I almost forgot I had a rally car

Well its over a year ago since i posted to the blog and nothing has happened since with the rally car. In September of last year I was trying to organise a 106 rally day out but unfortunatley it didnt work out for me.

Our car has sat for a long time and done no rallying whatsoever. However, I have put in an entry for an Alltrak event in August that takes place in Aghadowey. I am going back to the last place that I competed so that I can get back out and get use to the car again.

This time dad will be competing aswell. My friend Wayne will be sitting with him and my girlfriend Chinazor is sitting with me. Im really looking forward to this one as we will hopefully have "proper" incar camera footage this time. It will also be interesting to see if the upgrade to Ferodo competition pads and Brembo discs will make a difference in stopping power as I have to admit i have never been confident with the braking capabilities of our car.

The Rally that didnt happen!

Well i havent been out in the car since November and i was all geared up for the last round of the Winter Series of Aghadowey! I had the car sent down to Cavan to be fixed by Martin Brady (came highly recommended). Went down and got the car on Thursday night! On Friday i raced down to "The Derg" and got a race suit for Latoya, whom u can see modelling with the car. Everything was going well until about 7am on Saturday morning.



We got to the end of the drive way and a hub on the trailer shattered completely! I was totally gutted. To be honest i think Latoya was happy as we did have a major brake problem but we where going to carry on regardless anyway. So unfortunately we didnt get anywhere at all that day! Roll on the first date for the Summer Series!!!

Alltrax - Winter Series 25th November 2006

This was my first time at Aghadowey - it was ok. I had my new co-driver alongside me, Peter Reid, who was very helpful all day and kept things going well. The first run was a complete disaster as i did my usual "trying way too hard". I spun twice and went completely off at least 2 other times. Time was a pathetic 4.33. The second run was a mild improvement driving wise but i was 20 secs quicker than before. (4.13)



Then we really settled down but again the car was jumping out of gear all the time and we where still losing loads of time - the third run was a 4.04. We took some video during the stage - we where caught by a civic but then we over took him further on in the stage.


The 4th run althoough our last and the run that the car actually broke, we set our fastest time of 4.02 - these times are actually miles off of our class winner - he was on 3.30's so it was like day and night. Although we must remember that the car is standard.

My car b4 it was my car !

I was just browsing the net and low and behold i found some pictures of my car when it was used on the mainland!

The car is been driven here by Mark Gamble. The car looks a bit different now. This 1st picture is Mark on the military ranges of Epynt, Wales in 2004.



Below is Mark on the Wyedean Forestry Rally 2004.



Please have a look at Mark's website www.jam-motorpsort.co.uk

Autocross @ Latton Quarry - 1st October 2006

Before we get to Latton we had the small problem of getting the car ready for it. When i rolled the car not only did i bend panels and smash windscreens i managed to break a engine mounting which was a standard part. I bought a GrpA mounting from England. We had huge problems fitting it to the car. Only for Tommy McDaid coming up especially from Castlederg to help us out it wud never have got on the trailer. I had tommy under the car late on Friday night and he fixed the problem. Huge thanks to Tommy for that one. Not the last time he will be thanked on this page!

This was the first time out since i crashed and put the car on "its lid". Some alterations had been made to the track and my jumps arent as severe and they are now tarmac.

The car looks different also - it has the standard front on it which i hate!! Most dont notice it but i do!!

I was very cautious on the first run, not helped by a car that wudnt stay in gear. My first two runs where in the 2:17's - not good! I pushed to hard on my second run and ended up with the same time. Dad was having similar problems 2 seconds further back.



On my last run i really settled down and i took 5 seconds off my time but a 2:12 isnt good enough(class winner Stephen Lipsett was on a 2:03). We seem to have a car that is geared wrongly. Too much power in 1st and not enough in 2nd. We are thinking of going to 13" wheels to see if they might be better. We need to invest in better tyres also - we have little grip.

Please enjoy the photographs snapped by Noel Graham - further examples which can be viewed @ http://www.ngmotorsportimages.com

Autocross @ Latton Quarry - 4th June 2006

Well there are positive and negative aspects to Latton. One is it has a great track - surface is really good and the organising club where very helpful and very nice to all competitors.

The negative aspect is i tried to hard to better my time. (yes i know this was all my fault) Dad had set a time of 2:16 on his first timed run and i had set a 2:09 on mine.

The brakes where ok as it turned out we didnt need them much. Dads second run was much better than his first with him setting a time of 2:11 - still 2 seconds off the boy wonder!

I went out on my second run. I was absolutely flying - i was wide in a few places but generally i was running really well - the first lap was great. Near the start there are two jumps. I took the first one well and then heading for the second i made a huge jump. I landed too far left and had to correct it. Then slow-mo started - the car went sideways and i shud have accelerated to bring it out of the slide but i braked and slid up onto the bank and over the car went onto its roof!!!! I was so mad with myself as i know i was driving pretty well.

I had to go over to the Ambulance and get checked out and i was fine. I have to thank Mervyn Wedlock for taking care of me and the ambulance crew also for checking me over.

We didnt damage the car too much but i shudnt have damaged it at all - but thats motorsport

Preparations!!!

This is just us checking the car over for anything that might be about to go wrong. We really learnt our lesson from Kilnaleck. A lesson we should have known already.

The brakes still arent great so we are going to bleed them and see how that goes. Also we got new pads so we need to break them in also.