PEDLEY RALLYING

After the disappointment of the accident at Weeton and the weeks of frantic effort to get the car ready, we were really looking forward to returning to the Promenade Stages, based at New Brighton.

When the entry list was published, we were seeded at number 72 which was an improvement on last year's number 89, and reflected the performance on the events earlier in the year. Class one looked very competitive with Ricky Leach expected to dominate in his 180bhp Nova. Mark Cowell (Micra) and Keith Newey (Mini) looked the favourites to contest the other class positions, so our aim was to push from the outset and see how we were faring against them.

Scrutineering was held on Friday evening and was negotiated without any dramas, the car was left overnight at the of HMMC member Ian Smith's parents which was conveniently ten minutes drive from New Brighton. that left us with a trailer-less drive home and rest before our early start the next morning.

Leaving at 6am, we collected the car and arrived at New Brighton at 7-15am, meeting up fellow HMMC members Gary and Matthew Jakeman who were seeded directly in front of us at number 71 in their Peugoet 205. Making our way to the start for the first stage, Chris was determined to be on the pace from the outset and as we left the line, he was in the groove immediately and we were more than surprised as we came out of the first series of corners to find ourselves right behind the Jakeman's who had started thirty seconds in front of us. As we swept into the first long straight, Matthew was excellent and moved completely out of the way and allowed us to power past. The rest of the stage was completed at the same pace and we returned to service happy with the time of 4.39. We then discovered that Matthew had suffered brake failure causing him to overshoot one of the corners, which was the reason why we caught him so quickly.

The times after stage one placed us fourth in class, with Mark Cowell and Keith Newey both stopping the clock at 4.38, with Ricky Leach as expected 16 seconds in front. At this point we knew we were in for a good battle if we were to challenge for a class position. The second stage was a re-run of the first stage and we improved our time to record 4.33, six seconds quicker than our first run. Mark's time was 4.34 and Keith's was 4.35, this left us tied with Mark for second in class with Keith just one second behind. The next stage was even closer as we recorded exactly the same time as Mark, with Keith just two seconds slower. The day was set-up for a titanic battle for 2nd in class, and we knew we would have to push hard for the rest of the day. Stage 4 saw us take four seconds off Mark to establish a slender lead. This trend continued on Stages 5 and 6 as we stretched our to nine seconds, with Keith beginning to fall away from the battle. Stage 7 saw Mark on maximum attack, and even on two wheels! to take back three seconds. Chris then responded by taking back five seconds to go into the last pair of stages with an eleven second lead. Stage 9 saw us take another two seconds to give us a reasonably comfortable 13 seconds to take into the final stage. Chris finally relaxed on this stage, putting on a show for the crowd at the top hairpin, with an extravagant handbrake turn, giving away four seconds to Mark but still maintaining our position. We finished the event a very creditable 32nd overall and the coveted 2nd in class we had hoped for at the start. Ricky Leach and Helen Singleton dominated the class with a faultless performance.

Returning home and examining the the results against last year, showed we had improved our performance by over two and a half minutes which is as pleasing as collecting the trophy for second in class. If the same level of improvement can be maintained, we may be pushing Mr Leach a bit harder next year!