Following some last minute tweeks at our testing ground, we were looking forward to a competitive event at Crofton. Matthew went up on the Saturday to take a look at the course being set out and made his tyre choice accordingly. It was decided we would run on the Stone Country 205-16's as the muddy areas didn't look deep enough to warrant the 7.50's and the lower gearing would give us a bit more of a kick out of the slower bends.
I arrived early on Sunday with the trailer and, with no sign of Matthew, a few of us set off for a walk around the track to familiarise ourselves. I knew Matthew had some notes from his look around the day before but I wanted to see some of the areas he had mentioned "first hand". Having surveyed the "trouble spots" and made my own decisions on the best lines we went back to the pits area to wait for Matthew where we compared notes.
We waited around for a while before our first run so that we could take the chance to watch a couple of the other competitors navigate a couple of the hazards and make a final decision on our own route. Decisions made we lined up at the start and waited for the green light.
The first part of the course was on hard baked dry mud so we set off quickly in 2nd and were about ready to change into top by the time we had to brake for the first corner. This was a 90 left followed by a steep drop down to the floor of the "quarry like" site. A 90 right at the bottom followed by a 90 left and then a quick correction to the right to avoid a large boulder in the middle of the track. We then skirted round a small pond and took a short line through some soft ground to get onto the start of the ramp that followed. This was nearly a bad move as the understeer nearly took us into one of the marker canes, but we missed it by a fraction... Up the ramp, down the drop on the other side and then immediately into a 90 left, a short straight followed by two slight right hand bends took us up for our first encounter with some very soft ground around a 90 left. About this time the intercom went dead so I was back to the old fashioned method... shout the instructions as loudly as possible...
Having extricated ourselves successfully from the ruts there was then a short straight before a hairpin left followed by a hairpin right. This led us on to one of the longest straights on the course, deeply rutted in places causing some "uncomfortable" moments. I warned Matthew that there was a 90 left at the end of the straight and then we spotted a stationary vehicle ahead. We moved across to the right to avoid the vehicle, straight into a deep muddy hole. The resulting spray completely blacked out the windscreen so while the wipers/washers struggled to cope we were driving blindly in the direction we thought the track was going in... I caught a glimpse of a marker post and shouted at Matthew to turn right and by some stroke of luck we found we were still on the right track !
As the windscreen cleared we approached the first "hazard" which, like most of these things, turned out to look worse than it actually was. The smell eminating from the now drying mud on the exhaust made me suspect that there was more than just soil giving the mud that special "sticky" quality... A couple of humps followed then yet another short straight followed by the second "hazard" - a very steep drop down towards the road which culminated in a three to four foot step down at the end. I had been undecided about the best route down this part so it was now time to make my mind up. A couple of wheel tracks off to the left helped with the decision and I suggested to Matthew that we should go down the left hand side of the drop.
A long pull up a hill was followed by a quick left right combination and then a hard left down a hill into the bottom again. Round a short loop through some large puddles and again we were driving blind, frantic peering through the murky windscreen as the wipers fought to do their best and we were heading up towards the finish, a couple of 90 right-90 left combinations and we powered up the hill to the stop signs...
I went to get the card marked while Matthew went to refill the washer bottle - we had used four litres of water in one run. A quick glance down the times showed us to be on the pace so things were looking good.
Run two went smoothly enough and we improved on our previous time by about 12 seconds.
While sat in the queue for run three we let a Daihatsu in front of us, primarily to give us a bit more of a buffer from some slower traffic in front. We assumed that with a 1 minute interval we should be OK with a reasonable motor in front. By the halfway point of the course we had caught up to and, with his cooperation, overtaken one of the slower vehicles with me giving him plenty of advance notice of our arrival with the air horns... Unfortunately we had over estimated the speed of the Daihatsu and were gaining on him rapidly. Once again I was using the air horns with gusto in an attempt to make sure he knew we were coming. He showed no sign of giving way so all we could do was sit behind him with the horns blaring until we got to the next straight. At last we got to the straight and he moved across to the right. As we set off into the gap to the left of him he seemed to change his mind and shot back across to the left and we ran into his back end. More air horn sounding and gesticulation followed until the 90 right at the end of the straight where we unceremoniously cut him off and proceeded, unhindered, on to the finish. We checked the time and found he had cost us about 8 seconds.
Runs four and five were again fairly uneventful with our times getting faster and faster but it was beginning to become clear that at the current rate we would be placed second in class, with us having to find another 8 to 10 seconds a run to get into contention with our class leader.
Run six was fast, but still not fast enough to catch up with our rival. Through the latter stages of the run I thought I had caught a glimpse of what appeared to be white smoke coming from just under the vehicle. I put this down to the fact that we had just clipped a pile of dry mud at the side of the track, but when we stopped in the finish area steam was pouring out of the front grille and from the rear body where the radiator is mounted... It seems we had been sending white smoke signals out all the way round the second half of the course. The engine had overheated due to a misalignment in the driver/cooling interface. (He forgot to switch the fans on).
Time to let the engine cool down a bit then onto runs seven and eight with the V8 sounding no worse for it's ordeal. Run seven had a bit of a highlite when, after coming out of a right hand hairpin a bit wider than normal, we found a huge boulder directly in our path. It was innevitible that we were going to hit it, the only question was - how much damage was it going to do ?
I closed my eyes, there was a huge bang, and we carried on as if nothing had happened - with the possible exception of a strange tapping sound coming from the transmission somewhere. The motor felt OK and was handling as normal so we persevered and crossed our fingers that nothing was about to fall off. As soon as we crossed the finish line we were both crawling about underneath to try and find the damage - turned out to be a buckled wheel rim, the inner wall of the rim had bent in so far that it was catching on the brake calliper as the wheel turned. Ten minutes with a lump hammer resolved the problem and we went on to run eight.
Run eight was trouble free and we crossed the line safely. The motor was still roadworthy so we were soon cleared away ready to go our seperate ways. (Me taking the trailer back to Harrogate, Matthew driving the Lightweight back to Leeds.)
As I walked in the door at home the phone was ringing... Matthew had found when he had left Crofton that fourth gear was no longer an option with the box stubbornly refusing to allow the gearstick into that position. To make matters worse the oil pressure on the engine had dropped to about 10 psi at 4000rpm. It looks like our plans to put a new engine and box in for the Scottish Hill Rally have just been brought forward by about four months...
A good finish though, finishing 2nd in class and, I have been told, 3rd in the championship but I have yet to see the printed results.