The start at the Farmer's Mart in Newcastle Emlyn was buzzing AND heaving making it difficult to move about between the cars and pretty much impossible to get any decent photos. Managed to find Ron Beecroft, Steve King and Derek Carless who were all kind enough to autograph my copy of Night Moves which charts the history of the Motoring News Road Rally championship and details the final year in 1987. The cars with Nicky Grist (ex Colin McRae co-driver) and Phil Mills (former World Champion co-driver to Petter Solberg) were constantly surrounded. A pricey (£7.50) but full colour and very comprehensive A4 programme had profiles on many former winners of the event, some of whom had come out of retirement and hadn't competed for over 23 years or so. This listed the entrants and the many available spectator points. Lots of police around in Newcastle, but no signs of any nonsense driving from speccies and all was good, from what I saw. It was fun being in amongst such a big crowd of enthusiasts with the buzz of anticipation. Also much appreciation for MEP, from those who recognised what the car is.
Clever planning by the organisers means that the route uses the maze of lanes within a 20 mile radius of the start town. This means its easy to get between the spectator points but also means that the organisers can list 4 spectator points in the first 45 minutes of the event which spreads the speccies out rather than swamping one location.
I went to point 5 first which was about 25 mins into the event. A slightly downhill hairpin right (with small step-off at the apex) into a very slippery wet but fairly smooth "white" unsurfaced road. It was busy with speccies but not heaving, so a good balance. There were 4 police officers on duty here too, with 2 patrol cars. Seems a bit wierd to watch the police watching cars being driven flat out and handbrake turning, sliding the cars around the junction on what is essentially still a fully open public road (but the number of speccies across the non-competitive part of the junction pretty much protects against any unaware road users and the majority of the locals are fully aware of what's going on in the lanes tonight). I had a great (and safe) view here looking down on the cars as they slid sideways into the corner.
Later I watched at a narrow 90 slot left where the exit from the corner was between 2 very high banks and I'm still amazed that no-one hit the banks as the power-slid the Escorts out of the corner. My third spec point was a 90 right but wasn't all that spectacular and many of the top 20 seeds had already gone out by the midway point. Shame. Later still my last choice of spec point was after an earlier accident and the organisers had decided to cut the route and hence the competitors didn't come through this section.
By this time I'm tired. Its 05:00 and time to make my way home. I headed off to Lampeter hoping to find fuel in Newcastle or Lampeter, but neither had any stations open. There was no way I could get to the next town - at this point I was starting to doubt my sanity at being out this late so far from home - so I settled down curled up on the back seat of the 'beam and got a couple of hours sleep. This is not recommended, its very cramped back there! I woke at just after 07:30 and found out that the petrol station opened at 9am, so I was stranded there. At this point I'm further examining my sanity and starting to think the 'beam was not really the car for this journey as it was going to be loud getting home and I was still feeling a bit tired. Fortunately, even that early in the morning there was a cafe open where I got a full cooked brekkie and a big mug of tea. After that, and a short walk around the town (its not possible to make a long walk around the town!) and the Shell station was open.
So a tank full of V-Power and off along the A482, A40 and A483 up to Builth Wells. And then it all came back - these roads are stunning, and at that time on a Sunday with absolutely no traffic in either direction and with a slightly damp / wet and greasy surface, one of the best drives I ever had in MEP. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. Did I say it was brilliant? Smooth surfaces, sweeping bends, tight twists, climbs, descents, clipping the apecies on both sides of the road and the ability to use full throttle so often just for the sake of it. Brilliant. Marvellous.
From Builth Wells onwards through Newtown (another stop for a top up of Momentum at Tesco) and back to Mold it was the more normal driving experience. Back home for Sunday lunch.
So after 415 miles in one night, the 'beam had black front wheels and rather grimey flanks, but it was definitely the right car at the right time.
CLICK ON THE PHOTOS TO ENLARGE.
Start Venue:
Nicky Grist:
Immaculate Preparation on Car 0 by West Wales Motorsport Fabrication:
Escorts at the Hairpin Right
Scoob:
Sleeping quarters:
A Grubby Sunbeam Lotus on The Way Home:
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