Another rally, another Down Ampney.

After our previous rally at the same venue left us a little frustrated with ourselves, we were hoping to do things a little better this time around. This year, we have entered into the Heart of England Rally Championship, to see how we compare against more experienced crews. The Red Dragon IT Stages is the first event in the championship.

This year we’ve invested in new tyres for the Rover and the new Khumo rubber proved a good choice from the start. It’s always slippery at Down Ampney for the first run, so some caution was given for the first few miles. With that said, we had an off on stage one, rearranging some cones while I got used to the new tyres and how differently the car handled. We didn’t loose much time though and we soon caught the previous car, a red classic mini which unfortunately held us up when we wanted to pass.

By stage two I was pushing on, having found a new confidence in the tyres. We had one heck of a moment as we approached a hairpin left, but thankfully I controlled it and we were facing the right way to make the turn. We didn’t get held up on stage this time as the Mini was behind us, meaning we were 30 seconds faster than stage one.

Stage three was fun for the first 2 miles. Unfortunately, the previous car had clipped the verge pulling a large rock onto the stage. As we came round the corner, I’d already hit the rock before I could adjust our road position. It was obvious that something was damaged but we continued on as the car still handled ok. At this point we had another five miles of the stage left, and as we continued the car was almost impossible to turn right. We reached the finish line, receiving a time that was better than a stage maximum. On returning to service, we discovered the tyre was shredded and the wheel was egg shaped. No real surprise as it was a huge rock and we were still pushing 100mph with a flat tyre.

A quick wheel change and we were ready for stage four. We made some adjustments to our tyre pressures and the car seemed to be handling even better than before. We had a Mk2 Escort hunting us down on our second lap, but we were pushing on and he couldn’t catch us. We got close to a couple of chicanes, leaving a few fresh scuff marks on the Rover. We’ve still got two wing mirrors on the car, so that’s a plus!

By stage five, we were doing really well considering our earlier puncture. We met Toby and Mark Burton on the merge in their Micra, and did our best to keep up with them. We were never going to give them any real problem, but with some late breaking we managed to keep up for a good three minutes, until we spilt in the opposite direction to them. Great fun!

Regular readers to the blog will know that on our previous visit to Down Ampney, we took a wrong split. This time we were keen not to make the same mistake! However, on stage seven, Sam called the split left perfectly and I just wasn’t listening to her. By the time she’d given me a shouting at, it was too late and we were already on our way on the wrong part of the stage. A stage maximum of 18 minutes was received, and on our return to service, I could not have been any more annoyed at myself.

After a few minutes of mulling, it over, I gave my head a wobble and we decided to just get back out, have fun and finish the rally with a smile.

Stage eight was a duplicate of stage seven, and I wasn’t going to get it wrong twice in one day. We finished stage eight with a competitive time, despite having an excursion onto the grass verge. Maybe the frustration was still present.

Stages nine and ten were pretty uneventful, and actually my driving was probably greatly improved by not trying as hard. We got the finish we wanted, even if there were a few trials and tribulations along the way. After round one of the championship, we are 3^rd in our class.

Our next rally is on 1^st August, for the Phoenix Stages at Fullbeck. Last year we came forth in our class, so we’re hoping to improve on that this year!