It has been nearly a whole year since our last event, so it has been a long time coming. Having made the decision to embark on a quest for more power after the Opposite Lock back in July 2006, the engine in the 205 was dismantled. I was expecting to be back in action before Christmas 2006, but as the summer of 2007 approached, and particularly the Dukeries (reduced entry fee for virgin forest ralliers :o), the waiting for my cylinder head to be completed had become more of a depression than a quest.

On to the event. With scrutineering out of way on Friday evening, Saturday morning arrived and I drove the 205 down to the service area with our service crew following, that is, Meredith in our Bora. From service it was onto the start at Southwell Race Course. What we found at the start was quite amazing. Firstly MTC1 did not seem to be in position and as we got closers it became apparent why. The whole of the stadium where documentation had been set up was about 2 feet deep in water. The event seemed to be coping with the conditions, but this situation cause some real concern for me..... Meredith was hoping to visit the ladies room here.

With about 5 minutes until our start time at MTC1 I was starting to feel quite nervous. Having never driven at anywhere near competitive speeds on a loose surface, in my mind there was quite a lot to think about and get to grips with quickly. I needed to discover how much grip was available, how late I could brake, understand the balance of the car (under/over steer), and find the optimum brake balance.

The drive out to Blidworth gave me something to do and relaxed me somewhat. To be finally sitting on the start line of a forest stage was to be (to steel another competitor phrase on their sun screen) ‘Living The Dream!’ The start lights turned green and adventure begun, “easy right into hairpin left”.... small tug on the handbrake - so far so good, “then 500 into easy right”. The 500 hundred metres to the easy right was a real experience, I was totally amazed at how little grip there was, the rear of the car seemed to wander from gutter to gutter on each side of the road. When you marshal on events you see competitors working overtime at the wheel and in these conditions every single input into the wheel was 100% necessary just to keep the car going in a straight line. The learning curve had gone past vertical and folded back on itself!

We emerged at the end of Blidworth with all 4 wheels and no panels damaged, however the stage had been incredibly punishing on the car. As we entered the breaking areas, where was massive pot holes and with not real choice other than to hit them, I heard the roof skin popping in and out on several occasions. My only hope was that the rest of the stages would be in better condition.

Thankfully the clipstone stages where in significantly better condition, still bumpy in the braking and traction areas, but certain a little easier on the car. Not far into Clipstone North I seemed to find my braking distances and this allowed me start experimenting with brake bias. I slowly increased the bias towards the rear so that I could set the car up for the corners, with varying success. Initially missing every apex and running wide, I start setting the car up earlier and earlier, and found better lines, but after climbing a bank on an apex and bouncing in and out of ruts, both of which could have rolled us, I calmed things down a bit. The straights in Blidworth are quite short, but with up to kilometre in Clipstone a decent time became a matter of confidence. Could I keep it the throttle nailed and hang onto the rear? Initially no, but the commitment was there by the end of SS2.

Meredith was quite keen for us to have a good run on SS3, after all, you guys would be watching.

So far we had ranked about 80th on stages times, but on SS4 we leaped to 60th fastest. Portland (or Birklands) was far more flowing, had drained better and provided a more consistent level of grip. I think looking back on the event Portland contained my favourite corner of the whole event. It was ran exactly the same on the Robin Hood, so for those in the know, it was junction 5. The approach was a 1km of nice flowing flat out twists and the exit up the hill to the right left heading north. The high speed smooth approach gave a nice long braking zone with plenty of time to get the back end moving around. On both occasions we entered at nice angle, but unfortunately my natural reaction is to correct the car not hold it, so a learning point there. That said, we did seem to hold good speed in the corner for the drag up the hill using all 1580cc of the engine.

With the first run of the day’s stages out of the way it was up to service. We arrive to find our sheet and tent (zip tied to wheels) exactly where we had left it un-guarded in the morning. So, time to reflect on the morning’s stages. I was feeling quite comfortable with the driving at this point, but had a few learning points to put into practice. I needed to work on my gear selection for corners and also my shift points. When I have been marshalling, you watch a car exit corner and the drive floors the throttle and just pushes the engine relentlessly to the limiter. I have often wondered whether this is necessary. The answer is yes! Although the engine is at its limit the actual speed of the car is not for a given gear, shifting simply puts you way down the revs and any acceleration you did have fades away.

Next up, the ‘Big’ one! At this point I was a little worried about the car. The oil temperate had been getting high, coupled with a drop off in pressure. So with this stage been a whopping 12 miles, there was a possibility that it would be too much and the engine would meet a muddy grave. With this knowledge my approach was no different to before, finishing was certainly right up there on the priorities list, but I had not come all this way in time and effort to drive at anything less than 100%. (After the event I realised that my oil cooler had mutated into a large block of orange mud, hence the cooling issues.)

The part I remember best on the ‘Sherwood Forest’ stage was a real test of drive/co-drive relations and in our case our marriage :o). I’d just clicked 4th gear and ‘easy left into easy right’ was delivered over the intercom. You might be thinking, where is the test in that, but with the next corner unsighted, the trust would be the difference between lifting and holding it flat. I felt compelled to ask for a repeat.....

I put my thoughts from service into practice and I felt we were faster. I am not sure whether it was our increased speed or problems for car 71, but towards the end I started see the car in front on the straights. This certainly was encouraging, but we had two over shoots and a half spin trying to catch them. There was a lesson here though, a strategic one. We were never aiming for victory, but without other competitors around you as a compare for speed, it is very easy to drop into a safety zone. That zone is still fast, but it could be so much faster! So once we have a bit more experience I will try and think about this. In short, you have to be constantly focused on taking the braking distances to an absolute minimum and taking maximum speed through every corner.