PHOENIX STAGES RALLY 2009

Date: Sunday 29th March 2009

Event: Jane Cowling Memorial Phoenix Stages Rally
Location: Fulbeck Airfield
Number of entries: 56 (9 Dukeries Motor Club entries and 3 PAL Rallying Entries)
Seeded: Pete/John: 19, Liam/Paul: 36, Andy/Andy: 37
Results: Pete/John 2nd in Class 14th Overall : Liam/Paul 4th in Class 34th Overall : Andy/Andy DNF

Pete / John : After a quick inspection of the venue on sunday, it was decided to use part worn forest tyres for the first stage at least. This was mainly due to the broken surface and loose gravel on the road.

After clearing the loose section near the start area and progressing to the concrete section, John said the car is not turning in, this meant we were running wide and having to slow down too much to get around the corners.
This lead to any incident at a chicane near the merge we approached far too fast, the car would not turn in and we were heading for a very large earth bank at high speed, due to driver experience john turned the car mid spin and we shot up the bank rear end first, but we managed to drive back onto the circuit with no damage.

At the end of the first stage we changed to slick tyres, but the damage had been done to our stage times and we were struggling to catch up. As the day went on we were constantly a second or two behind for 3rd in class, then due to a lapse of concentration I misread a pacenote (meaning he started at the wrong end of the map lol - Liam) and we skidded into a corner having to stop and turn back onto the track. This cost us more time to our rivals.

After the next service we re-grouped and started to work as a team again, improving our stage times until the last stage brought some very fast and skilled driving (and some pretty good co-driving too !) allowing us to beat our rivals and push up to 2nd place in class on the last stage.

Liam/Paul :  (Written by Liam) - After prepping the car without any trouble (for a change!), I arrived at Fulbeck very optimistic for the first event since the icy and snowy Wyedean rally all the way back at the beginning of February.

After a quick look around half the track on the way into the venue, we made the decision to run the first stage on our part worn forest tyres. This didn't prove to be a good option, mainly due them not gripping as we expected on the lose surface. After a steady first stage myself and Paul made the decision to switch our car onto intermediate tyres (which we ran for the rest of the day).

As the day went on, I upped my pace, even having two half spins on stages 2 and 4, we even had to dodge a few cars hitting tyres and cones in front of us, having 2 cars on their roofs on the same corner during the day !

There were no major offs to speak of, apart from understeering into a bush (only just going into it), and 2 small ventures onto the grass on the 4th stage and the final corner of the last stage (woops!). The only problems we had for the day was basically understeer, and lack of diff.

Apart from this problem we had found ourselves going to end the day 5th in class, then due to 3rd in class taking a wrong turn at a split we managed to finish 4th in class (my best result to date), by over 2 minutes from 5th in class and 34th out of 40 finishers from 61 starters.

Andy/Andy: (Written by Andy) - After a gap of 16 and a half years I returned to the drivers seat after spending the intervening years acting as clerk of the course of the Premier rally and co driving and servicing for various Dukeries members.

The Peugeot 205 shared with the co driver of the day, Andrew Davies who will be driving the car at MIRA the following week, (check on here for an event review).

The car was readied for the opening 7 mile stage and was fitted with a set of part worn forest tyres to help disperse the loose gravel on top of the tarmac and concrete. The car was performing fine shame the driver was not! To be fair the as the stage was tackled the novice crew got better as they stopped trying to do the others job - old habits die hard. The car started to cut out on right hand bends just as though it was out of fuel. with a mile of the stage to go the car ground to a halt. A hasty diagnosis of out of petrol took place as after a few minutes of trying the car fired up. It was a false start the car stopped for good with half a mile to go.

The service crew arrived and after adding fuel much effort was made to bump start the car but the stubborn little car refused to fire up. Hence the return to the service area on the end of a tow rope. The driver was suitably embarrassed and wandered off to ask about rejoining the rally while the team got the car going. After a bit of a poke and wiggle the crew found out that a plug had come loose on the ignition amplifier and it was NOT a lack of fuel that had stopped the car. One relieved driver. Unfortunately we had to wait for nearly 3 hours to take part in the trophy rally when the car was ready for stage 3. No point arguing but as we had 2 stage maximums we were hardly going to effect the results.

After what seemed an age we tackled stage 5 with the same tyres on from the first test, and the stage was taken at a sensible pace just to get our bearings again.

Stage 6 and we had the tyres swapped for slicks which made a real difference to the handling of the car and the pace increased. The 205 was behaving now and after a short service we now faced a pair of 7 mile stages to complete the afternoon. With confidence rising in the car, corners that were taken in third gear were now flat in fourth with the tyres gripping well. On one stage we encountered a ford sapphire cosworth on its roof at a chicane. At the end of the four stages big smiles were now in evidence as the driver was happy with his efforts after such a long time out of the drivers seat.

Next event for me should be the Dukeries rally on 13th June.