Round One:
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One road rally successfully completed. only one section turned out not to be on the road, and it would appear that has cost us a radiator...
The results are 9th overall but key is 2nd in class. This puts us third in the championship.
Thanks clearly due to the co-driver - James, and his wife for lending him out, and converting binary into digital on the end of the phone! I would love to say that it was easy physically, but this is a christian forum so I can't really lie, as a result I will be spending most of the weekend in bed.
First event, in a car.
Much time spent preparing the car and the co-driver! Both held up very well and we came 2nd in class. This puts us 3rd in the championship at the moment.
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Round Two:
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Well it is round three actually, but for us it is round two.
It is a different style of event - a 12 car rally - and thus time for a different co-driver. This chap, called Chris, is a non-christian and our aim is to finish in the top three again.
This would consolidate our position in the championship if nothing else.
Edward and I have carried out some modifications to the car, we now have a map reading light - so no more night blindness for me!
The radiator was not holed, but the clutch is on it's last legs.Event Two.
Some more preparation of the car over the past two weeks. Nav light fitted inside. Spots adjusted on the front. Very different discipline to the previous round. Different co-driver, but it is decided that I will use James for the Scatters and Chris for the 12-cars!
We came 2nd in class again, but there was only two of us in class this time. Still leaves me 3rd in the championship though!
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Round Three:
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New Co-driver, and 2nd in class again.
Only problem this time there were only two of us in class!
We were in fact plumb last.
The 12 car was a very different discipline, and I for one wasn't as ready as I should have been.
Car needed more work this time. New rear shocks - as the existing set expired shortly following an airborne moment...
Brakes also collapsed as did a CV boot. This is not the cheap motorsport it was meant to be!
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Round Four and Five:
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Oops...still came last in the last round - but we are getting better. Last still equates to second in class, so for the championship it is not all bad.
Last night 15th saw the last official round of this year. Another 12 car. It went better, but we are still not sharp enough with our route plotting.
Dagnamit
Last again - but still good enough to put me 1st in the championship over the students long break!
Managed a second 12 car inside 7 days. Run by a different club, so we did much better. It was very slippy and foggy, but we only crashed into one field.
Edward came with us as a second navigator this time. he loved it, but was rather car sick. Still he didn't want us to stop in case we came last!
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Round Six:
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Small turn out for this event - and being the only car in class we were first (in class).
The up side is we were only a couple of points behind the experienced crews.
We now sit 12 points clear at the top of our class, 9th over all.
Still need a faster car, if only someone was selling a fast 205 GTI... would save me from having to finish mine!
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Round Seven:
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As Queen said - another one bites the dust...
Worst performance yet for us - due to deciding to take a white road, as a short cut and ending up stuck in a muddy lane for 40 mins. It is the fastest I have ever run an engine whilst stationary - we got up to 45 miles per hour in second.
It took over an hour even with a jet wash. You can not really see that there is as much mud on the roof as well!
Despite that we were again the only true novice crew competing so another class win and another step closer to the championship crown.
James - the christian navigator - gave our first very small christian input in the pub afterwards. When asked how we got out of the mud he said we prayed a lot!
Two more rounds to go...
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Last Rounds:
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The team is now the proud owner of a Peugeot 309 GTI.
Already caged and guarded. Needs new wishbones (done) brakes (done) and shocks - to be done.
Purchase price, including a transit full of spares (Don't let Mrs clark look under the balcony...) £500.00
Insurance, with all declared mods and including FULL TRACK DAY INSURANCE - £290.00, as it is apparently a classic car.
The season is now over fully. We went out on a huge high. A 5 hour marathon road rally, and we won our class (and this time 6 more crews were in it too!) and came 3rd over all (out of 18 crews).
Thursday night is the annual awards, so dinner suit ready and speach is written to receive the championship award.
At some point it would be a great evangelism event to take non-christians too, as cars can be shared. It was suprisingly difficult even after establishing Edward didn't know left from "no the other left..."
Whilst I am the first to accept that this is the bottom end of motorsport it has been a huge achievement to get this far for us!
Maiden Season Win! Got a little trophy and everything!
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