This weekend was the first rally for my Rally teams GroupA Escort Cosworth for almost a year due to the cancellation of events due to Foot and Mouth disease. We were competing on the woodpecker stages, a round of the BTRDA forest rally championship here in the UK.

The car was looking immaculate as usual, we had replaced the tail gate and bonnet with lightweight WRC items, all the glass removed and replaced with lightweight Perspex bar the heated screen. We had been suffering an intermittent electrical problem so we went through the loom and replaced all the possible switches etc that could have contributed to the problem. Intermittent electrical problems are very hard to find on a forest rally car. We had to replace the two front 50mm struts as one was damaged on our last event; we had changed the spring’s rates also on the front. Usual mid event work to keep a top spec rally car working. We were ready.

Being only the 3rd event for us with the current car and being such a long time since our last rally the plan was to check out the electrical problems were sorted and use the event to bed ourselves back in. The event had 180 cars, this is an event we have finished 3rd on in the past. Our seeding for the day was 21st, in front of us were nothing but WRC and GroupA high spec cars including ex works Impreza’s, EVO’s, Celica’s and Escorts.

After 3 stages we were joint 20th which we were happy with, everything going to plan. The car was working great, electrical issues resolved and the new spring rates were working well. We were confident of running top 10 from now on; the team was having fun too. It’s great to be back out competing again.

300yards into stage 4, oops! Simon slid wide on corner exit leaving the road at just 5MPH and what can happen on occasion happened. The car dug in and rolled over slowly. Unfortunately for us some trees had been felled there and the car rolled over some large tree stumps before coming to rest on its wheels.

Basically every single panel on the car bar the tailgate is damaged. The roll cage did its job properly but is bent around the Codrivers head area. We need to replace the roof skin, both front wings, bonnet, parts of the cage, heated screen, door skin. We expect to be able to pull out both the rear wing panels. The good news is the car drives straight so it looks like the mechanical's have escaped intact.

We have been there before, this kind of thing is part of the sport and we are not down about this at all. We are going to use this as an opportunity to make some positive changes to the car. One of the things I love about being part of a front running rally team is that I get to spend time with like minded positive people who instantly think of ways to go forward and not about the negative side to any incident.

Our next event is the Cambrian Rally at the start of November. We are going to do this one in our team sponsor, Phil Blakeman’s new car. He has had a groupN top spec Impreza built by Bill Gwynne for his own use. Looks like we are going to break that in. LOL

We will have the car back looking immaculate as usual ready for next year’s BTRDA championship. We led this championship for 6 months in 1999 in our home built Sapphire Cosworth against ex works WRC cars costing £400,000 plus. We intend to do that again in 2002. Watch this space. :D

Before.

http://www.btinternet.com/~john.felstead/Woodpecker/DCP00994.JPG

http://www.btinternet.com/~john.felstead/Woodpecker/DCP01001.JPG

http://www.btinternet.com/~john.felstead/Woodpecker/DCP01003.JPG

http://www.btinternet.com/~john.felstead/Woodpecker/DCP01004.JPG

http://www.btinternet.com/~john.felstead/Woodpecker/DCP01007.JPG

After. :eek:

http://www.btinternet.com/~john.felstead/Woodpecker/DCP01076.JPG

http://www.btinternet.com/~john.felstead/Woodpecker/DCP01077.JPG

http://www.btinternet.com/~john.felstead/Woodpecker/DCP01079.JPG

http://www.btinternet.com/~john.felstead/Woodpecker/DCP01080.JPG

Saturday night involved some alcohol, :lol:
Did we have a great night though! England 5 Germany 1 woooohoooo :lol:
I have a headache :confused:

Yeah I bet it is great fun when you don't hafta pay for damages out of your own pocket.. hehe :p

Great story.. Glad to hear that your having fun and WIN WIN WIN!

MikeyG;)

I dont know what gave you that Impresion.

Very, very few people get to go rallying without it costing them the earth, even those with good sponsors.

Rallying takes the most dedication of any sport i know in time, mental application and money.

Our team is no different, we all make sacrifices to compete at the top.

It is imensly rewarding and huge fun too. Thats why we put up with the hard work it requires.

I have a paypal account if you would like to make a contribution to our repair bills. ;) :lol:

glad no one was hurt and i hope you get the car fixed soon

Nice car john...

It's hard finding a straight panel! It's good to hear that it still tracks straight.:)

bah, all you need is some judicial wirk with a sledge hammer:)

ah well, at least it was a slow roll, you did finish the stage right?

Come on John....import it to the states and have some fun in the Washington forests:D

Good to hear that nothing but some body work and the roll cage was damaged.

So when you going to come to the states again....when Jamie needs a co-driver for her first rally???:D

Hi Ryan.

I will be back over for the TBird rally, Jamie and I are gonna kick ass now we have a couple of events behind us to iron out the bugs (all mine by the way! ;) )

Nothing would give me more pleasure than to be in the car with Jamie on her first Club Rally as a driver. Whether that can happen i dont know right now.

Thanks for the words of support. Rallying really is fantastic, every aspect of it. We have made bigger messes of cars than this and gone on to win the national championship in the same season. It's part of the sport and you have to accept the occasional blow if you want to do well.

I am looking forward to running the GroupN Impreza immensly now on our next event. For those who dont know, Bill Gwynne does a lot of work for prodrive and runs ex factory WRC cars. The car we will be using is to prodrive GroupN spec except for the engine which is relatively standard. In the forests chassis setup means more than power though so it should be competitive.

Nope, we didnt finish the stage, it took 20 minutes to get it back onto the stage. All was lost then competition wise anyway as the top 20 are split by seconds on our events, it wasnt worth risking the car by driving over the stumps that did all the damage, that would have destroyed the suspension which is worth $8000 a corner, its the pucka Magnesium works spec stuff under there.

hmmm, didn't consider that, driving over stumps with car, probably not a good idea...:)

I think the "black night" skit from Monty python's "holy grail" is apropriate here...

better luck next time.

John,

If I was part of a team for a rally. I would be sooo broke all the time... heck I bet I wouldn't even have a computer to get online with I-club! :D It is great to hear that your team has such resolve. I take all the good teams are like that also?

I have a Paypal account for donations too! But my is for a swaybar.. :lol:

MikeyG

It is great to hear that your team has such resolve. I take all the good teams are like that also?

The teams that last have to be. It's not uncommon to see people turn up on events, have one bad shunt and they are never seen again. This can be due to many reasons, money certainly is one of them but the other is that they underestimated the challenge.

You have to have a huge amount of passion for the sport to survive the bad times because they ask a lot of you.

In 1995/98/99 i didnt have a single days holiday except for working on the race or rally cars i run for friends. When you are going for a championship and you believe you have a chance you will do whatever it takes to achieve that.

In 95 we won the 2litre National championship and for me our greatest achievement, in 99 we led the Overall championship in our home built car against $400,000 fully active works cars for 6 months, eventually finishing 5th overall driver and 3rd overall codriver out of over 100 registered crews. Our best event result was 2nd overall, being beaten by just 6 seconds by Yuha Kankunens last escort WRC car run by MSport. there were 149 starters on that event.

I am very lucky in that i am part of a team of people who share a real passion for the sport and want to win. I couldnt be in a team of half harted people, whats the point in that?

I will be back over for the TBird rally, Jamie and I are gonna kick ass now we have a couple of events behind us to iron out the bugs (all mine by the way! )

See you there then, I think I will be entering it too...just as long as the money is still there by then, tends to burn a hole in my pocket.
:lol:

glad you guys are OK and the car is fixable.

John- the story wasn't that long this time.....losing your touch? ;)

Not in the least. :D

"Pictures tell 1000 words" cannot be more true on this one. :D :lol: