I arrived down in Welshpool in Mid Wales on the Friday afternoon for scrutineering. The repairs to the gearbox linkage following our non-finish at Otterburn two weeks earlier left the gearbox not feeling quite right (gear stick felt too far forward and gears difficult to engage) so while I was attending the drivers signing on, my service crew (BRS Motorsport) adjusted the gearbox linkage. After a quick road test to confirm the gearbox felt right, plus some adjustment of the brake bias so there was more brakes to the rear of the car than we had on the tarmac at Otterburn, I was happy the car was ready for the following day’s rally. I met up with Mark Mason, my new co-driver for the day, and we discussed the plan for the following day. Mark has been co-driving for over 20 years and has completed several hundred rallies so I was looking forward to learning some good tips from him. Mark informed me that he didn’t call ‘fresh air’ corners (e.g. the corners where if you over shoot you’re likely to have an impromptu flight into a valley!). We were seeded car 119 which was lower than we had expected (134 cars running in total). This meant a 10.56am start time – so at least we got a lay in on the Saturday – something I’m sure Mark appreciated as he had only flown in from Perth, Australia early on the Friday morning.

Stage 1 was only just over a mile long in a wood yard. Word had already come back that some good friends of ours had hit a tree at the end of the stage and had been taken to hospital so we opted for caution on the opening stage as we weren’t going to win the beginners class on that stage but we could certainly lose it. I thought we had probably lost about 10 seconds to the leading expert BMW’s but the time sheet showed we only dropped 2 seconds so we were happy with our time of 1 min 58 secs.

Stage 2 was just under 9 miles and allowed us to get a flowing rhythm. Mark was perfect on the notes and we set a reasonable time dropping just 5 seconds to Andy and Liza Fox in another BMW. Mark observed that he thought I was leaving my braking a bit late coming into corners so suggested I braked a bit earlier and then powered through the corners.

Stage 3 was unfortunately cancelled due to lack of marshals so we headed into service and had 20 mins for BRS to give the car the once over. We headed out onto stage 4, just over 6 miles. The stage went really well apart from over shooting the last corner on the stage where we headed from bright sunshine into a shaded area and I was temporarily unable to see where the corner was. We recovered well and finished the stage in 10 mins 9 secs, leaving us 9 secs ahead of Andy and Liza Fox. Mark tips on braking had certainly made a difference to our times.

Stage 5 was also going really well until we were slowed down by a Peugeot 205 on its side in the middle of the gravel track! – we ended up dropping a second to the Foxes

Stage 6 again went really well – the stage was very fast and flowing and we managed to claw back the second lost to the Foxes on stage 5 despite a slight spin on a hairpin right. We headed into stage 7 knowing we were 9 secs ahead of the Foxes, with service coming up after the stage. A check of our tyres revealed that the front tyres were worn badly and would have to be changed at service at the end of stage 7.

We headed off into stage 7 and seemed to be flying until about 1.5 miles into the stage, heading into a medium right corner, we went about 6 inches wide and onto the loose gravel – with very little tread on the front tyres and therefore little grip, we slid off the road and into a bank. To our surprise, the front left wheel dug into the bank resulting in the back end of the car rolling over the front of the car – we went roof first into a large fir tree, then rolled sideways landing back on all 4 wheels facing the wrong way! I started the car and tried to continue but unfortunately the front wheels where stuck in a ditch and the back wheels in the fir tree. That was the end of the rally for us but despite the disappointment of not capitalising on our pace, we both really enjoyed the rally and walked away from the 50 mph roll with no injuries. I’ve also now joined the club of rally drivers that have rolled. Fortunately, the fir tree cushioned the roll and saved the car from a lot more damage. A couple of wings, a bonnet, front valance, a rear door and two new front wishbones and the car should be as good as new for the last round of the championship – the Premier Rally in Sherwood Forest on 29th October.

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