Left: Kenny and Jane MacEwan in their Alfa Romeo Giulia GTV enjoying a brief spell of bright sunshine on a still wet and slippy Derbyshire farm track during Leg Two.
Ready for the off
Many crews had arrived at the Marriott Dalmahoy HQ on Wednesday and there had been much banter in the evening with drivers winding each other up about the route, as usual though the navigators were more studious with little clusters discussing the intricacies of the route and whether they were really going that way round or was it just a plotting error. The basic route book had been sent out about two weeks ago so there had been much work since with the serious crews transfering the route book to Ordnance Survey maps even though it is quite possible to follow the route using the route book.
The recent bad weather has led to the potential for re routes and three teams of officials were out all day looking at various sections of the route to see that all was passable and arrange re routes around some flooded areas as necessary.
On Thursday morning the remaining route information was released and there was an eager queue of navigators waiting for their packs whilst the drivers waited to be scrutineered.
The drive up to Edinburgh had been uneventful for most but Harvey and Jan du Cros had stopped en route to have the fuel pump on their newly purchased Lotus Cortina replaced. Jan had said that if she was going to do "winter" rallies she wanted a roof over her head so their regular mount, the Austin-Healey 3000 will be saved for warmer times. Newcomers to the CRA Derek and Simone West have had a busy time leading up to the event with a leaking back axle needing new seals. Not so lucky were our Senior Citizens Arthur Senior and Colin Francis - they broke down on the way up to the start and are going to become spectators / marshals for the weekend. Head gasket failure is suspected - Last time he had this problem Arthur was at the Prodrive test facilities so had some help to make the change but he was not so lucky They had really entered into the spirit and arrived at the Dalmahoy in their period dress.
A couple of years ago on the Rally of the Tests we had a prologue which consisted of a short driving test on Scarborough sea front, as is his way in tryng to give even better value Clerk of the Course Fred Bent has increased the content of the prologue over the years and for this year crews will travel up to the Knockhill Motor Racing circuit where they will tackle two driving tests and a regularity consistency test - this is the first time we have run one of these tests in the dark and it will be interesting to see the different approaches taken to maintain consistent lap times. After the Prologue it's back to the fabulous Dalmahoy for our first group meal.
See the results page to see how your friends fared in the dark, our results and website guru Chris Bruce will be updating the website during the event - you can usually expect to see a fresh set of results each morning - Fred's tight schedule means that during the day updates are rarely possible.
Friday - Leg One - Edinburgh to Penrith
It was bright but very windy as crews left the Dalmahoy for the first control and test at Raceland Kart Circuit .
The next Time Control was at the Jim Clark room in Duns. Duns was Jim Clark's home town and the local council have a small museum of his racing memorabilia. Local resident Louise Aitken-Walker was out marshalling with Tony Mason on a secret check - let's hope we might see her out on a future historic event!
Dave Smith and Andrew Duerden lost a wheel on their A40 at the Charterhall Test, thankfully there was no lasting damage and they were able to continue when the wheel was replaced. To match the three wheeler status the car was also running on three cylinders but it is hoped that a change of plugs and leads may provide a cure.
Roger Furrer and Elaine Wade were the first official retirement - the speedo drive had broken, a similar fate affecting many other cars including Howard Warren's Porsche 911 and newcomer John Ingham's Sunbeam Harrington Le Mans.
Not content with modifying the fencing layout at Floors Castle David MacKay had a suspected head gasket failure on his Triumph TR3A, David Spurling has a spare gasket so hopefully a repair can be completed and he can restart tomorrow.
When darkness fell it was time to tackle the sections of route in the Warcop Army ranges. This section proved extremely challenging, it seemed that the competitors either grasped the principal of finding the way around or floundered and consequently dropped time at many controls.
Our European competitors are settling in well and adapting to the unusual style of route presentation - chosen to represent methods commonly used in the 50s. They are even coming to terms with all the regularity information being given in MPH and the different method of timing used on UK events.
Leading the pack for the new Heritage Motor Centre "Best on Tests" award is currently Dutchmen Bert Dolk, not a bad result on his Rally of the Tests debut.
Even though it had been a long day the staff at the North Lakes Hotel coped admirably with late demands for food and once they had been fed and wined the competitors were full of praise for Fred's ingenuity in route planning and Bob Redhead's skill at recruiting the marshals necessary to run so many controls.
Even though they did not get back to the hotel until after midnight the sweep crews were unstinting in their desire to try and keep cars going. The jungle telephones had been in action and parts were mysteriously appearing in the car park and as usual they were many eager to lend a hand or offer encouragement.
When departing on Saturday morning many crews commented that it was one of the best day's rallying they'd had for many years. Last years winner Robin Eyre-Maunsell is leading but has a scant 15 second lead over James O'Mahony, almost a minute behind is another former winner Frank Fennell.
It's off to the spa town of Buxton today via the usual selection of tests, the day finishes with two regularity sections in the Derbyshire Dales.
Saturday - Leg Two - Penrith to Buxton
First car away on Saturday morning was the Volvo Amazon of James O'Mahony and Paddy McDonnell. At the control out Paddy was joking that he would deliberately turn the wrong way out of the hotel as he didn't want to run as first car on the road. The running order had been determined on the basis of results up to the tea halt on Friday. Actual leader at the end of Leg 1 was the Sunbeam Rapier of last year's winner Robin Eyre-Maunsell and Peter Scott. This lead was not to be maintained as they broke a halfshaft on the first test of the day at Lowther Park, also suffering from transmission failure on this test was the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint of Paul Wignall and Peter Rushforth.
Several crews had a delayed departure from Penrith to allow for work to be completed on their cars - David MacKay had a head gasket (generously donated by David Spurling) replaced on his Triumph TR3A whilst in the garage next door Stephen and Janice Williams had their exhaust welded up. Drexel and Pat Gillespie had a complete new clutch fitted to their Lotus Cortina. Also in need of a bit of welding was the Triumph TR4 of Tom Callanan but he had the sense to do it very close to one of the officials workshops so it was possible to arrange a repair.
Alex and Jane Postan did not have any problems in Penrith but a lump of Yorkshire rock did it's best to remove the exhaust from their Austin Healey Sprite. Temporary repairs were made and they'll be there at the restart on Sunday.
Lunch was at the Red Well Inn and after time for refreshment it was a couple more driving tests before a hillclimb at Scammonden Dam, unfortunately due to delays caused by construction works this test ultimately had to be cancelled.
There had been a good deal of spectator interest for this year's event and the tea halt at the Ford Inn, near Holmfirth had attracted the attention of the local media and many competitors from CRA events were there to welcome and assist - Classic Marathon Clubmen category winners John and Nicky Walsh were out running the car park! Fred had tried to get Nora Batty to run the Time Control but she had not been available so had to settle for the control to be run by the local ECF - those in the know will understand the meaning of these letters - the only wrinkled stockings to be seen today were on the legs of Terri Metcalfe - she is out with Richard de la Roche in a Austin Seven Mini and doing very well on what is only her second historic event. Terri's partner David Winstanley is producing a TV programme charting the history of the RAC Rally and the Rally of the Tests will be featured in this programme.
After the tea halt there were only two regularities left before the night halt at Buxton. These were in open moorland country and the route information had been based on old 1 inch Ordnance Survey maps which competitors transferred onto their own maps. There were many tales of people taking the wrong route and consequently approaching timing points from the wrong direction.
Newcomers Nicholas Green and Steve Sly had problems with their brakes late on Friday night but the sweep mechanics worked until three o'clock in the morning to fabricate a new part to restore the brakes to full working order.
Fellow newcomer Richard Watton was originally going to do the event with his wife Siobhan but when Michael Kunz's original drive fell through he instead became Richard's navigator - in the original plan Michael was going to be driving an Aston Martin so a James Bond theme had been planned but this would not have been quite in keeping with his news role as navigator in an MGB GT! They were last car in tonight having holed the radiator at the start of the evening, another team with radiator problems was the father and son team of Richard and Jon Sandilands - seven tins of radweld had failed to solve the problem so more serious remedies were to be tried overnight and a strong smell of body filler wafted across the car park.
Only one day to go but there is plenty of scope for things to change as there are still ten driving tests to be completed, a regularity section with multiple timing points and what promises to be a very interesting time control section on the Swynnerton Training Area. Spectators are welcomed at the Time Control at Hack Green Secret Bunker (approx 10:45) and also the final test and finish at Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon.
