Southern had four crews out on the Bulldog Midland and Meirion Rally on the 25th October, the last rounds of the Mintex, Welsh National and Welsh Clubmans' championships. In the National Rally were me and Catherine in our N3 Astra GSi at 65, John Blaber and Alan Jamieson in their A7 Peugeot 205 at 77, and John O'Donnell and Jo Brand in the Gwynne 106. On the Meirion Rally Ian Torkington and Paul Smith were in the 4x4 Cavalier carrying the possibly unlucky number 313. They were ably supported as usual by a gang of Southern members, including Brian Price, Neil Boxall and Colin Torkington, while James Potter was out supporting Dick Slaughter.

We were fortunate to have excellent weather this weekend in Wales - both days were very cold but with cloudless blue skies. This is pretty unusual in Wales, where it normally rains in October, and raised a new problem - sun in the eyes! The low sun at this time of year presents a real hazard as you come over crests trying desperately to spot where the road is going - or the world suddenly goes dark as the road plunges back into the woods. Dust hanging in the air makes the problem ten times worse.

Testing - Friday 24th October

On the Friday before the event crews were allowed to recce the short spectator stage in the Sweet Lamb complex. We took the opportunity to do some testing there as well. For anyone interested, you pay £60 (less than one tyre) for an hour's use of the stage. Take three people and you get three hours - long enough to change the car's set-up and become really happy with it before an event. Jon Bennett-Evans tells us it is becoming increasingly popular.

The Sweet Lamb rally test venue has a huge central area about ¼ mile long where you can play around with the cars and warm up brakes and suspension, and then three different rally circuits. We were using the most hilly circuit, featuring several hairpins and crests as well as a series of fast 30-45° bends. The track is built for professionals - no safety banking or armco - so there is no room for error. With three Wizard-prepared cars testing, the drivers were all giving each other rides and swapping driving tactics - so I had to be careful not to get over-enthusiastic.

We were mainly there to test out our new ProFlex suspension. This is a really stunning piece of equipment, with adjustable bump, rebound and height. We are running it at a middle hardness setting, giving the car the slight softness you need for forest stages without being so soft as to wallow around. The main thing you notice is that the car turns in a lot better - if you overdo a corner, putting on more power will bring the back end round. Of course, if you forget this and put too much power on, you go into an oversteer spin - so we fiddled with the settings for a while to get the right degree of rear end grip.

We also had the chance to recce a separate piece of Sweet Lamb which would be the spectator stage on Saturday's rally. This was a 1.25 miler, a vicious little circuit with big jumps and some tight downhill corners, as well as a small complex of two hairpins and a ramp to make the cars jump in front of the cameras. We were only allowed to go round this slowly, but we could see it would be interesting!

Once we'd finished testing we set about the serious business of the day - applying the Rapport stickers! (We have a new sponsor, you see.) Peeling all the old stickers off the car was difficult as the cold air makes the glue set hard - until we started pouring hot water over them to warm them up. The stickers got a lot of comment during the rally as they say "Rapport Relationship Management System". People wondered if this was a comment on the strains rallying puts on a marriage...

The Rally - Saturday 25th

First car away on the Midland was 8:50, and by mid-morning we were up in Dyfi forest (just south of Dolgellau) doing the first 16-mile stage. We had chosen to use the maps rather than the un-recced pace notes on offer so the pressure was on to read the maps well.

Paul Smith found the notes and maps particularly difficult after his recent eye operation. The combination of long and short vision required made him regret not getting bifocals and Ian had to drive on sight for quite a bit of the event.

Our first stage was great, but when we came out the service crew found we had an oil leak under the bonnet somewhere. No time to check properly, we had to press on to the 9-miler in Gartheiniog. This proved harder to read well - when the track gets rough, it can sometimes be difficult even to focus on the map, let alone get micro-scopic detail out!

It was in Gartheiniog that John and Alan had their worst fright of the day. On the entry to a "5 right tightens" a spectator was urging them on to greater speed. IF YOU EVER SEE THIS, TAKE CARE!! I know how some of these crash videos are made through bitter experience, and I now slow down. John lost concentration and did not make the "tightens", ending up backwards down the bank. The front wheels were up in the air but with a bit of weight at that end the speccies got them going again with the loss of less than 90 seconds. These same spectators eventually put a stop to the video gang's "wind-up merchant" who was placed before the bend.

First Service

At the first service in Dolgellau we had three worried mechanics looking at the Astra's oil leak, which now was spraying everywhere. They tightened everything up and took a protective plate off to keep the oil from staying around the clutch, which was starting to slip.

On to Dyfnant and the two Hafren stages, another 30 miles. It was in Hafren that we had our moments. The first was a well-cautioned tightening left with a big drop on the outside and a large crowd of camcorder-wielders on the inside. Despite the caution I went in a bit too fast. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a spectator mime a tug on the handbrake and I took his advice. We probably made up a second in that bend - and nearly lost the whole rally!

The other main scare was coming downhill on an earthy smooth slippy section to another sharp left and in front of us was a solid piece of Forestry Commission machinery. Looked like a tank - not good. To make matters more "not good", the log pile on our left acted like a wooden magnet as we braked. The world seems to slow down at moments like these and Catherine says that the tree sticking out of the pile towards us had 26 rings in its trunk.

However, we were definitely catching the car in front of us - every time we came into a finish control he was still there getting his times. This wasn't a very good thing, as he was leaving a lot of dust in the air which reduced visibility. We also didn't know if he was just being slow or we were doing well - the results service was non-existent so we could only find out the times of cars round us. Our mechanics were trying to get times from two N3 crews running ahead of us so we knew how we were doing! but without much success.

Second Service

Into the service area at Sweet Lamb (yesterday's ¼-mile test area) and the oil leak had stopped. We were getting through tyres at a fearful pace - two on the first two stages and another two already. When we asked the mechanics about this, they rather unsympathetically blamed it on the ProFlex - "what do you expect now you're getting more traction". The blocks that make up the rally treads were actually ripping off the main tyre! Still, we'd budgeted for six tyres so we swapped the back tyres to the front and carried on (the backs get hardly any wear on a front-wheel drive car).

Our foreboding about the dangers in those 1.25 miles of spectator special were confirmed when from service we looked up to see someone roll their Escort at the final acute downhill hairpin. There was a helicopter hovering over the spectator stage and a large crowd with a commentator, so the atmosphere was pretty exciting.

We had a small problem on the first tight corner when Richard mistook the clutch for the brake! but recovered from that to take a good run-up at the jumps. The car landed very nose-heavily each time - we need to talk to some other competitors to find if it was the way the jumps were built or the new suspension. Normally an Astra flies very well, and it's good fun to take jumps fast. On the second run round we drove more bravely and more tidily - and were surprised to find we'd only taken 1 second off our previous time!

Final Service

Competitors had not had much of a results service and knowing how you were doing was hard. The organisers had not expected so many entries and back in Aberystwyth Sue Smith was manning the single phone line from the passage controls single-handedly. Andrew Kellitt, officially the competitor liaison officer, was drafted in to help.

Back for a short service and on to the last three stages of the day - two in Myherin and one in Llanafan. The sun was now starting to set and several times we were completely blinded, with no idea at all where the road was going. With some 100' drops around this wasn't a very comfortable state. We knew that everyone else had the same problems, but we had to get a good finish on this rally for our championship - so we had to keep going. A steady run through Llanafan saw us go back to Aberystwyth without a mark on the car.

Results

Our first look at the results showed a great story for Southern, with all four crews finishing. We got second in class behind Mark Perrott (one of "tomorrow's rally stars"), 9th in F2 and 39th overall, which was a good result given the number of people out preparing for the RAC. This means that we are first N3 car in the Welsh National Forestry championship and Catherine is first Formula 2 co-driver and first lady co-driver, as well as first lady co-driver on the BTRDA championship.

O'Donnell and Brand were not seeded last and didn't finish last, coming in 81st and 6th in B9, giving them the final licence upgrade they need for the RAC.

John and Alan drove to secure 3rd in class A7 in the Mintex championship, finishing 6th in class, 28th F2 and 66th overall.

Ian and Paul were also aiming for a points finish to secure a Welsh Clubmans' championship class win which they did despite Paul's mal de navigateur.