It feels like such a long time has passed since we were out competing on a rally, so we were keen to get back out on our local ‘home’ rally at Weston Park. The stately home venue was once host to the RAC Rally, where the rallying greats like Colin McRae once competed. These classic stages are short but very enjoyable, and include the famous water splash.

While spanner checking the Rover, the week before the rally, we noticed the inner wing spot welds had cracked, probably from the beating the car got at Fulbeck. Panic set in, and we were about to pull our entry, but after a quick phone call to Steve Blackham Motorsport all was sorted within a few hours. A nice new seam weld, we can’t thank Steve enough for doing that for us at such short notice.

The day of the rally came round quickly. We arrived early at Weston Park, and after scrutineering and noise check we set up in service. We had driven the car to the event, and as the day was looking to be dry all day, our service crew Jon and Ade swapped the road tyres for the slicks.

At 08:47 we were ready at the start of SS1, and as soon as we got going, we were finished. Such are the small stages. We had some problems selecting gears, so Jon and Ade had a check on things back in service. Through SS2, gear selection was much easier but I was finding it difficult to get into the flow with such short stages.

SS3 and things were starting to feel much better. We were settling into the rally nicely now and had a much smoother run. Sam called the gatepost perfectly, and of course, I clipped it with the wing mirror. No other dramas to report. There were some tough competition in the 1400 class, but we were happy with 7 ^th in class.

We moved up to 6 ^th in class after another good run on SS4. We adjusted our tyre pressure to 22 psi in service, and once warm this increased to 26 psi. A good call from Jon, as the car was holding the tarmac much better now. SS5 was a repeat of SS4, and we were now half way through the day.

I’ll skip stages 6, 7 and 8, as the flow was great and uneventful for us. Happy with the times we were doing though.

During SS9, we had a bit of an off. Nothing serious but the 90 right before the water splash crept up on me and we took a diversion through the barrier tape. Thankfully, I quickly turned the car on the handbrake so we didn’t lose much time. Then, the 90 left into the water we went straight on! I bet the spectators wondered what we were doing. I think we got away with it though, no photographers in sight! We had now gone up to 5 ^th in class too.

SS10 was identical to SS9, so I was keen to get it right this time. The stage was much better, a very clean run. Sam was cautious on the notes, instructing me to not handbrake it into the water splash. She should know me better by now!

Once we were back into service, and had seen the updated results, we were really happy to have finished 5 ^th in class.

Our next rally is on the 10 ^th October for the Adgespeed Stages near Wigan. We have been seeded car 48, and this will be the first time we have competed at this venue. It will also be a championship round, so we’re hoping to get some points too.