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Cambrian Rally
17th October 2009
 Rallying is a sport where a novice can compete against
the best in the world in the same event.
World championship leader Mikko Hirvonen was
running car 0 and Carl Lumb and myself were running in
car No.76 on the 2009 Cambrian Rally.
This time I was armed with a set of pace notes with
numbers for each corner rather than the discriptive ones
I’ve had before.
Scrutineering was on Friday which meant missing school.
No problem with the car, so we were ready for
Saturday. After
the long run out from Llandudno we were greeted with a
big smile by Gareth on first arrival in Clocaenog and we
knew there would be a large contingent from Clwyd Vale
marshalling, so no cock-ups!
SS1 was a mixture of very fast, slippery roads, with
very tight hairpins made tighter with some bloody straw
bales – but we came through unscathed.
By the end of SS2 I was getting used to the new
notes and found them easier to use than the descriptive
ones.
There was disappointment in Penmachno as SS3 was
cancelled due to a serious accident.
SS4 was a bit rough which didn’t help with us
running as one of the last cars of the rally.
We were really looking forward to returning to
Clocaenog as the last stage was a 17 miler.
We finished the stage in the dark, we thoroughly
enjoyed it.
We knew we wouldn’t be mixing with the big boys so it
was nice to finish such a great event in 15th in class.
Thanks again to Carl for the opportunity to co-drive for
him. Thanks
to Nigel for servicing on the top of Brenig.
Thanks also to
Stuart Jones for borrowing me his overalls and helmet
throughout the year.
My dad always said that the Cambrian is a big rally and
it always was his ambition to compete on it.
So he was very jealous of me when I was given the
opportunity to co-drive on it so young.
Dafydd Gwynedd.
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