AGBO Stages Rally 2013

AGBO Stages Rally 2013

Picture from HERE

AGBO Stages Rally 17-03-2013

Peugeot 205 Rallye 1294cc Class A (1) The day started off early and fairly cold with a light dusting of snow from the Saturday night. We were car number 34 of 75 starters which to be in a 1300cc car was rather good considering the competition of other cars. We have done quite well here in the past bringing a pot home for a class position place the past 4 years. We decided to run with a wet tyre to start the day as the surface at Weston park can be rather slimy and there would definitely be patches of ice here and there particularly under the trees. First stage we set a fairly quick time considering the conditions and again competition with only a slight hair raising moment on the final bend at around 65mph; the floor was so greasy and a slight off cambered road really unsettled the car bringing the back end out into a broadside slide. We had another 2 cars in our class that were really high powered… 180bhp from a 1400cc engine meant that on power in our standard engine 75bhp 205 rallye we would be nowhere near them on the straights and would have to hope one of the other cars would either retire or not be as committed through the twists and turns as we would be. Stage 2 we decided to be a little too adventurous off the start line and approaching a chicane way to fast we locked the wheels up skidding in a straight line it was either head on collision time or off to the left and over the grass which luckily Simon managed to do! Stage 2 finished and we had dead even times with a Peugeot 106 that would later win our class. As the day ran on the weather started to get better although in parts mud had been dragged onto the tarmac making it treacherous in parts especially running on moulded slicks so we decided to stay on the wets as long as we could. Before stage 5 we decided to fit the moulded slicks as most of the roads had dried up and it should give better cornering and braking ability but sadly this was not true, it was still cold and the tyres were of a hard compound so at the end of a VERY slippery stage at Weston Park we decided to put the wets back on for a bit more traction. Stage 7 we were lying 3rd in class and 25th overall when car number 16 (second in our class) span off losing 2 minutes. The day went on and during the final two stages the famous Weston Park water splash was used. Stage 9 was fine and we were still lying second in class but car 16 was catching us. If all went well on stage 10 we would be guaranteed 2nd in class. During stage 10 on approach to the water splash we were being flagged to slow down as a Sierra Cosworth had stopped on a banking and half in the water splash…. The water splash would then claim us! As we entered a little too fast the water went over the bonnet and the engine cut out. Luckily the engine hadn’t hydrolocked and we were pushed to the side of the road where we sat turning the engine over for 30 seconds until the car spluttered to life. It sounded like it was running on two cylinders then three then the car burst back to life and off we went. Sadly I worked out we had lost roughly 50 seconds which was enough to lose our 2nd in class position putting us to 3rd in class. Simon drove the rest of that stage in pure aggression with both himself and the car; we must have been entering some of the corners a good 15mph faster than previous stages. In the end we finished 3rd out of 10 in our engine class and 34th overall dropping 9 o/a places after the water splash incident.