Well. I did it.
First event under the belt, Barbon Hillclimb.
As scrutineering was due to be 7:30 - 8:30 on the saturday morning I decided to head over on the friday night, sleep in the van and be all fresh ready to go without the stress of a 5am start.
Loaded the van up, put the car on the trailer and was ready to go. All went smoothly, and nice and relaxed and I was ready to head. Sun is shining, no appreciable traffic shown on the road. Perfect.
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Just before I rolled I did one last check round to make sure there wasnt anything missing. I had a nagging sensation there was something I meant to do during the week but hadnt.... It was at this point I thought.... Where's the timing strut....ah boll....
Que 45 mins frantic checking of regs, cutting, bending, drilling, fixings, and painting. Done.
Right... now 45mins later setting off than desired and considerably less relaxed, but on the way.
Van towed great, no issues other than the sat nav depositing me in the middle of Kirkby-Lonsdale rather than at Barbon so had some narrow street to neogiate with a wide trailer. Got to Barbon and I pulled into the first out the way space I could see and got out the paddock map to see where I needed to be.
The paddock at Barbon is part way up the hill, has a gravel turn off the main tarmac drive, and then a flat "ledge" in the hill that all the cars, trailers, van, and motor homes park on.
Checked the references, i'm to be about 20m off the end of the gravel acess, just off to the right next to the large oak tree. OK, reverse the van....... hmmm. wheel spin on the grass..... go forward.... pulls away no problem. I can see some boggy bits i'll avoid them. Going fine, going fine, small amount of wheel spin, more spin, annnnnd stuck. Balls.
I unloaded the rally car as figured that would make the van/trailer lighter and easier to move. The C2 just skated over the top of everything, loads of grip from the tarmac tyres on the damp grass surprisingly, and deposited it in paddock position.
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Last minute timing strut on the front
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Where i got stuck is just to the left of these trailers
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The event recovery guy appeared and tried to pull me out with his 4x4 (for which I needed the towing eye...which turns out on my age of transit isnt with the rest of the jack etc. kit butis instead strapped to the inner wing in the engine bay.. They couldnt get me moving at all. Luckily the farmer appeared with a tractor and pulled me out in about 2 mins and deposited me out the way on a less boggy piece of ground. Was having a chat with him about the ground conditions and he said (with some foreshadowing) with the weather forecast he was going to bring the tractor up from mid afternoon to help anyone who's stuck back out, rather than have them churn up the field.....
Heart rate returning to normal I found a pub, had some food and a chill (Barbon Inn, great food, friendly staff, and the owner races a 6second drag bike). Went back, sorted the van so I could sleep in it (blow up matress) and went to walk the course.
View from the top looking back down to the paddock (centre of shot), Gives you a sense of the elevation gain
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The course goes:
Start line (which is about 30m up the track from where the above pic was take (so just off the paddock)
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First corner, unsighted exit, but is a fairly long radius
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exit of first corner up to second corner
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Second corner again unsighted exit, long radius, far edge is cambered out, and theres a nice tree to stop you should you understeer out hard on the exit
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Straight 2 which has a kick in it
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And the haripin. Which i'd say is more a medium right tightens into hairpin right although maybe not as clear from the pic
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and over the finish line
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Not long, not many corners, great conditions, should be fun. Back to the paddock, chat to a few people, into the van and try (and fail) to get sleep. Up for 6:30 to start the day.
Midnight.... its started lashing it down
6:30.... its still lashing it down
7:00 ... its eased back a lot. Still raining just not as hard
The majority of competitors have started trickling in now. Including the others in my class. Was chatting to the guy in the blue escort parked next to me, turn out he lives about 5 minutes away from me. Small world. His escort is stunning, super high quality build.
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Ground is now a lot boggier after all the rain, and the paddock is starting to get challenging for manouvering and there are a lot of stuck tow vehicles.
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I'm pleased I can down last night.
Its raining again....
Scrutineering was a fairly relaxed afair with no issues other than having to have pay to have a MSUK sticker afixed to my helmet.
I chatted to pretty much everyone my end of the paddock. Clarke of the course ovheard me saying about this being my first event, so came over for a chat talked me through the event and remind me about no heroics. He had a look over the car and said it was a very well prepped for a first event. positive.
The rally car class runs at the end of the last group (6 groups for about 20 classes), and it pretty quickly came round to our time to line up. Getting the FHRS and helmet on in the car was tough, but done, then belts on, car fired up to warm through, and if begining to feel pretty nervous. I'm very concious of the fact I'm on medium compound dry tarmac rally tyres and its now bouncing down.
Pull up to sound test, all fine (which I knew it would be as I was being completely drowned out by other cars). Up to the tyre cleaning area and without trying to spin the tyres the wheels are spinning.... Slippy.
Remember Jono slowly slowly
Up to the start line, marshalls hold me on the wheel blocks... light goes green
Off the line with a bit of wheel spin, but not as much as I thought, up the first corner brake and turn in.. Loads more grip than I was expecting.... exit the corner hard up the gears, brake a bit harder for corner 2 still much much more grip, on the throtle through the corner trying to feel for it going light, hard up the gears on the long straight, right hairpin coming up start braking gently, i've braked far too much and far too early i need to accelerate to get back up to get to the corner... into the hairpin and there is loads of grip. Car has tunred in really really well. Back on the power and over the finish line.
back into the holding slot wait for the other cars, then slowly back to the paddock.
Done.
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Cooled the car down then sat and reflected for a bit and made some notes.
Main bits:
So much more grip then I was expecting for grooved tyres on very wet tarmac
The diff will absolutely pull the car round the corner.
The day progressed very much the same, more and more rain, to the point there were two practice and two timed runs only. The second timed run about 40% of the field didnt bother running as it was bouncing down and there was no real chance for them to improve on time.
My confidence went up each run and I pushed a bit more each run. The last run it was bouncing down so a lot more slippery and I braked noticebly harder into the hairpin which caused the back end to go very light and squirm round quite a lot.
Found some videos on youtube, which I think may be the last run.
Start line
youtube.com/clip/Ugkx4vd6XYyZwNi_VuASCCSD9wlbKEsKfsYP?si=6M-2IvsFCMYeazmwyoutube.com/clip/UgkxSj9yDToxWLBCVZ9vsIWz58YXGP89DeAj?si=t4G17HiOSPUbrDBzAll in all thoroughly enjoyed it.
Getting out was fun, about 30 vehicle stuck in the mud (including me). The farmer turned up and progressively pulled everyone out or groups of us pushed people out. I got out eventually, soaked, covered in mud, but happy.
Made my way home, unloaded the car, and sat down for a rest. Sorting it out can wait till next weekend. The car was a lot cleaner by the time it got home as the rain on route did a good job of getting the worst off!
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I definitely need to get out and do a rally next. Of which the entries have no opened for the one I want to do at the begining of August.
Sorry there arent more pictures, the whole day was a bit of a blur.