I felt confident about this rally as most of it was multi venue mostly airfields around York and Thirsk, and most of the road sections are on our 12 car series routes so they ae known to us. Iwas joined by three other crews from Beverley MC the mk1 RS2000, the mk2 RS2000 and the Lotus Sunbeam mentioned in my other reports,the mk2 and the sunbeam were the two cars in front of me so a bit of banter between mates was due.
Our first stage was in Harton an easy slalom style with a stop astride and reverse, it was here that i found out my handbrake was useless
The regularity or transport section between stages was new to me you have to go a set average speed(it was 30mph) and be at the next control at a set time or you get penalised on early/late arrival, this is where the tripmeter is very useful. The turf farm stages where next i really enjoyed these,all gravel loose surface the Sprint didnt fishtail once i got the suspension set perfect and the power out of hairpins is unreal we went sideways many times and gave the sumpguard a right battering.
The marshal at the end was a leading road rally driver usually in a smart mk2 rS2000 he commented how well the car handled as hed seen us come round the last hairpin,we were 6th fastest on these stages only 2 seconds off the fastest car the mk1 RS of my mates.After the next transport section we queued up for stage 5 at Elvinton Drag strip, well round the rallycross circuit, the Lotus's were struggling to keep cool a couple of them had bonnets up and double leccy fans going.The Sprints temp never moved from just under halfway all day, all day i had ribbing from people asking if id overheated yet. This stage was another quick one and we were again in the top ten fastest cars, up until that day id never revved it above 4.5rpm,it was up in the 5.5 area all day 1st and 2nd gear sometimes 3rd.
On to Acaster Malbis aerodrome and 4 more stages in succession the first involving the dreaded maltese cross or clover leaf test, we really struggled here with no handbrake and no slippy diff and got about third slowest time i just couldnt get it to turn in.Next stage was good but we got a test maximum for missing a loop out we sort of forgot about it as i was so concerned about the 360 in the middle and just missed it out,o well
.Stage 8 was a corker loads of 360 and slaloms at one point we were heading for a manure heap but i got it to power round just in time,we hit a rock on this stage and thought we had a puncture good job i had reinforced sidewalls on the front it saved us this time.Stage 9 on Acaster was were it went a bit pearshaped we were going great narrowly missing the various machinery parked around the test and going fairly rapid until i went a bit wide on a 180 turn and skirted the edge of the perimeter and nudged a concrete block,i reversed and carried on and got 7th fastest time but something wasnt right.I had a look at the front end while my mate got ready for the transport section and this is what i saw
the rad had been pushed back into the fan and punctured it was leaking coolant and we called it a day not wanting to boil the engine while we could still get home.Such a shame because we were at the halfway lunch stop and were lying 8th overall,and we certainly raised a few eyebrows.We werent the only retirement an MG Midget lost drive and an Escort boiled but nevermind thats rallying for you.Next event the Lake district Classic.
