Bill has volunteered to organise Navigational Exercises over the next 6/7 months, these will be held on the 4th Tuesday of each month. Exact details and dates elsewhere in this edition. These exercises will start and finish at a nominated Pub and the only timing used will be to get back to the Pub before closing time. They will NOT be 12 car Rallies and the emphasis will be on learning (by practice) the various types of navigation used on pukka Night Road Rallies, they will be open to all Club Members. The first of these exercises will be on September 27th, start and finish at The Fanny Grey. You will need Map 103, pencils and paper, and a romer. Those not taking part can have a drink (provided they are not driving)!!! Please lend your support as this is something for novices and experts.
First Club Night in September is the 6th and I will be organising a Motor Sport quiz.
Next on the agenda is the Cabaret Night at Rolls Royce Welfare, Disco, Group and this year's Star is a Comedian. We lost £150/200 in 1993 and were all for cancelling this year's event. The majority of the new committee however want to go ahead, so tickets at £5 will be available from all committee members from the 2nd September. Please do your best to support the event on Friday 30th September 8pm till 1.30am, it is open to anyone. The bar will be open till 1.30am Bar Snacks and loads of cheap beer will be available.
To help Scott and the Newsletter any articles for inclusion should be handed to him or me as soon as possible after the committee meeting, usually the 4th Wednesday.
So what's happened over the last 6 weeks? Well the Silva Stages proved a disaster for some and a joy for others. Ian and Scott fell off on stage 7 after holding onto 7th place, damaged a strut. Paul Smith and Barry Wilkinson fell off on stage 8 and bent the rear beam. Alan and I retired on stage 2 with no clutch. Same problem as Mull we suspect. Thankfully two top ten finishes by the Bentley brothers (Sierra) and Niel Simpson (Peugeot) netted us a bag full of "LAWTEC League" points. The only consolation for Alan and I was setting 11th fastest time on stage 1 (2 secs faster than N Hutchinson's grp A Nova) ah well, all if's and buts.
The next day Sunday 14th saw us take 55 points in the P.C.T. The usual winner and landowner John Holdsworth was beaten by 0.68% by Mark Bradshaw sharing John's car. Well done to all and thanks for the points.
August the 21st saw our second running of the "Scammonden Dam" hill climb, with 53 entries, approx. 20 being Porsches (we reckoned £300k to £500k worth). Many thanks to all for marshalling and helping on both events, thus scoring into the 50's for "LAWTEC League" points. So from 3 events we've gained approx. 130 points, this must now give us about a 90 point lead. On that happy note Goodbye.
P.S. Got to pull the engine/gearbox out of the car, fitted new Wheel Bearings front/rear, new Discs, Ball joints, etc., etc.
P.P.S. Don't forget the Club Nights please. Ta.
Oh, and thanks to Richard for correlating this Newsletter and others.
Bye, Rod.
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Only three crews entered from Pendle: M C M Landless/R Brereton (car 12) B Chadwick/M Singleton (car 17) N Bye/A Ilott (car 23). First car away was Dave Lomax/Richard Norbury. The 11.59 start time caused a few problems with the due times printed on the time cards. TC1 was just north of Ringing Hill, the route travelled south towards Goosnargh then turned east. With a lot of instructions between controls it was obvious the plotting time would be critical. TC3 was south of Beacon Fell and then on to map 103 and a loop of Longridge Fell with TC4 to the south and TC5 to the north. The change of map saw us miss a junction, the result of which cost 13 mins penalty by the time we backtracked onto the correct route. After TC5 we went north toward Dunsop Bridge and TC6 where a few crews were already OTL. TC7 was half way up the Trough of Bowland. We skirted round Quernmore then on to map 97 and TC8 at Caton. TC9 was east of Monkey Gill which saw us pick up a Fail when the marshal would not let us wait for our minute. A square herringbone was next with 4 start points to choose from, this led to TC1O south of Borwick and on to half way at Burton Services M6, where the leading crews were Dave Shorrocks/Glyn Sterling (car 9) on 2 penalties. Nick Botham/Oliver Knight (car 18) on 17 penalties. Steve Harrison/Niel Carman (car 10) on 20 penalties, only these crews were Fail free at this stage. Pendle crews were having various problems; Mike Landless/Rod Brereton deciding to call it a night at Dunsop Bridge and turned for home. Bill Chadwick/Mark Singleton had missed a few code boards and were concentrating on visiting all Time Controls within Fail time to be assured of a finish. Niel Bye/Abigail Ilott were finding the navigation tricky. With Abigail feeling distinctly unwell they had to cut to the half way. The second half started with a short run up the M6 to TC11 which was just off junction 36. We got out of our start order here, and with the control situated on a very narrow lane, we lost some time being unable to overtake. The route went up the map to Old Hutton, and then over Killington Lake we came up behind car 9 and had a good blast over Fox's Pulpit to TC12, where we had to wait for our time. TC13 saw the start of the only regularity section over Barbon Dale, it was daylight by now and the 18 mph average speed was slow but enjoyable. On to the A65 at Kirby Lonsdale and up to High Biggins then on to Wash Dub Woods, and back to Burton Services for the finish, where results showed that only one crew had managed to get round without a Fail.
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We all met at the Happy Eater on Friday lunchtime - Wayne and Pete Richards were the mechanics and Scott was in charge of the service maps (when not drinking Diet Coke!). We were worried about hold ups at the M6/M62 interchange, but I've never been through quicker. The Motorway Gremlins, however got their revenge on our return trip when we couldn't get onto the M6 from the M56, and had a delightful scenic tour of Manchester Airport area about one in the morning! The trip from Burnley to Builth Wells took just three and a half hours - the road by Oswestry, Welshpool and Newton is much improved from the days I did Welsh night rallies (that was 20 years ago though!!). Everybody had had the same idea of getting to Scrutineering for its opening time of 5.30pm so it was very busy - but we all just lazed about in the sun at the Welsh Showground and we eventually passed through OK. The BTRDA series now gives substantial route information out with the final instructions, so the only remaining task that evening was completing the forest routes from the road book. The Crychan stages 1 & 2 were quite different so Ian popped into Llandrindod Wells - a round trip of 15 miles - to get me a second Crychan forest map. He left after ordering his main course for Dinner and was back just as it was put on the table!! After our meal the others decided to see what "the talent" was like in Builth Wells whilst I set to with the maps.
Our start time was 11.37am - on BTRDA rallies all these Formula 2 contraptions take pride of place ahead of real rally cars (you can see where my sympathies lie). So back to the sunbathing - it's hard work this rallying - but eventually we got to some rallying after midday. The first stage was a 9 miler in Crychan - very dry, dusty and hot - and I was quickly woken up as Ian attacked from the "off" and I was having some difficulty keeping up with him. One hairpin right read a little late led to a spin and unfortunately a stall and the hot engine didn't want to restart until over 20 seconds had passed. The second stage went better and we pulled up from 111th overall to 74th over the 8 miles of Cefn Llwdlo. Stage 3 was Esgair Dafydd which was used as a televised RallySprint in years gone by - it climbs steeply for about 2 miles then levels and finally very fast downhill for 2+ miles. Ian was rather brave in the dust of the preceding car on this downhill section making up for any lost time on the uphill part. There were only effectively two service areas, the third being after the last stage. Service 1 was at Builth Wells after the first 2 stages, and 2 at Llandovery Cattle Market which came after stage 4 Caeo. The latter was an excellent stage of about 11 miles and Ian by now was beginning to make sense of my road reading - his time was 39th fastest - very good in this class of field, and this pulled us up to 53rd O/A. After service 2 came the longest stage of the event - again in Crychan. These longer stages usually sort out the crews and Ian was again on "maximum attack" especially once we caught sight of the previous car in a long open section. Unfortunately a slightly fast entry into what I call a medium fats and we're running in the trees. It's surprising what you think at these times, but I was hoping that we'd come to a halt but not too rapidly. So there we were as they say "slipped off the road" boot level with the track surface!
One of the benefits of running at the back of the field is that you don't have to wait hours for the stage to close - but even so we were relieved to find a Land Rover Rescue vehicle with a powerful winch up front coming along the track. A few seconds later we're back on the road - car slightly dented, pride somewhat more dented - at this point the intrepid duo Scott and Wayne arrived on the scene having hiked "miles" to get to us (aboard a Suzuki!).
So it's back to the bar at Cynghardy, conveniently only five minutes from where we went off and where I'd asked the service crew to check us "out" of the long stage. Then on to Llandrindod Wells for a meal before setting off back home to lick our wounds - as they say, if only the car hadn't stalled, and we hadn't gone off. But given three "ifs" anything is possible.
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There are some people who put forward the argument that road rallying is anti-social and dangerous, and I agree that in the years leading up to the rule changes and the demise of road rallying as we knew it, it was getting out of hand. In my opinion the main cause was sponsorship and the tuning firms throwing money at the sport and turning it into a business and the cars into road legal racing cars. The result was hundreds of spectators and boy racers charging round the lanes causing more complaints than the competitors
In the old days rally cars were virtually standard vehicles apart from a couple of spot lights and a sump guard. If we could get back to this set up, with the reduced number of cars in today's events I think rallies could be run without too many problems.
In the late 60's, early 70's, young lads and girls who were interested in cars and/or driving could join a motor club and take part in road events for very little outlay. By taking this option away from young people it only leaves them to test around the streets usually with a car full of mates, it would be interesting to see the police statistics for so called 'joy riding' for the period 1978 to 1986 and then from 1986 to date as a percentage of cars on the road. I am sure it is safer to have an organised legal sport properly policed with drivers learning car control and the skill of navigation. This has got to be more socially acceptable than individuals racing around estates and streets causing death and injury to people, but that is just my opinion. I hope that road rallying continues in its new form and attracts more competitors. Clubs that are struggling for revenue and their members should think about promoting small and inexpensive events for standard cars to allow beginners to get involved in the sport and their club.
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Provisional Dates: