Belgium Re-visited

Thoughts on the second half of the 1998 season from Sue Orchard and Graham Morris in their Metro Gti.

1998 was actually the first year ever that we didn't do a single event in the UK or Ireland. We hadn't started out with the intention of doing all the events in the Belgian Open Championship, but as it turned out, we only missed the first event, Boucle's de Spa in February. A report on the first half of the season appeared in The Windscreen last year so we'll give a rundown of the last 4 events, the Ypres-Westhoek Rally (formerly 24 Hours of Ypres), the Tour of Flanders in September, the Lotto Bianchi and the Condroz in October.

We had done the 24 Hours of Ypres in 1994 when it went through 2 nights and 1 day and really enjoyed the event. Due to pressure from the Green party however, rallies are no longer allowed to run all through the night, so we had to finish by around 1 am at the latest and that has changed the nature of the event. It now runs from late afternoon on the Friday till late at night and then all day till late at night on the Saturday. Included in the event were two 35 Km stages (including the infamous Kemmel stage) and two 24 Km stages out of the total. You can imagine how much work there is just in doing the pace notes!

We had a very mixed event – some very good stage times interspersed with car problems. Graham seemed to spend a lot of the time pushing the car, which he said definitely wasn't in his contract! The car suffered from major overheating problems during the event, which meant that the engine had to be switched off – then it would not start again. A rear suspension unit also failed, but fortunately we had a replacement. We have since reverted to the Rover Hydrogas fluid instead of an equivalent that was supposed to be better. Despite all this, we still managed to finish 4th in class and 55th overall out of 114 starters. There were a lot of spectators on the event, and many of these were Brits. We were surprised to recognise so many faces from UK motorsport, including the previous owner of our Metro. He was surprised to see his old car in turquoise instead of red, and with a new body shell!

At the half way stage, we were lying first in the class championship, but only by 1 point and the competition was intense. We'd done the Tour of Flanders before and were looking forward to the stages. The Tour is based in Roeselare, which only takes about 1 – 1 ½ hours from the Eurotunnel terminal. Because of this, it is always very popular with British crews and there was a real invasion. It was a round of the Skoda Challenge so the N1 class was the biggest in the whole field.

Due to business commitments, we could only manage a 1 day recce. As we had been doing pace notes all season, we felt that we had developed a reasonable system so that only having a 1 day recce didn't matter too much. Some of the stages were similar to before, and this was the only event that we had done twice before. The only stage which we couldn't recce was the Zoning stage as that stage went through an industrial estate and took you the wrong way round roundabouts etc. We drove slowly round the right way to get a feel for the stage and then a most bizarre incident happened. Out of the corner of her eye, as if in slow motion she saw something heading through the air towards the car. It hit with a loud thump on the roof. A large lorry had been driving past laden high with scrap metal, fence panels etc and none of these were tied down. In a big gust of wind, a fence panel had dislodged and hit the Subaru on the roof. We were very lucky – if we had been a fraction of a second slower, it would have gone through the windscreen! We managed to sort everything out but it cut down on our recce time quite a bit.

After the dramas of the recce, we had a cracking run on the event despite the often appalling weather (which included driving one stage in a blinding hailstorm). There were 26 cars in the N1 class and a total of 8 Lady drivers out of 120 crews. We ended up 5th in class and 44th overall and I was the top Lady driver, beating Andrea Hall in a Ford Ka. Flanders was the one event where everything went well, and it was our best result of the year. This fired up the enthusiasm for the last two events.

The next to last round was the Lotto Bianchi Rally based in Charleroi in Southern Belgium. Graham was not able to take time off work so Christine Daniels stepped into the hot seat. The event was over 2 days and at the end of the first evening, we were lying 4th in class and 33rd overall, and all was looking good. However, on the run out to the first stage on the second day, disaster struck as the car just suddenly stopped on a road section. With only 15 minutes lateness allowed, the car couldn't be fixed in time and we went OTL. It later turned out to have been an unusual alternator problem with a burnt out lead. On the Metro, if the battery volts gets too low, the engine will die and not start – there is no warning. The fault must have happened in the day on Day 1, but there was no sign of any problem at service. We were not the only Southern crew on the event. Tony Jardine was also competing, after being persuaded by Sue how good the Belgian events are. Tony enjoyed the first day, then totalled his Escort Cosworth on the second day in a high speed off. To not finish is bad enough, but to just end up with a pile of scrap metal is a lot worse, but that is rallying! Sorry Tony!

We had originally been undecided about doing the last round, but due to the non-finish and our Championship position, we decided to give it a go.

The Condroz Rally is another event in Belgium, which is popular with British crews, and there were over 150 crews altogether taking part from around Europe. We were thoroughly looking forward to the event as the class Championship was resting on the last event. We had a good recce the previous weekend and we looked forward to starting with our best seeding of the year.

We were the only N1 crew with four finishes, so we were seeded first of the N1. The start was a disaster. Our hotel was many miles from the event, our service crew missed a turn on the motorway, and we arrived a few minutes late. The road sections round Huy were a maze of one way streets and blocked roads, that were not present during the recce. This underlined our previous policy of doing a recce on the road sections as well as the stages.

After the shaky start, the first day went really well and we were up there with the leaders of another large N1 field, until one of the night stages. The rain was pouring down, as it often does in Belgium. The engine coughed and spluttered after going through a large puddle, then died on a narrow up hill section of road. We blocked the stage and had 6 very unhappy crews behind us. Somehow, after several minutes, the Metro started – with the assistance of 6 wet and muddy crews, and we were off again. After stopping to do up the safety harness and find the place in the notes, we hurtled on, only to meet a safety car travelling against rally route. We were not sure who was more shocked, but we squeezed past, reached the finish, then somehow arrived on time at the arrival control of the next stage. We half expected to be excluded, but we were still running on Day 2, and according to FIA rules, the cars behind us were given a realistic nominal time. After a big relief, but a big time penalty we started Day 2, but disaster was to strike halfway through the second day – just after the start of a long stage with no service for a couple of stages, the clutch gave up the ghost. Sue managed to get second gear and drive out of the 2 stages but we had a long road section to service, and the engine was cooking. We had to throw in the towel. A very disappointing end to a great rally and a great Championship.

However, we still managed to end up second in class in the Championship which we were really pleased with in only our first full season doing the Belgian International Championship. The rules are different in Belgium for the Open Championship. To qualify for an award, a crew must finish four events, which is far from easy with such long tough events. There is only one award, and that is first in class, so there was no trophy to pick up.

Would we do the Championship again? YES!

We aim to go one better next time we do a full season in Belgium, but it will be far from easy. The events are really long and tough and put a lot of strain on both car and crew, and of course the bank balance. It is physically and mentally exhausting and can be very frustrating as you are bound to have some non-finishes. The average is more than 200 stage miles per event! However, most of the stages are absolutely cracking, culminating in the 35 KM classic round Kemmel on Ypres. The organisation is of a very high standard and the competition is strong.