Wednesday, 14 October 2009

Rachel rallies to island success

Intensive preparation paid off last weekend for Penrith rally co-driver Rachel Medich when she successfully completed the notoriously difficult Tour of Mull car rally. Rachel and driver Dave Edwards took their Vauxhall Astra to 47th place from a start number of 145.

The rally took place on the Isle of Mull, off the west coast of Scotland, and it used closed public roads for the 144 competitive miles of the event.

Preparations for the rally started over two weeks before the start with Edwards and his service crew checking everything over on the rally car to make sure it was up to the job of surviving the tough conditions that Mull would present. Having contested the rally last year Rachel already had pacenotes for most of the course but these needed rehashed into the correct order for the 2009 event. The crew travelled to the island on the Monday before the rally and had a busy few days of making pacenotes for the new sections of the course and then driving each stage several times both in the daylight and at night where necessary to check the notes and try and remember as much of the stages as they could.

Friday evening arrived, the rally was due to start, and a usually calm Rachel was feeling nervous.

“I don't really get nervous before events any more but this one is a whole different ball game,” she said. “We weren't as nervous as last year that’s for sure but we were definitely biting our nails before the start.”

Their rally kicked off at 10.16pm on Friday night with two short stages in Tobermory. They were pleased to be only nine seconds down on rally leader Dougi Hall. Several crews crashed out of the event during the opening night with many more suffering mechanical problems. Edwards and Medich battled through the treacherous conditions to end the night in 80th place.

“The stages were very very slippy with the rain and there were cars off all over the place. It was a relief to get through the night. Some of the stages were cancelled and there were a few hold ups – we didn’t get back to our accommodation till 5.30am!”

“We had our first major moment of the event on the Loch Tuath stage, we took a jump a bit too quickly and when we landed all the lights went out! In the ensuing confusion I turned two pages in the notes but luckily we only had one corner and a long straight to go before service where our excellent crew fixed us up again.”

The rally restarted on Saturday afternoon with five stages in the daylight. The rain that blighted the opening night of the rally had gone and Edwards and Medich put cut slick tyres on the Astra. A good run through the stages saw them move up to 55th place at the end of the second leg of the event although the afternoon was not without incident.

“We had a big moment on the Hill Road stage where the road disappears hard right over a crest and then tightens. Added to this there is an off-camber to it and a 100 foot drop on the outside. We locked up under braking coming into it, that was a moment to have you tightening your belts believe me!”

The crew had a few hours to rest before the start of leg three which would see further stages through Saturday night into Sunday morning. Most of the stages were dry but torrential rain on the final stage nearly caught the Astra crew out.

“The whole of the final stage was one big moment, we set off into it and it was dry, yet 100 metres in the heavens opened and we had to back right off as we were on slick tyres. We kept expecting to be caught as we thought we were going so slow but as we headed up Glen Bellart we caught the car in front and chased him to the finish. We were very lucky not to put the car off the road in those conditions.”

Despite the long hours the rally attracted vast numbers of enthusiasts who braved the variable weather conditions to support the event and create a unique atmosphere.

“The atmosphere is like nothing I've ever experienced before on an event. Everyone you meet is really friendly, even the poor marshals stood outside in the driving rain and freezing wind in the middle of the night still manage to retain their sense of humour!”

“When there is a hold up, even though it's pitch black and you can't see faces, every competitor is out of the car and chatting, it's like a mutual respect for everyone that has the guts to compete on such a difficult event.

“There are some remote sections of the rally where you feel very alone, all you see whilst going through the stage is the occasional light from a radio car or a marshal's fluorescent jacket. Then you come to a spectator area or popular stage and there are thousands of people cheering you on, some with camp fires (don't blame them in that cold) all enjoying the rally and staying to watch the final competitors through.”

A tired but elated crew arrived at the rally finish at 3.06am having survived the event to finish 47th overall.

“We are absolutely thrilled to bits with the result. We went to the island with the intention of improving on our cautious result last year when we finished 65th and we really did that! 47th overall from a starting position of 145 is a massive improvement on seeding and it's an achievement we are very proud of.”

“We really need to say a huge thanks to Chris Thomas, Mal Atkinson, Colin Longton, Christian Parker and Adam and Graham Foxcroft - without them we couldn't have got the result. Also thanks to Dave's family, Sandra, Peter and Ailsa Edwards for looking after us so well.”

After their fine performance Rachel hopes to return to the island in 2010 for a hat-trick of finishes.

“We’re planning to be back next year and hope to improve further. I have already been given the task of providing a talk to the kids at Tobermory High School on rally safety next year so I hope we will get an entry to the event… hint hint!”

Sunday, 11 October 2009

We made it!!!!!!

We've completed the last stage!!

Had a bit of a problem as it started raining heavily and we were on slicks, not a good combination!!

Awesome run through the 22 miler!!

A shame that we lost some more mileage with the cancellations and stoppages, hopefully the crews who crashed are all ok.

We ended up in 47th overall, very happy with that!

Thanks to Rob Lees for supplying the action pics :)

Saturday, 10 October 2009

Daylight stages done

5 stages in the daylight today and we've got through them all.

Up to 55th overall now, it's going well!

We'll be out again later for the night stages of Leg 3, hopefully finishing sometime in the middle of the night.

Leg 1 successfully completed

We made it to the end of Leg 1, a fair chunk of the competitive mileage was lost due to people going off but we still managed to get up to 80th overall from a start number of 145 so not too bad.

Lot's of rain made the stages very slippery, I'm happy to have got to the end of the night, some poor folk retired early on, including one guy whose car broke at the startline... all that recce and note making wasted, gutted!

Friday, 9 October 2009

The start is nigh...

Feeling nervous.

Heavy rain.

We start at 22:16!!

First stage round Tobermory. I wonder if the chippy will be open?

Thursday, 8 October 2009

Mud magnet goes back to school

It's the day before the rally, I can't actually believe that it's all starting tomorrow night!!

Today we've done some more recce and then the 2300 Club Chairman and myself did a talk about rally safety in front of 500 school kids which was good fun.

We're going to do one last bit of night recce later on and then have a few drinks.

I'm not sure if there will be time to do any updates once we've started the event... and Mr Songasport will be in deepest South Wales and may not have a signal to get on t'internet anyway so if you'd like keep track of our progess please visit the rally live results webpage by clicking here.

Wednesday, 7 October 2009

Recce nearly done...

Another busy day of recce today.

We've just about done all stages now, there's two left to do in the dark which we'll get done tomorrow night.

Then it'll be time to get some rest ready for the rally start on Friday evening.

The weather forecast isn't looking too good at the moment, very heavy rain for the Friday night stages preceded by snow on Friday afternoon... winter is on it's way!

Tuesday, 6 October 2009

100 right 4 caution coos

Day 2 in the big haunted house...

The weather was awful last night! We got our night recce completed although we had a few issues with Heelan' coos who were out making notes at the same time. I was pretty knackered too after my early morning start.

The notes are ready to be bound now which I'll sort out later on.

Reet, time to grab some breakfast and then we'll hit the stages again!

Monday, 5 October 2009

Time for more recce

Had a bit of time at the haunted hoose but now I've left and returned to the roads.

We're about to go over the stages we did this afternoon to see how they look in the dark.

We'll make some additions to the notes as we go, you see things at night that aren't so noticeable in the day - fenceposts and such like are useful markers when you're flying through the stages in the dark!

Once that's done it's back to the house to try and avoid ghosts and hopefully get a good night's kip ready for more recce and note making tomorrow.

Notes, ghosts and scary boats

I've made it to Mull.. lovely scenery on the way up, I saw the viaduct that I managed to miss when I was on the same road in August!

We're staying in a house which looks very haunted. Perhaps the headless ghost of Ewan MacLean lives there although I didn't see his horse.

We've driven over the first few stages and made our notes, all going well so far. Had a quick stop in Salen (scary boats).

More news when I next get a signal!