Rallying and I are having a little fall out at the moment. I don’t think we have fallen out before to this level, but let me tell you why. Call it a serious personality defect, if you like, but I don’t go rallying just to participate. In fact I don’t do anything just to participate. If you and I were walking down to the corner shop I would want to arrive first and by a clear margin. I am my own hardest critic and, boy, do I punish myself when I have contributed to any lack of result.
You’re probably getting bored by now so let me explain..
Three of historic rallying’s biggest events come at the end of the year; HERO’s Rally of the Tests – a three and a half day event with demanding regularities and superb long special tests on private land; The RogerAlbertClark Rally which takes place on 150 miles of superb gravel special stages on the English Scottish borders and finally The Killarney Historic stages which uses tarmac special stages including the unmatchable Molls Gap.
For the former my positively geriatric but still stonkingly quick friend Robin Eyre-Maunsell and I had been lent a wonderful Pinto engined Escort for the ‘Tests’ by Owain Lloyd for what was intended to be one last go at what is possibly the world’s best regularity rally.
If you know anything about rallying at all, you will know about the iconic ex-Russell Brooks Andrews Heat for Hire Lotus Sunbeam owned by John Leahy in which our esteemed editor Sarah got chauffeured round Goodwood’s rally stage by ultra quick young Irishman Owen Murphy.
Well, in September I got the call from John to sit alongside Owen on the 2015 RAC in the spectator’s favourite car. Murphy has twice being Irish Forestry Rally Champion and on his first attempt two years ago with a less powerful engine and no experience of having the road read to him from maps Owen finished 5th, only losing 3rd after two punctures. Leahy had stripped the car totally and rebuilt every part and Phil Davidson had built a new engine and, though I say it myself, I am rather good at reading bends and brows from a map in a high speed rally car. We were all set for a big result.
There are certain rally cars that are iconic and the E30 M3 BMW is without doubt one of them and the newly built example built by Rallyprep in Cornwall for former British Historic Rally Champion and Silverstone Auctions proprietor Nick Whale must be one of the very best. Resplendent in Bastos colours with a 296bhp engine revving to 9k and built with the guidance of Paul Howarth, the Prodrive man who was in charge of the works cars in the late eighties/early nineties, the car lacks nothing. At Tour Ireland many months ago Nick asked me to do Killarney with him and when he firmed this up in October and I was very, very excited – and I normally don’t do excited.
In the midst of all this I had noticed that Ludlow man Simon Mellings had been doing remarkable things in the one day HRCR regularity/special test series with, of all things, a Nissan Sunny saloon from 1984. You may have noted, that there are not many of these cars left on the road as with their thin bodywork and lightweight build they very quickly turned a funny brown colour and, sort of, evaporated. Earlier this year Simon chanced on an almost perfect low mileage one lady owner example and, to his amazement, found that full rally Escort front struts and turreted shock absorbers bolted straight on. A full roll cage, sump guard, rally seats, minor engine modifications and a tripmeter completed the car and off he set with navigator Richard Crozier to claim some top ten results. After the Clwyd Classic in September I blagged a run in the car and just had to tell him to call me if ever he was selling the car. Within weeks the call arrived and Robin Eyre-Maunsell and I have jointly purchased the car for a tiny amount of money in rally car terms and intend to play with it next year.
So, why have I fallen out with my rallying. It won’t take long to tell you…
Robin and I had a great start to the Tests, finishing the first night’s prologue in 4th place but noticed on the run back to the wonderful Slaley Hall complex that the tripmeter had started to do funny things. Tested everything and found nothing and on the morning restart all appeared ok – until the first regularity when it failed half way through. As you can imagine we plummeted down the results. Then on the first special test in Kielder forest Robin whacked a log with a rear wheel causing a puncture and a damaged wheel bearing which troubled us for the rest of the event. From then on neither of us performed just as we should, the intermittent tripmeter not helping, and we eventually finished 15th out of 59 finishers. Many would have been reasonably happy with that but not us. May as well have been last.
But, as they say, onwards and upwards. Excitement is building for the RAC. To sit in the passenger seat of an ultimate historic rally car in a forest at over 100 mph reading bends and blind brows from a 1:25,000 scale Ordnance Survey map knowing that the slightest error by you could result in a massive accident is the biggest adrenalin rush ever. I just live for it. We don’t get the route of the stages until a short while before the event but many hours had been spent staring at Kielder roads on both the maps and Google Earth to make sure I was absolutely ready to perform at my best and give Owen and John Leahy the result they needed. I had noticed a few weeks before that entries for the rally weren’t coming in as quickly as usual and was slightly concerned that it would not be financially viable. A few more entries trickled in. Surely now all would be OK. No, it wasn’t, and when, two weeks before, John called to say – ‘Have you heard, it is cancelled’ I was totally devastated. For two days I did nothing but think about what might have been, especially as the event won’t run next year either and may not ever happen again in the current form.
The thought of the M3 cheered me back up and last Thursday Nick and I flew from Luton to Killarney and on the Friday we put together what we thought were a pretty good set of pace notes for the event. We are both former winners, as a coincidence both in Porsches, me with Steve Perez in 2003 and Nick a couple of years later and were very confident, even with the new car. The forecast wasn’t great, in fact it was bloody awful, and just before bedtime came rumours that Molls Gap was flooded and wouldn’t run. The driver’s briefing on Saturday morning confirmed the bad news – Killarney is not Killarney without Molls! – and we were to go to service and wait to start the second special at its due time, three hours later. The rain was getting heavier and more than the rally was now affected and 10 minutes before the start the local council reluctantly withdrew the road closing orders on safety grounds. And that was that. Bar and home.
While this was taking place Robin E-M and Matthew Vokes were tackling the infamous Preston road rally in East Anglia in the Nissan which I had spent many hours re-preparing. It is a rally known for flooded lanes but this year the floods were even worse and after less than 20 competitive miles a huge puddle (small lake?) saw the air cleaner ingest a large amount of water filling the float chamber and the cylinders – and that was that.
So that is why rallying and I have fallen out. But we will make up and be in love again in 2016. We always do.
Peter Scott
For navigating, car building or buying, or general rallying advice contact me on: peter-scott6@sky.com
