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Severn Valley Stages
It’s
fair to say the 2007 season has so far been a wash out
for me, an aborted attempt at the HRCR series due to a
cancelled event and the drivers business commitments
have seen me sitting on the sidelines, however an
unexpected phone call on Bank Holiday Monday saw me
getting a run on the following Saturdays Severn Valley
stages with Llangefni driver Keith Parry. Now I remember
Keith from road events 10 years ago in a White Manta and
he was slightly deranged so the prospect of him in a
Subaru was filling me with a mix of fear and excitement,
(they say variety is the spice of life!) the words
from his normal co-driver that he tends not to listen
added to this!
A quick
trip down to Builth on the Friday afternoon saw me
meeting up with the team and getting to know the car
which had just undergone some work at Quick Motorsport
after a small mishap on the Red Dragon rally two weeks
previously, (what had I let myself in for!!)
Scrutineering and signing on passed with ease so time to
retire to the B&B and the local pub for a meal and a
nice cold beer, (it was a hot day after all).A quick
chat about the next day and Keith said he was more
bothered about points for the WAMC clubman’s series than
any heroics so we’d see how we went.
Saturday
dawned bright and very warm, (a taster of things to
come), and an uneventful run down towards Llandovery saw
us reach the first stage. The stages all being held in
the Crychan/Epynt area apart from a 17 miler in Radnor.
Onto the
startline, 5,4,3,2,1, GO and boy did this thing go,
having spent some time in Escorts I’d forgotten what
these things were like so I was throwing him notes as
quick as he was chucking gears at it! The only problem
on SS1 was a very hot engine, soon remedied when we
moved the front number plate, (the car was akin to a
sauna!) SS2 was taken with a little caution as we had
one eye on the temperature gauge and this led to a
couple of small offs as Keith was looking down instead
of up!
Anyway
back into service to find ourselves 7th
overall. We had a few tweaks on the suspension as the
car was very sideways in the first two stages, but
otherwise a quick check and off to the 17 miles of
Radnor.
This
stage was immense and has to be one of the biggest
buzzes I’ve ever had in rallying, it had everything you
could want in there and the speeds on the fast sections
were mega, (around 125mph on the straights).We came out
of here absolutely dripping in sweat but really pleased
with getting through and more so when we realised we
were now 5th
overall.
A final
service and then three 6 milers to go, the first two of
these went without incident, (although the huge drops on
Gwibedog make the heart go a touch quicker!).
The last
stage to go and it was the notorious Rally GB stage
Route 60, now with the added new gravel parts. We sat on
the startline and I talked Keith through the first mile
mentioning the SqR over crest that catches lots of
people, we really flew off the startline and approaching
the aforementioned crest I repeated it twice, what
happened, off we went but fortunately it bounced
straight back on. Then a quick run down to the car park
and a hairpin right around the bales, handbrake and
collected a bale!, Doh!, sorted from that back onto the
pace and then a sheep jumps out in front of us at 80mph,
fortunately it jumped out of the way, what a stage to
finish on, but it was a finish and 5th
overall which puts Keith right in the hunt for his
championship.
A mega
day and I’d like to say thanks to Keith, our service
crew, and the Organisers/Marshals for a brilliant day.
Brynmor
Pierce
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