Starting out as car 8 with Lizzie Pope on the maps would normally be an ideal position, all the marshals are awake by then, but up high enough not to catch slower runners. However the tests on the Oxford MC Bullnose Rally had something else to take into account - road conditions.....
The tests on the Bullnose run on grassy & stubble fields - where the first few runners clear the path and dig out the grass to leave the gripper packed mud. So the first few tests were harder work than normal, plus i suspect i was a little a sleep on the first few tests - it had been a good while since the last endurance event.
Once we got going and in the flow the event settled down for us and we slowly started to climb our way up the leader board. We were down at 20th place at the lunch halt.
However my cone magnet has be re-energised and i got penalised for hitting 5 cones/arrows during the day tests - which added 150 seconds to the total time - as well as a few new marks on the nav's side of the car. This would end up costing us two places overall at the end.........
The Greendown tests were once again the best of the event (and the championship ?) with a mix of high speed tarmac lanes, stubble fields, grass and mud it has it all. At 10+ miles it was hard work in a hot rally car on a hot day. Our first run round we caught three cars and the second run we caught two cars losing a bit of time on both runs - a penalty of dropping down the road order to try and make the best of the road conditions.
By the end of the day route we were lying 9th overall, which was a good improvement from the start of the day. The night route was a very short and at times very slow (just 24miles at 28mph) jogularity - this places a big emphasis on the nav getting things right and balances up the teamwork for the final result. We had a good run and moved up one place to finish where we started in 8th overall and 5th in class.
This will be the last enduro rally for the year - as I'm not entering the Exmoor rally - so the championship points for me are now set ! Currently i am lying 3rd overall driver - but it all depends on what happens on the Exmoor Enduro.
The tests on the Bullnose run on grassy & stubble fields - where the first few runners clear the path and dig out the grass to leave the gripper packed mud. So the first few tests were harder work than normal, plus i suspect i was a little a sleep on the first few tests - it had been a good while since the last endurance event.
Once we got going and in the flow the event settled down for us and we slowly started to climb our way up the leader board. We were down at 20th place at the lunch halt.
However my cone magnet has be re-energised and i got penalised for hitting 5 cones/arrows during the day tests - which added 150 seconds to the total time - as well as a few new marks on the nav's side of the car. This would end up costing us two places overall at the end.........
The Greendown tests were once again the best of the event (and the championship ?) with a mix of high speed tarmac lanes, stubble fields, grass and mud it has it all. At 10+ miles it was hard work in a hot rally car on a hot day. Our first run round we caught three cars and the second run we caught two cars losing a bit of time on both runs - a penalty of dropping down the road order to try and make the best of the road conditions.
By the end of the day route we were lying 9th overall, which was a good improvement from the start of the day. The night route was a very short and at times very slow (just 24miles at 28mph) jogularity - this places a big emphasis on the nav getting things right and balances up the teamwork for the final result. We had a good run and moved up one place to finish where we started in 8th overall and 5th in class.
This will be the last enduro rally for the year - as I'm not entering the Exmoor rally - so the championship points for me are now set ! Currently i am lying 3rd overall driver - but it all depends on what happens on the Exmoor Enduro.
No comments:
Post a Comment