R.A.C. Rally Picture Report

This is posted in the NW dinner and drinks thread but thought it better copied into this thread now.

Hi Jules, thanks for your thoughts as to if i made it back from the RAC. Below is a report from my three day adventure around the north east of England and southern Scotland. Yes I am back but very lucky to be in one piece really.

Just got home from a weekend that could best be described as an ADVENTURE ! I was going to stay for Monday's stages originally but having endured the previous two days driving on ice, decided to quit while I still had an undamaged car rather than venture back into the snow around Kielder. (Phone has just rang and it was my mate to tell me that all stages in Kielder tomorrow have been cancelled due to adverse weather conditions, stages to run non spectator in Kershop instead.) So looks like I made the right decision to drive home tonight.

My adventure started on Friday afternoon as I made my way towards Forest Drive at the top of the Dalby stage only to come across some photgraphers stuck at a junction so a re route to forest drive was required. We got close to the stage and parked up safely off road, then only to be asked to move as they may need to reroute the stage due to ice at a particular un passable area. So I moved the car down the road and promptly got stuck. Thankfully a marshal towed me back onto the road again and I ended up parked back near where I had been in the first place but this time road side. When I decided to leave after the first run through Dalby, I discovered that the wheel on the edge of the road had no traction and i was stuck again, so i went back and watched the second run as well. Thankfully after that some lads gave me a big push on the front end and I got my car mobile again and then had a a very scary drive out back to Low Dalby on a very slippery down hill tarmac road.

Actually started to panic on the run down to Low Dalby when it picked up speed to 10 mph ! Scared at 10 mph !

That drop into Thorntonl Dale afterwards certainly was interesting at 1 am.

I parked up by the mere at Oliver's and got a good nights kip in the car, in the morning my mate and I set off for the dock side cafe at 7am and it started snowing again while we were in there. Had a nice breakfast and then set off again towards the east side of Oliver's, but had to go back to the other side when we couldn't get up the uphill roads out of the town. So we ended up parked up back by the mere again and walked up through the mere hairpin and watched the final hairpin section next to the footie fields at the top. Right decision to not use Mere Hairpin in the circumstances as it would have been suicide.

We left Oliver's at around 2pm to set off up to Hamsterly and I walked past your car on the way out and noted that you must have abandoned any idea of Langdale. Leaving a run able stage at Oliver's was our first mistake and the adventure / nightmare began. The road up to Whitby was ok, a little slow due to snow but easily passable but we decided to stick to the A roads rather than take the short cuts the sat nav was telling us to use. Once out of Whitby however on the A171, it was a totally different story as the road just got worse and worse the further you went towards Giusborough and eventually it was down to 20 mph and a total white out. Then a problem, everything ground to a halt behind a Tesco wagon that couldn't get up a hill and with traffic coming the other way, nobody could get a run up to overtake it. After about 5 minutes, he managed to get the truck up the hill and we were off again. Then that bad down hill s bend section was a interesting with everyone crawling down at about 2 mph.

We got to the edge of Middlesborough and then I hit a problem either the tyres on my car are s**t and have no grip on packed down snow or I can't drive it , one or the other, but I got to a roundabout and couldn't get up the hill. There was a bus in the lay by that also couldn't get up the hill as well. I had three attempts and kept reversing back down the other lane back to the roundabout for another go, really f****d me off that every other car including by mate made it to the top but mine ground to a halt at the same place every time. The worst part about it was the kids taking the piss stood on the pavement. Eventually I gave up and had to get all the cars behind me at the roundabout to reverse so I could back up and try an alternative route through town. I then pulled in across a road end to wait for my mate to come back down to my alternative route, stuck again when I tried to set off in the snow eventually got it going and again my mate had turned round and come back again, so now I was back in front again, went round a sweeping bend normally a 30 - 40 mph bend slightly down hill. I was doing barely 15 mph at most and then without warning that was it, I was a passenger heading straight on for someone's garden fence. I tried to steer, nothing, the brakes were doing f**k all because of the ABS. I tried driving out of it, and nothing worked and I simply straight lined it across a road end and went towards this garden fence fearing the worst. Thankfully the kerb managed to stop all my forward momentum and it hit with the tyre rather than a side on impact so I thankfully did no damage to either the front bumper as it cleared the kerb or the wheel as the tyre took the impact. I got out and was relieved to check everything over and find naff all damage. I had stopped with about a foot to spare from the fence and it was a 3 -4 foot drop into a garden at the other side of the fence. My mate came round the bend and pulled up laughing to ask what the hell was I doing there !

Then the blizzard started and we stopped to get the maps out and work out a way out of the place avoiding hills and getting further inland. Middlesborough was a total nightmare as it was a total white out coming down real heavy and we thought we were going to be stuck there for the night it was so bad.

At this point we decided that we weren't going to make Hamsterly so decided to try and regroup at a services for food and head towards Scotland for Sunday instead.We eventually found a route out that took us to Darlington, the A1 and to Scotch Corner for the A66, it was now 17.30, 3 1/2 hours after leaving Scarborough !

We spotted a Morrisons so stopped and had a decent cheap meal in the cafe and checked out the roads and the forums before making a decision on what we were going to do. Turned out that Hamsterly didn't start until 8pm, some 3 hours late and we could have probably made it after all and it ran twice as well, but we didn't discover this until this morning. So we headed across to Penrith on the A66 and stopped in at the service area at Carlisle for a quick walk around before heading to Ae. We left the service area at 9pm and glad we didn't wait for the cars to arrive as the first one got in at 11 pm, 2 1/4 hours later than scheduled. Was told by someone that left service area at 1.20 am that twenty cars had still to arrive in service. I also understand that the Sheppardshield stage that was due to start at 8pm, the last car left the stage at 2 am.

Anyway we went to Ae forest and took the 18 mile longer route as it stuck to main A roads rather than the narrow back lanes to avoid the ice and there was just a light dusting of snow on the roads, slippery if you pushed it but drivable at 30 mph or so, so we decided to go in our usual route at the far end of the stage and park up for the night and hope the forecast snow for the morning didn't arrive. Fortunately the snow didn't come and we have had a great day watching both runs through Ae at two excellent viewing spots, with the car parked only 100 yards from the stage so easy to walk back to for a brew at half time between the stages.

Then with the decision made we set off back down the M6 for home, fine until we got to approx the Kendal area and it started to snow and before you knew it, the lanes disappeared and it went from 80 mph down to 25 mph just like that and we were in another heavy blizzard. Deja vu or what from the night before. You could differentiate between lanes and had to drive or whatever bit looked the most passable and a 3 lane motorway was down to 1 lane at times. Fortunately it cleared up around Lancaster and we had a clear run home to Preston, so stopped in for Chinese takeaway before heading to home.

So you can see we have had a real interesting time of it the last 3 days and certainly a rally to remember for various reasons and why I called it an Adventure.