Dukeries Rally

Following our test at Sweet Lamb the team were all looking forward to The Dukeries despite its reputation for long straights followed by 90's and the fact that it cuts up badly and ends up with ruts like you wouldn't believe.

Scrutiny passed without incident having previously agreed our new throttle body with the series eligibility . Chris Hellings had arranged to do everything on Saturday morning & set of from Devon at about 12 o'clock in order to pick up the car and be in Southwell for 7.30am.

We got our first look at Rob Richards' 106 1600 car & very tidy it is too.

The first 2 stages were very short Watchwood 1 a staggering 1.18 miles & Blidworth 1 2.3 miles but even this early on with only 40 cars having used the stage both Rob & Chris said how rough they were. No problems except Chris felt the brakes were a little soft so we gave them a quick bleed.

Stages 3 & 4, Sherwood Pines1 at 6.75 miles & Clipstone South 1 at 5.53 miles were again rough but caused no major problems although Rob was finding it difficult to stay in the ruts and was loosing time as a result.

Portland 1, 6.67 miles was the final stage before lunch and a one hour service break.

While Chris' car was having a little attention to the bodywork after a contact moment with a chicane the service crew discovered a problem on the C2.  The front drivers side suspension unit had developed a leak and as these are prototype units we had no spare to replace it with so Robert was warned that the handling would probably go off as the unit lost oil. His comment that it was so rough that he felt it wouldn't make a huge difference as the car was sliding along on the sump guard for lots of the stages didn't give me a lot of confidence but he did promise to drive for a finish as this was the number one objective.

The afternoon was a rerun of the same 5 stages only even rougher. At the second emergency service the C2 came in carrying about 4 degrees of negative camber on the drivers side front wheel.

 We have now had a chance to look in the workshop & both the strut casing & the piston are bent.

It is always a nerve wracking time sat at the end of the final stage but this time was no problem with both Chris & Rob coming out of the final stage unscathed.

Rob Richards & Wendy Gibson faired less well. At the main service everything was fine and the pair who were right at the back of the field [this was Robs first ever forest event] set off to do the 2nd run. Whether because of the rough stages or a loose rock the gear linkage came apart despite having modified units fitted. Rob tried to replace the link getting very seriously burnt in the process but couldn't manage to get it back together. So retirement was the order of the day.

At the end of the day Chris had beaten Rally First regular Roy Gravestock by 5 seconds & as Chris isn't registered for the championship Rob gets points for 4th place.