FFCC

2001 Autosport Spring 200 Trial

VCRS Rnd 6

6th October 2001

Buxton

I drove through the pouring rain and lightening flashes to scrutineering. It was shades of the 2000 event which was was postponed due to the weather, a thought that I pushed to the back of my mind. Due to last years rescheduling of the event we missed out on running, and I was really looking forward to this years event. I arrived to find scrutineering in full swing this time, much to my relief.

Aside from the weather, the event also had to contend with the fact that the organizers were prohibited from using a number of the roads on the route at the last minute, requiring some hasty reworking of the notes.

On race day, we arrived in Buxton early to set up. We put up our shelter and booked in. Deb set about mapping out our route for the evening, while I drove up the road to calibrate the trip meter. I had only traveled about three Kms when I hit a wall of rain. My heart sank. It was teeming down and the wind was howling, but as I drove out the other side of it, it was clear that it was localized. I got back to the service area, and the others had seen no sign of the rain. Every now and then a large gust of wind would rush through and try to level our shelter, but the precipitation was confined to the occasional very light shower. We finished plotting our route with plenty of time to relax and focus for the event.

The first stage was fully route charted, which is always fun. We were really in the groove from the start. The car was doing what I wanted it to and Deb's calls were right on the money. It wasn't in the notes but from the crew briefing before the event, we knew there was a spectator area in the stage, somewhere.

The spectator point intersection was a deceptive one. It looked from the drivers seat as if the road went to the right, when in fact, it went straight on over a slight, but blind crest. According to our service crew, who were at the spectator point as most of the cars came through, a fair number got it wrong. Most turning right and then bailing out, some doing complete 360s to end up on the right heading. The spectators apparently got quite a show.

As we approached the intersection, I backed off and started to swing right, but Deb was quick to correct me "No, straight on, straight on!". With out a hesitation I flicked the wheel left and went blindly over the crest. A couple of seconds lost, nothing serious, but more importantly a good sign that we are becoming a team really confident in each other.

About four kilometres from the end of the stage was a river crossing. The notes said the exit was steep and slippery, and that the stage was very slippery from that point on. This was an understatement. For the last few Kms we didn't have to turn for corners, just dab the brakes and gently caress the throttle and let the camber of the road pull us around the corner. On the flip side, the short straights where a hand full of steering one way and the other, just trying to stay on the crown of the road. It was slow going.

At one point I flicked left a little, to avoid a rut in the road. I could do nothing as the car started to slide and we had a complete 180 degree lose on a narrow road at a measly 20km/h.

Stage two started as stage one has ended, slow going and see-saw steering trying to stay on the road. We passed a couple of cars who had gone into some of the corners a little bit too quick and simply slid off the road. No major damage, just stuck. As we approached a slight left hand turn over a crest we spotted a triangle to indicate a car down. We slowed and as we crested the rise we saw no less than seven cars stuck at the bottom of a slippery hill. We attempted to continue past, but we had already slowed too much and didn't have the momentum to carry us through the slush up the hill. We bogged down half way up. I half reversed half slid the car back down the hill to join the other unhappy crews at the bottom.

That's pretty much where our event ended, but not our night. The last couple of crews were stopped before the rise and told what to expect on the other side. They were told to keep to the right, as it was firmer, and to maintain momentum. Most made it over. A couple got stuck with us. At one point twelve cars were stopped at the foot of the hill.

Once the last few cars were through, we began arduous task of recovering our own cars. We knew the recovery vehicle would be some way off, with the number of cars down before our point, so we all did what we could for the crews that weren't completely stuck. One by one the cars were driven up, one driver, ten or thirteen people pushing. As a car reached the top it would carry on to a clearing, and then each driver returned to help with the rest.

While it was not as heavy as the other cars, our trusty Charade presented another problem. Unlike the other cars, it is front wheel drive and while going up a steep hill all the weight is over the rear, resulting in very little traction at the driven wheels. To compensate for this we ended up with me driving, eight people pushing, and a couple of people sitting on the bonnet, bouncing up and down to get the tyres to bite through the slush.

The recovery vehicle finally arrived to help the last couple of crews who were completely bogged. Even the 4WD was having trouble in the slippery conditions.

On a lighter note, earlier, as we were waiting for the traffic to pass so that we could begin pushing cars up the hill, we were talking to the other crews. One of them recognized us.

"Hey, wasn't it you guys who hit another car at the last event....... a 1600 at the river..... That was us!"

It was the driver of the stalled orange Datsun that we clipped entering the creek crossing on stage 3 in the George Derrick a couple of months earlier. We talked it over and I finally got a chance to apologize in person. One of the great things about rallying is the attitude of the competitors. While we do all we can to avoid such incidents, they do occasionally happen, but when they do you can usually apologize, shake hands, and that's where it rests.

Anyway, after getting all the cars up the hill, we set off for finish control. Due to the wheel spin up the hill our distances were out and we ended up taking a wrong turn. Thank you goes out to 'Haggis', an official, who saw us on the right road again. We booked in to finish control, but by then we were well out of 'late running time' so we drove to rally HQ to hand in our road card and retire.

As it panned out the next stage (comp 3) was abandoned half way through, and the rest of the event canceled due to a combination of the weather closing in (we only had our first rain of the event after we got stuck) and a car full of drunks towing a caravan being encountered roaming the rally route. (That is another long story to which I don't have all the details, so I won't comment.)

When we arrived at the service park Paula and the crew had already packed up. All we had to do was load the car on the trailer and head home. By now it was raining fairly heavily, so we loaded up in a hurry and left. Unfortunately we left an expensive ratchet on the side of the trailer and the dolly wheel down. We were flagged down by another motorist as we crossed the Black Spur, telling us that we were showering sparks behind us. It was what was left of the dolly wheel hitting the road. The ratchet was never see or heard from again!

So all up: a DNF (bad), no car damage (good), but it still cost us a small fortune (the usual !! ).

As a post script to this, the next event we were to contest, the Moonlight Meander only seven days later, was postponed due to the weather. As with the Spring 200 last year, it was only set back one week. Deb and the service crew were unavailable for the new date at short notice so we had to withdraw.