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Purple Patch
There's not been much news from the Whalley/Dennis Rally
Team for a while (lucky for you I'm sure). Ever since we
brought the 2003 Clwydian Cars Rally to a premature
close with a multiple roll on Stage 11, "building back"
has been a slow process. That accident destroyed the old
RS2000 which had served us well since 1990 and in order
to "get back on the road" quickly, team boss and car
owner Jonathan "Wol" Whalley, bought a ready prepared
tarmac-spec' Astra. We didn't post any reports about
that season, largely because we were rubbish. Wol didn't
get on with front wheel drive and always had plans to
build another Escort Mk2.
Service-crew member Rob Coulson generously donated his
road-going Mk.2 shell for a small consideration and the
team set about transferring as much as could be salvaged
from the wrecked RS. It was a lengthy operation and
special mention should go both to service-crew mechanic
Bob Yates and Wol himself, for hours of "melting the
midnight welding-rod" in an effort to out-shop the car
during the 2005 season. 
The team's familiar hallmark over the years, has been
its shoestring budget and shabby appearance. The first
service-barge was a Ford Orion and the "Hospitality
Suite" for visiting supporters was an uncomfortable
fold-out chair and a bacon-butty cooked on a camping
stove: hardly WRC or Formula 1! However, as you will
discover, greater moves in that direction were to
follow. I'm told that the motor industry is now a World
leader in "Just on time Delivery". Nothing new here: in
fact the team can usually be found still building the
car the night before an event. When the new Escort was
thus launched on the public in an interesting shade of
Whitewash-with-a-Hint-of-Filler, it was intended that
this would be a temporary livery. In the meantime,
genuine rally people were keen to look beyond the bland
exterior to discover if the car had any improvements
over the previous one, such as 5 link-suspension (yes),
better carburetion (no), or a new engine (err, no, it's
the un-rebuilt Pinto 2.1
out of the RS. Still, think of the number of extra pints
we could afford by
not
changing it!).
"Out of the box" the car went quite well. Although we
entered few events in 2005, the Escort came 12th
out of 50 on its second outing, the Camsport Old Ranges
with a 3rd
in class. Two months later on the Nieroda Ranges Stages,
we got a 2nd
in class. On the Menai Trophy Stages at Ty Croes in
March last year, we once again came 12th
despite the large entry and it was looking good for a
class award on the Clwydian Cars '06, until we went off
and got beached on the tyres a few meters from the
finish of the event. Doh! We did manage a 2 in class on
the Camsport though.
All that was needed now (apart perhaps from a class win;
some hope!) was a sponsor to clothe
the car in a new coat
of paint. Not for the first time, beer was to lift our
spirits. Yes, the new sponsor is Porthmadog's own Purple
Moose brewery! Despite the car's deep purple paint
scheme, some have drawn parallels with the similarly
titled Red Bull racing team's Fl livery. However, we can
guarantee that our philosophy is definitely: "No Bull".
Purple Moose have already won prestigious awards for
their excellent real ales, so we're hoping this rubs-off
on the team's ability to scoop trophies. It seems to be
working: on the Clwydian, we managed to
hang on for a 3rd
in class, despite all the 4x4 machinery and some hot
Escorts.
We
look forward to a bright future with the brewery's
support. Already there's talk of Purple Moose safety
clothing (we may draw the line at purple helmets!) and
at the very least, we should be good for some post-event
pints to drown our sorrows. However, we have a positive
outlook, especially since it's rumoured one of the
scrutineers is a real ale fan:
"Tyres contrary to the Blue Book?, dodgy fuel?!
...No I'm sure you
haven't noticed any such thing Your Scrutineership; now
have another free Purple Moose beer old chap".
Pete Dennis
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