The
Bomb Along Stages 2004
----- Original Message -----
Mike / Tony / Brian et al,
Just a quick note to say a big THANK YOU for Sunday’s Bomb-Along, on behalf of Keith Davison and myself. Particularly for all the effort that went into making the day run so smoothly for everyone. Please pass on our thanks to anyone I’ve missed off the list (e.g. Nigel Banks for the results – although I’ll be seeing him myself in two weeks on the Plains). Perhaps this could be printed in the MCAC mag? So the people who were marshalling the outfield can be thanked also?
It must have been as big a disappointment to you guys when there were so many retirements as it was to us! The day was shaping up well for us, developing into a battle between the two Darrians, once we had established a buffer between the two of us and the pair of Cosworths of Dave Nutt and Dick Mauger. Despite our efforts to bluff them into backing off by saying our stage 2 & 3 times were 10 seconds slower than they were – Chris Davis and Branden Parker saw through our ruse straight away and were taking time from us once they’d settled in. We were wondering how we were going to counter their torque advantage through the complex with their extra 500cc, when their gearbox gave way. Keith’s comment to Chris at the start of stage 4 was “How long can the two of us keep up this pace before one of us breaks?” Prophetic that in fact we both ended up broken – and at exactly the same spot!! Albeit our breakage came two stages after car 10.
This was my first visit to Oakington from the perspective of sitting in a competing car, or should that read “lying” in a Darrian? I must say I did enjoy the experience. Especially the stretches round the outfield and the flat out g-forces round those long sweeping corners – real “big gonads” stuff! We particularly appreciated the outfield chicanes. Those were well placed to help safety, e.g. at the gates, without being too tight. From the position of an under-powered car, all that tight chicanes do is favour “point and squirt” power (and I say this as a person who used to crew a 6R4!). Whereas the chicane layouts on Sunday where just enough in the right places to reduce averages without negating the advantage a good handling car with a brave driver can gain by keeping “flat” through places where the co-driver might prefer to keep his eyes shut!!
In theory chicanes also provide an overtaking opportunity – but only where the approach is wide enough to enable two cars to actually run side by side. I nearly didn’t say that on stage 3 when we came out of the merge for our second lap about 150m behind car 14. We managed to get our nose alongside him approaching the “flat” bales at the first outfield barrier, but he (entirely justifiably!) held his line and forced us to back off and tuck in behind him through the bales. Revenge came soon though, after a “Monster Montoya” style wheel to wheel, side by side run though first the flat out “60 left tightens”, then the following “long 45 right” enabled us to utilise the Darrian’s low C of G and frontal area, to gain position approaching the gate chicane and out-brake said Peugeot into that! Makes my point about the layouts being “just right” to exploit the attributes of the venue.
We thanked the crew of Car 9 personally, after they spotted us low in their mirrors on stage 2. We could just match them on the drag out of slower corners on the runway section, but made ground under braking each time. Entering the complex we thought we might have to stay tucked under their Cosworth’s rear wing, but they moved over just as we actually caught them. Perfect gentlemen! OK, so overtaking isn’t supposed to be a requisite of a rally event as distinct from a race. But with multi-laps and 30 second starts some “catching up” is inevitable. A good layout enables that to happen safely. This was seen to be the case when we caught the class 2 leading Civic of Dave Edmunds as he approached the gate entering the complex from the South West side on stage 3. I hope he didn’t feel pressurised into his spin as we hadn’t quite got into his slipstream at that point. There was a lot of loose gravel at that tyre and cone chicane after all, and he was on his first lap to encounter it. Had we been forced to follow his wheel tracks exactly, in the alternative solid bale layout, then an accident would have been inevitable. As it was, we were able to take avoiding action round the apex cone and so avoid car to car contact. Safety objective achieved by sensible use of cones vs. bales! (And a quick-acting driver helped too!)
When the studs sheared from our right rear wheel on stage 6 then, I was particularly relieved this happened on a slow “90 left” in the complex, not on the aforesaid outfield section! Disappointing to have to hand the lead over after travelling so far, but after recalling competing against Dick Mauger in late 70’s Central Southern area road rallies, then the inheritance was deserved – testimony to such a well presented car!
Reflecting on organisational decisions taken during the day: In my (humble) opinion it was totally justifiable to truncate the running of Stage 3 after the delay caused by an incident. Best decision to keep the event on schedule. Same decision would have been taken on any International. Didn’t hear any dissent in our end of the paddock? I hope we played our own small part in the schedule objective by accepting “next whole minute” after arrival time at stage starts after SS1, rather than enforce the 3 minutes guidance suggested elsewhere. Cumulatively that could have added nearly 15 minutes to the day?
Similarly I support the decision over Car 3, when they were forced to seek assistance from their service van after booking into SSA5. A discussion concerning this action amongst surrounding crews resulted in a unanimous vote that, should the crew proved able to continue, then their action would not be queried for “sporting” reasons. In the end this was not put to test, but I’m sure this feeling was promoted by the “sensible” attitude taken by Peter Cox to stage arrivals in general – applying the best spirit of the “guidelines” rather than blind adherence. Thus ensuring the competition took place on the stages, not in the results room! Same complement applies to the stage finish crew – especially after we crossed the SS2 flying finish backwards in the middle of a rather lurid spin! I’m sure I saw the fence flinch at the prospect of catching a Darrian in its netting? Apologies if I was still slightly short of breath at the stop line. I’d only just removed my heart from my mouth!
Super day. Wrong result for us. Well done all involved nonetheless.