Not sure where to start, rallying in the "good old days" was all about overcoming adversity to get to the finish, which we did, thanks to Super Rally. Which I used to think was rubbish, but now I think it's great!
I do wonder how my Subaru managed well over 100 miles over two runs of the stages plus all the link sections on standard road tyres without a puncture during the recce, but 12 miles into the stages and we have two punctures on the rally car!
I will write something for the magazine when I am less tired, but a brief synopsis is:
Both balaclavas and one pair of boots confiscated by the scrutineer.
Cracking time on first stage, 30th overall
Puncture half way through second stage and two spotlights come loose and dangle, acting a bit like those swivel lights on the top of old rally cars.

 Tim Leigh (Chairman)

Change tyre at end of stage, in company with many others, then rush to next stage, find way blocked, I start waving my clipboard, Kit starts waving his arms - one of us hits the fire extinguisher button
Move 10 yards, get another puncture
Only carried one spare
Drive 2 miles to find phone reception to get service crew. Meanwhile sit in the dark, in the middle of Kielder, wondering why I f****** bother.
Restart under super rally.
Have loads of fun, our own notes work really well.
Finish our first International (with the help of Super Rally)

First time out in the Fiesta and really pleased with it, it is a great machine. We were flat in 5th on straights where the Peugeot suspension would have thrown us off! It brakes better, handles better, drives better, it is sooo much fun

We had a very cautious start along the seafront stages on Friday night, Kit was under strict instructions not to bin it before we got to the forests on Saturday. It is a great atmosphere with all the crowds and the lamp pods blazing, but we finished the two stages 74th overall and 8th in class.

The forest stages went well and we climbed up several positions on the first loop. The stages were not as cut up as I was expecting although there were bad ruts in a couple of places. No worse than Sweet Lamb though. There were loads of spectators everywhere. We had a minor moment when we had a "thru' posts, Square Left, thru' posts" call and we almost went through the second set of posts sideways - which would have taken the front and the back off. However, we were up to 57th & 4th in class.

Nothing much to do in service and so we went to the Wareham forests, where we met Trevor at the start of SS7. Good times through SS7 & 8, but in 9 we lost 2nd gear. Jon couldn't see anything wrong with the linkages at management, so we did SS10 & 11 without 2nd; we were pleased with the times generally considering that problem, but on some of the nadgery sections and coming out of hairpins 2nd would have saved us quite a bit of time.


 Tim Leigh (Chairman)

At service the general view was that the dog teeth were stripped, so we went out to do the remaining stages still missing 2nd gear. Having got up to 44th and 2nd in class by 9 seconds, I was concerned we would drop back, but Kit drove smoothly and we held onto our 2nd in class and took 39th overall.

There was then a run into the centre of Bournemouth for a ceremonial finish. I have done town centre finishes before, but usually by the time we go through the only spectators are marshals itching to dismantle the finish ramp or a stray dog cocking its leg on a lamp post. But this was good - big crowds, interviews & kids getting autographs.

We can't wait for the next event.


 Tim Leigh (Chairman)

Quote from Lee Harding on British Rally Forum.

Had a tough day really, and did the best with what we had.
SS2 we had a massive spin in front of the Shell Oils building, might look nice in a picture that!!
The car felt a lot better in the afternoon but still couldn't keep up with the top three.
Went into the last stage 1 second up on d**k Mauger and finished 1 second behind. Still can't be bad only 1 second behind a Focus WRC.
Good to see so many young Marshals out especially on the controls, and obviously thanks to the all the people involved in the event...
Chicanes were a wee bit tight for the Nova but we gave it our best shot and its the same for everyone!!

Alan Desbois

 Webmaster

My report has been cut short(see below)

Unluckiest of all(was not me)but Jim's dad who was unable to get to signing on by 7.30pm on Friday night and dispite his car and co-driver being present the organisers refused to let him sign on Saturday morning so gave his entry to a reserve.Dale Lovegrove gave up his seat with Jim to John who is championship registered so not only did he not get a drive himself he got no run at all!

 Keith Emery

Mixed results for the Tavern crews,the best being a class win and the worst being a did not start.

Will Rutherford sat alongside Julian Wilkes in the rapid 1400 Nova won their class by 1m 29secs and that included a off on some dropped oil.Great result and hopefully the full story soon Will.

Myself and David Attiwell in the Astra had slowish start on saturday learning the car again as it was our first event since June(1/2mile of Caerwent doesnt count)but picked up the pace on the later stages to make it through saturday which was the plan,its ok we'll push tomorrow we thought.Stage 1 on sunday was damp and slippery(thanks Milko for the warning)but good fun.Stage 2 we caught a Mk2 which held us up and then on the pond straight 2nd gear broke que horrible noises and a worried crew.Back at service we found we now had a toothless 2nd gear but decided to go out again and hope it lasted by going from 1st to 3rd.Obviously this cost us time on the remaining stages and if we caught any cars made it difficult to get by,allover them on the brakes but they would pull away as the engine bogged going into 3rd so some nifty outbraking was called for.Thankfully we made it to the end with no further problems.Not the best result we've had but a finish all the same.

Unfortunately ourselves and Will were the only Tavern finishers

Jim and John Leigh went out on stage 10 with a broken thrust bearing.

Dave Perrott and Shaun Harding were out after stage 2 on saturday due to a brush with a car friendly concrete filled oil drum which damaged the door rear arch and bent the rear axle.

Mark Chapman was unlucky to go out on 1st stage with both driveshalfs braking.

Unluckiest of  Keith Emery

Tavern Again supplied the start crews for Brean this weekend

Thanks to Denise, Dave M, Dave S, Steve E and Impy for Saturday and Tim, BT, Phil B, Steve C, Dave & Rob M for Sunday

For a change the weather was great.

We are looking to field a start crew on the 3 counties at Smeatharpe March 2nd Sunday All names to Denise please asap

I have a photo but can't get it to load so it will follow shortly.

Will Rutherford Finished 11th overall and Dave Attiwell with Keith Emery finished as well I think Jim Munden broke a diff not sure about the rest

 Milko

Hello All,

Just to let you know it's wet, slippery and very muddy out there (my disco is now an attractive shade of grey/brown!!), where we are on the FF on Rheola it's actually a bit of Tarmac road and nice hard standing so we shouldn't be too bad.  However the trip through the stage is a different matter, unless you really want to drive the complete stage I recommend you take the short cut (which should be sign posted) from J7-J23.  If you do want to drive the stage then take it easy through J8-J10 as it is extremely muddy!!

Any probs or questions give me a call as I won’t be checking this email address again (you can use nick@brizrallyesport.co.uk) mobile is 07790 490027.

I'll see you all Friday morning !  (Alan & Denise, I am definitely not going to Service on Thursday)

Nick.

(I've learnt a good way to ensure the warning arrows are always the same distance from a junction, tie a 100m length of rope from the back of one vehicle, they drive the stage, stop at a Junction and the following vehicle puts a stake in where the rope stops ….. Very simple, basic and very effective !! - perhaps we can try it at Keevil next year ?!?!?!?)

 Alan Desbois

Click on the logo to go to the show site.  Remember Competition licence holders can get in on the Trade Days, Thursday & Friday.

 Webmaster

I'm taking up fishing... its far cheaper and less disappointing.... Lee Harding

It seems that a few of us at the club are confused about the identity of Nick Baker and Mark Chapman so this will hopefully explain.

Mark Chapman is the driver and Nick Chapman used to co-drive.  Now Nick does not co-drive and is effectively off the scene.

Mark (not Nick) recently bought an MG and has a new co-driver whose name we don't know but he will be applying for TMC membership.

Lets hope that is all cleared up now and apologies to Mark for the confusion.

 Webmaster

2007 Wales Rally GB – Team Tavern

 

Once again Tavern are providing a Marshalling team to assist on Wales Rally GB which runs on 30 Nov – 2 Dec, with Shakedown being on Thursday 29 Nov.  We have been allocated our stages for Marshaling duties....

 

click here for more info and to join the discussion

 

 Nick Eccles

What a great event!

70 miles of prime Welsh forest in superb condition, slickly run with just one 25min delay, two 20 minute services, management after every stage, excellent paperwork, why can't every event be like this?

The car ran perfectly apart from cutting out as we went over a big bump on a hairpin left which lost us about 30 seconds.

Nick & Steve were there doing management for Alan Spratt, so we had a chat with them and waved as we went past them at management.

Kit drove really well and we got a nice engraved wine glass for 2nd in class.
 Tim Leigh (Chairman)

After Burrington Nick & Sarah headed back towards the Carpenter’s Tavern, already waiting were Andy & Keith who had arrived back at 5:10.  The rest of the teams arrived back between 5:45 & 6:45 and the Results went final at 6:55.  The final results being:

1^st, 142pts – Clark, Penny, Tracey, Andy & the Girls;

2^nd, 139pts – Alan & Denise;

3^rd, 130pts – Hugh & Ann;

4^th, 124pts – Steve, Claire & Ryan;

5^th, 121pts – Steve & Wendy;

6^th, 120pts – Phil & Maureen;

7^th, 119pts – Andy & Keith Nick Eccles

Seven teams (5 Tavern Members & 2 Guest Teams) gathered at the Carpenters Tavern at 2:30 on Sunday 2nd September to start the Tavern MC Treasure Hunt.  Tension was in the air about who would be the first to get lost (Phil & Maureen), who would be the first to get back (Andy & Keith) and who would win (keep reading for that one...).  There was also concern regarding whether Nick manged to get his Left & Rights the right way round when setting the route and Steve [Eccles] was worried as he's only used to using "to me" or "to you" !  Each Team set off with their 11 page set of Instructions and Questions to be answered on route and just to make sure they didn't get bored they also had a few sheets of paper with 15 random photos of places on the route that they needed to identify. Team Lotus [Hugh and Ann] were the first to set off at 2:40 and the rest quickly followed with all teams having left the pub by 2:50. There were two places were the teams would need to stop to search for answers, the first being Burrington Coombe, so Nick and Sarah set off for Burrington to wait for the Teams. Andy & Keith arrived first at around 3:40, had a quick scout around for the answers and then quickly set off again.  Hugh & Ann were in next, a bit more relaxed, stopping for Coffee and a Danish Pastry, Alan and Denise so arrived and promptly upset Hugh by saying there was one question they hadn't found an answer for yet  (only one! Hugh was most surprised).  The rest of the teams continued to come into Burrington, some stopping for a beer or cider, however after an hour and half worry was starting to set in as Phil and Maureen still hadn't arrived....  When they did arrive it became clear that they had missed a slot and ended up getting lost in Nepnett Thrubwell ... miles off route ! 

 Nick Eccles

A really good event as we have come to expect from Bath M.C. A damp start made for some interesting 'moments' on the very slippery corners,but it soon dried out and the smiles in the paddock showed most crews were having a good time!

Had a good run to 31st o/a 7th i/c. The Golf now goes much better with the right cams and jetting. Getting it set up on the rolling road made a big difference. The tall 1st gear ratio makes it a bit slow off the start line although the close ratio gears are great improvement over the standard 'box. I may fit a slightly lower diff ratio when I change the Quaiffe ATB type LSD for a Gripper(plate type) diff as fitted in the Astra.I much prefer this type having used it for 2 years as much more grip in the corners.

It was good to see so many friendly Tavern faces at the start, although strange not to see JD as have done the last few years.

Now really looking forward to Fat Albert. Hope we get a higher start number than last year so we don't get baulked so much!

 Steve Conner

Had a brilliant day out at Abingdon, Eventually finishing 7th overall and 1st in class by a mere 7 and a half minutes.
Bloody hot though.

 Lee Harding

A small contingent of Taverners (Me, Denise and Tim) were at the Priddy Village Day today with the two Peugeots.  (Where were you Will and Gary??).  The weather held out, just although it was bl**dy cold.

It was a nice small village social with cakes, plants, a marching band, the Air Ambulance and a stonking tractor but a fair few people interested in the cars.  No potential new members but, whatever.

Thanks Tim for giving up your Bank Holiday afternoon.

 Alan Desbois

Yes it ran and yes we finished!! A damp first stage which saw a big moment when Kit misheard a call, but after that it was dry all day until the last stage when it started to rain and we got a bit twitchy going into a chicane. Thoroughly enjoyed it, it really is an awesome place. Spotted Nick & Sarah doing radio.

 Tim Leigh (Chairman)

Congratulations on the new website from the Colonies!  It is superb and yet again I am proud to be a member of the Club that started with cups of frothy coffee in the Tavern! And btw greetings to Martin, Bob, Hugh and all the other old members from young Martin in North Carolina (aka King Cog aka Haldaman). Martin Jubb