight nearly a mile long we hit around 120mph through the woods, quite scary really but you don't think of it at the time.

With about 7 miles in Darren had the car dancing flicking one way than the other and taking huge speed through the corners. After 9 miles the car took a huge hit in a corner where a huge rut had appeared, with both of us whincing the car seem ok but after a mile turning into a square left and hairpin right we lost drive.

Once out of the car we discovered the drive shaft had broken, the stub of the CV had sheared probably weaken by the big hit a mile earlier.

Azbinghur Stages - July 2004

2004-07-30T19:25:00.000+01:00

Leighrallying made a comback this weekend near Bath with their rebuilt Mini 1275. New brakes, suspension, coolng and weight saving diet were topped off by a new white roof. However, despite being ahead of more powerful cars, our journey ended on penultimate stage when the driveshaft cried enough.

Rob had rebuilt the Mini during the past year in order to make the car more competitve on a minimal budget. This included replacing the glass with perspex, loosing any 'surplus' metal, new brakes, suspension and tuned engine. Externlly, the car now sported a white roof and additional cooling through the new bonnet vent and grille.

Preperations for this rally was a little unusal as Andy only arrived from Canada the night before. However a good night sleep meant the jet-lag didn't kick in until Stage 2!

Weather for the rally was generally was good, although a little rain at lunchtime didnt really effect things. The team had a problem with sctutineering which needed a fix (oil breather- which was allowed on two other Mini's and an Astra!), which put the team against the clock.

First stage was going well, but Rob carried a little too much speed into a fast left hander and slid into some long grass loosing precious time (about 20 secs), right in front of the video guy for the rally, so overage was gauranteed!

Next stage, identical was much quicker, learning the corners and also the car again as it had more power, grip and hadn't been used in anger for 18months.The team steadly climbed our way up the leader board and got quicker, despite a Sunbeam who literally tried to push us off the track at one point.

Rob and Andy were flying on Stage five six and seven, geting ahead of a fellow Mini with Split Diff and larger (1340) engine.

...alas on the last part of Stage 7, the penultimate stage, Rob suddenly had the car snap and then wouldnt really turn, Rob slowed down, in an attempt to get to the end of stage, but on the next straight. the Mini lost all gears which confirmed a broken driveshaf and a tow back t the paddock. Prior to that Leighrallying moved up to the low 40's with around 52 cars running, not bad for he least powerful car there

It was a good day thought, frustrating we got so close to our best finish,,,, just 8 miles.

Spotted Dick - Sep 2002

2002-09-30T19:23:00.000+01:00

LeighRallying made their final appearance this year at the "Spotted Dick and Custard" Stages at the Longcross MOD testing facility on Sunday 1st September and finished in style with a personal best, 3rd in the drivers Rally 2002 Championship Class and a 2nd place for the co-drivers championship. Overall, we finished 45th (out of 80 starters) and 5th in class, ahead of more powerful machinery!

This was the second visit to the Surrey venue for the team. Even though the stages were different the knowledge and experience paid dividends and the team were on the pace straight away, despite being one of the least powerful cars out there.

Rob and Andy's first stage was rather eventful as the new brake pads were not effective. This was cured for the identical second stage and we improved our time by 13seconds despite having a reoccurrence of the brakes problem towards the end of the stage. The third and four stages saw continuous improvements with us creeping into the low 50's by the half way stage.

Stage Five was rather more eventful. Suddenly going through the Snake complex the car started to feel strange. Once again we had an engine mount brake. We nursed the car back to the service area and some improvisation with a ratchet strap replacing the failure engine mount saw up reappear for stage six, a re-run of the previous stage. Despite being a little cautious we were 24 seconds quicker.

We were back on the pace on the last two stages despite the car starting to overheat and we were looking good for 4th in class on road but was piped by 3 seconds on the very last Stage to a much more powerful Mini of Chris Powney and Sandra Hanson.

Our colleagues David Askem and Steven Bullock were also competing in their leighrallying sponsored Audi Coupe Quattro and this was the first event for co-driver and car and first event in three years for Dave, who normally is part of our crew. After a steady start gaining confidence, Dave and Steven set one of the highest jumps of the day over the tank ramp and damaged their suspension. Despite this they continued to the finish in 35th, 6th in a highly competitive class, gaining experience and confidence in the process

Once again, Rob and Andy surpassed their expectations 45th overall, a significant increase in their seeding position and scored valuable points in the ACSMC Rally 2002 championship. Rob earned 3rd place in the driver's championship, while Andy finished 2nd as one of the Rally 2002 cars who finished in front was running with an unregistered co-driver.

We also maintained our 100% finishing record with this finish. "I'm very pleased with the result today. We had a scare with the engine mount and lifted off the power so we could get it back to the stage" said Rob, " I really didn't want the other mount to break on stage. It was a worrying few minutes when we got back to service and started to improvise"

"We are very pleased with the result, despite our problems on the 1st and 5th stages, Rob drove faultlessly all day" commented Andy " Rob and his mates built this car up from scratch on a very tight budgets and they should all feel very proud on the performance and achievements we've made this year, particularly as we normally had the least powerful car in the field!"

Finally a thanks to all those that has helped us this year, Dave, Ian, Debs, Joanne, Joe, Kev' and all the partners, especially the AA.

Abingdon CAR-nival - June 2002

2002-06-10T19:19:00.000+01:00

A THIRD PLACE finish in class A of the "ACSMC Rally 2002" championship was the richly deserved reward for leighrallying on Sunday, at the Abingdon CAR-nival Stages. The rally, based at Dalton barracks, near Abingdon of 11 stages throughout the day totalling just over 80 stage miles.

Prior to the event, the team were hopeful of a finish, probably at the rear of the field, as the Mini was the least powerful car by some margin. However the nimbleness of the Mini and some skilful driving and servicing of the team paid dividends and the team completed the rally in 65th position overall out of 83 classified finishers, 8th in class A on the road.

The 110-car rally started on Sunday morning with two long 11 miles stages. These were dry and were used to make the crew familiar with the course. Rob and Andy had moved up 15 places by the end of the second stage but all was not well. The front subframe mounts had broken, but some skilful repairs from the service crew of Dave Askem and Ian Gillespie made the Mini even stiffer than before. The heavens opened for Stage three and the track quickly became wet and slippery. Part of the fourth stage also took place on grass, which has turned into a mud bath by the time Rob and Andy appeared on scene. This, along with a narrow twisty section also give the team a slight advantage and we started clawing back time and even putting a Ford Sierra RS Cosworth under pressure on the timesheets at one point!!!

Stages five and six were a repeat of the previous two, only wetter, before the course was reversed for the remaining stages. By this time the sky was black and heavy torrential rain made conditions very tricky. Aquaplaning and sliding were commonplace and the grass area was becoming very rutted and slippery. On Stage 10, we even overtook a much more powerful Ford Escort Mk2 in this area.

Clear skies had dried out the track, in time for stage eleven, although it was still slippery in places. The pendulum swung back to the bigger cars that could use more power now that it was dry, but a hard push confirmed our class position, whilst still moving up the order. In our quest, two engine stabiliser mounts broke on the final part of the stage and we were fortunate that Stage twelve was cancelled due to time constraints.

"The whole team worked really well today" commented co-driver, Andy Blackmore " Our service crew were our saviours when we had problems with the subframe in the morning". Driver, Rob Leigh was also very happy " The car felt brilliant today, much better than Longcross". Fellow competitor Dan Howell, who had been following the Mini remarked "He certainly hustles that Mini along well!"

Mini Tempest - April 2002

2002-04-30T19:16:00.000+01:00

Two years of hard work saw the leighrallying.com team of Rob Leigh and Andy Blackmore successfully finished in their first ever rally event on Sunday 14th April. The "Mini-Tempest Stages", consisted of 8 stages of 4 designs that used different parts of the MOD track at Chertsey, with temporary chicanes, hairpins and sections where other cars merged onto the same part of the track. Rob and Andy finished 51st out of 90 starters and 9th in class in their Mini 1275. This also resulted in 6th in class in the Rally 2002 Tarmac championship.

The main aim was a finish and not to get into any trouble as we needed to use this as a learning experience. The result was even more significant as the Mini was probably the least powerful car in the entire field. Keeping out of trouble and really pushing in the narrow parts of the course, where the Mini is at home enabled us to achieve and surpass our original aims.

Rob and Andy used the first stage to get use to and find the limits of the car, crew and circuit. The second stage saw the team knock 25 seconds off their time. The third and four stages were a variation on the first two and they continued to improve their performance. By lunchtime the team had made up twenty-one places on our starting position of 89.

The last four stages were run in reverse direction. More confidence in the car resulted in quicker times and we were often matching more powerful cars in class. A big push on the last stage resulted in 51st place, ahead of the remaining finishers which included a Ford Sierra Cosworth, Ford Escort RS2000 and a couple of small Peugeot's.

The only drama on the event for the team was on the penultimate stage, where a car immediately in front, kicked up a couple of tyres into the path of the Mini. Luckily the little car only sustained light damage to the grille. The Farnborough based team were able to run the last stage without any concerns.

The next event for Leighrallying.com will be at the Abingdon CAR-nival on the weekend of June 8th and 9th.

A big thank you goes out to everyone who has helped us on our quest including Hart Motor Club, Ryan David, John Peckham, John Upham, David Perrelet, Stefan Ardnt, Dave Askem, Mark Sims and our mechanic Ian Gillespie.