I hadn’t
done this for two or three years. The signs weren’t too good.
Forecast was a bit iffy, but as it turned out it was mainly fair,
not frosty, and there was very little mud. Towards the end of the
night there were even some dry roads, although I was driving a
little bit on the cautious side I think, in view of my recent record
of (non-) finishes, and the presence of a novice navigator, Andrew
Brougham, who has now done his first three events with me, just like
Ewan did four years ago.
There were some very high scores in the
Clubman event, which was for local newcomers. In the National B
event, an ESACC round, there were two clean sheets in the Expert
class, which Ewan won on a tie-break. We were about 4th in the
Novice class on 42 penalties – 12 minutes and 2 codes. We realised
where we dropped the codes when I saw Ewan’s map at the finish. We
had failed to count contours properly. But then contours are a bit
difficult to see.
As far as I know everybody finished, except
Charlie Brown (the younger) and Iain Craven in a Golf GTi. I had
seen Charlie at the start struggling with a knackered alternator
belt. It was slipping, despite being adjusted right up, and he must
have given up trying to change it, maybe due to problems getting the
steering belt off first. We passed them at the roadside in a late
section, and the lights were very dim, so I reckon the battery had
run right down and the fan and lights were dragging the ignition
down too.
At one point in the event there was an
unidentified car that had caught us, and had been tailing us for a
few miles. I almost exited a junction in a slightly cheeky fashion
in front of another car, in an effort to shake him off. It’s just as
well I didn’t. It wouldn’t have been dangerous, or even caused the
other car to lift off, but it would have been a wee bit close, and
it was a plod, so even if it might not have offended any normal
motorist it almost certainly would have got his back up. Any excuse
to look for trouble. The car behind turned out to be an Impreza.
Didn’t catch the guy’s name (due to lack of entry list), but the
badge said STi, so his claim afterwards of a bit more grunt is
probably right enough.
Andrew is beginning to get the hang of
road-reading, although a large pinch of salt is needed with
interpretation of distances. He didn’t get lost too often, and on
one occasion even I had difficulty in seeing where we were. He
sussed it after a couple of minutes. I think he had drawn his line
over a white, obscuring a junction, or something like that. We were
on the right route, but we had to stop to figure it out. Another
lesson learned, I hope. Take care where you draw your route line!
The original start time was 20.00, but it
was put back to 21.30 because of an event at Edzel in the daytime.
As a result we didn’t get to the finish until 01.30-ish. I predicted
this, so when I was speaking to somebody at the start and I got the
offer of a bed in Aberdeen I jumped at it. I had to consult Andrew,
but he had no problem with it, despite the offer of cats to keep us
company. I recall the same cats waking me up the last time, so this
time I shut the bedroom door.
Andrew has also given me a taste of (and a
fancy for) a Road Angel – a sat-nav-based device that knows where
black-spots are. That’s not strictly true. There are a couple of new
overpasses at Forfar, replacing black-spot junctions, and it still
bleeped, although the one-eyed bandits and the 50 limits that they
used to enforce are no longer there. But better to err on the side
of caution.
I think that’s the last rally before the
start of next year’s championships, except the odd 12-car maybe. So
I’ll get a break from all this writing. Did I hear some sighs?
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