Rally Report
Tom Bowen on his first rally of the year
It is now 2006 and we are embarking on another year of rallying in our trusty MG ZR with our first event the Astra Stages based in North Wales. As you may recall I had a rather nerve racking start to the 2005 season with my ‘off’ on the first stage of the first round. The stress factor started even earlier this year however there was a kinder outcome.
Our main priority was to have the gearbox re-built for the first event. Our man Elliot of 3D Motorsport was having a little bit of trouble sorting it out in time given his busy schedule but as far as we were aware it was going to be OK. The car was scheduled to be ready at about midday on the day before the rally giving us an easy four hours to reach Llangollen scrutineering. We duly arrived to find the car with its bonnet up and gearbox still out. We noticed Elliot had another helper in addition to his cousin Jack and this turned out to be Martin Rowe the ex British Rally Champion. He had dropped by to help speed up the last minute preparation of our little MG before leaving to tutor some young rally hopefuls. It was really great to see Martin again after my tuition day with him last year. We had a good talk about what he had been up to and he kindly gave me some helpful hints and tips.
Tom and Abi before the start
In the meantime we let Elliot get on with his intense work on the gearbox. The time ticked by and we were beginning to get anxious as it was about 1.30 and we needed to be in Wales by 5.00 ish for scrutineering. It was a three-hour trip at best and rather more on a late Friday afternoon. Once he had assembled the gearbox by 2.00 he found a rather unfortunate problem. He had put on one of the gear components the wrong way around in the rush to get the car ready in time. Instead of neutral we had 5th gear and so on. Dad and I couldn’t believe, it nor could Elliot. I had visions of not even making the first rally. Elliot thought he could change the offending piece without taking the gearbox out once again but was not sure. So after two more hours of unbearable stress and worry we decided to beg the organisers through our MG championship contact John Davenport to allow us to be srutineered at 7am on the day of the rally and fortunately John managed to arrange this for us. Luckily Elliot had the gearbox sorted by 4.30pm and we could have a relatively stress free journey up to North Wales.
On arrival in Wales we managed to liaise with Abi my new co-driver. We met up at the B&B and took the car off the trailer and hoped to sort out a set of five tyres for the rally. We just managed to get to the Silverstone tyres van in time and he kindly agreed to fit us out with a new set. This was a relief as would not have had time in the morning. Once we had sorted the tyres and got everything ready there was just enough time to grab a takeaway which managed to give dad a mild bout of food poisoning for good measure. By now it was 10.00pm and we needed an early night.
Stages were really rough and well chewed up
We had our scrutineering and signing on at 7am the following morning. Thankfully it all went very smoothly and we had nothing to worry about. We rushed back to the B&B and relaxed over a hearty breakfast with the thought of a huge day of rallying ahead of us. I was feeling rather anxious as it was Abi’s first ever event as a navigator but she seemed calm which was reassuring. At 9.53am we were off over the starting ramp with dad waving us away. There were eight stages ahead of us and only one service. The first stages went well, but not surprisingly Abi lost her place few times on the pace notes but things went really well. I was also a bit rusty after not driving the car for months. So in a way we were getting into the flow of things together. I soon got to grips with the ZR and began to feel very comfortable indeed. After the short first stage we tackled the next two, including the longest one of twelve miles which didn’t seem too long at all. Almost before we knew it we were arriving at a service for a welcome break. On arrival we were given the time sheets and I was amazed to see we were 4th overall and 2nd in class, and thrilled as well. We had twenty minutes for service and then back for the three remaining stages. We repeated the twelve-mile stage and had two new ones. The repeated long stage had been subjected to over 100 historic and national cars in the rally and as a result had become really rough but it didn’t seem to affect the performance of the car at all. We kept up a really good pace for the remainder of the event but to be honest I was just so relieved to finish. We returned in one piece and so did the car. Others were not so fortunate and out of a field of 17 competing in the British Rally Championship Stars of the Future section only eight finished. One retired on the first stage and another ex-factory car retired on the 3rd stage. We finished in the event in the same position as at service, 2nd in class and 4th overall. Abi had done a grand job for her first outing and if we can keep this up we could surprise a few competitors as the season progresses. A modified MG ZR won our event as usual MG ZRs dominated the finish card.
I really want to thank Elliot from 3D Motorsport for doing such a great job of preparing the car even though I nearly had a nervous breakdown on the Friday afternoon. It felt absolutely great and was running like it never has never done before. I would also like to thank my sponsors Prostate Cancer Awareness, Picketts Cars, Attivo Solutions, MG Owners’ Club, 3D Motorsport my dad, Abi and my girlfriend Sam for all their help and support. Incidentally the Astra stages should be televised on Sky Sport in early May so you should be able to me in action.
Tom and Abi working well together
The next rally is the Pirelli on May 13th and I look forward to telling you more of my adventures.