Now I’ve had a sleep after yesterday, my thoughts on Riponian.
Jack Mathewson and myself had prepared all week for the rally, and we’re all set for Saturday. An uneventful scrutineering, although the weather was wet, same forecast for Sunday!
This was only the second rally Jack has done, Malton was also wet, but the plan at the moment is to gain seat time and gain experience and enjoy ourselves.
In the run out to SS1 Wass we were delayed at the bottom of Sutton Bank as a car transporter had got stuck and had to reverse down, but as the road sections had plenty of time we arrived in plenty of time.
The stage was treacherous, grip in certain places, none in others, got very sideways on a slippy 3 right which caught a few people out, but Jack gathered it all up and we got to the end of the stage.
Cropton and Gale Rigg followed and completed without any dramas although we had plenty of sideways moments through the stage although a half spin on a hairpin right didn’t cost us too much.
A relaxed run back to service and regroup saw a pair of new tyres on the back and a slight suspension problem found which was not too serious, but was ok for us to continue as we were.
Afternoon stages were a repeat of the morning stages, but we quickly found that where we had grip in the morning was now gone, but there in places where we had none in the morning.
Wass 2 was going well, but we were still driving steadily, a finish was what we wanted and we purposely were not checking how others around us were doing.
However, approaching junction 21, there is a 400 straight into a 3 right uphill. Although we approached at a similar pace as the morning, the grip we’d had earlier had gone and we arrived a little quickly and we had an off which ended up with us getting stuck. Lost nearly over a minute getting out and collected a puncture for our troubles. Got out of the stage to change the wheel but the car fell off the jack while we were changing the wheel. There was no way we could lift the car, but
Mike Reed came to the rescue as he stopped and lent us his jack and codriver to help. As we were preparing to call the service crew to come and get us that saved us and we were able to continue.
A brisk run to Cropton saw us arrive in time, so we backed off a little, our time a little slower than the morning, but we still topped out at 101 down the long straight down to Spiers!
Final stage was Gale Rigg where although we once again drove steadily, we were 6,seconds quicker than the morning, and then a run back to the finish in Thirsk.
A great result saw us 16th overall and second in class plus our first points on the board in the Northern Historic Championship.
To say this is only Jack’s second rally he drives amazingly quick, but we have quickly gelled as a team, and there’s certainly a lot more to come from him. His maturity in the car, and the way he approaches every event is amazing and I think in the coming years he’ll definitely be up there with the quickest boys.
Onward to the Malcolm Wilson now and hopefully we’ll have a dry event. Photo credits to Graham Clark and TYRMP.
Miles Cartwright
