On to the July SOCC Autotest and a return to a venue local to me, just 20mins up the road on the A41 for the next evening grass autotest.

The field was known to be bumpy, and it was smoother than last time but the challenge this time would be length of tests, and dust which just hung in the air.

I started the event in Red Shed II, which really didn’t want to start the night before and this would come back to haunt me…

I went into the event with a good entry not expecting to do that well as the tests were long and flowing giving those with power an advantage, but at the end of the first test we had a slender lead of less than a second.

Then as the tests progressed on the lead got larger with each run, I did get a bit lucky when I hit one of the truck tyre markers that this event used as cones. The venue was rough though, and one part I hit ruined the relatively new rose joint track rod ends I was testing on the car. Seemingly these last no better than standard/OEM parts, so they will be replaced with these as there was no improvement in steering feel or feedback with them.

Then just over half-way through what was to become an epically long event, the car started mis-firing and running rough. I thought at first this was hot fuel as the weather was very hot, however cooling the fuel didn’t solve it. I managed to get it running a bit better and went out for a run, but this didn’t last long….. So I parked her up before any real damage was done.

I then swapped to the SOCC Club car, a even more standard Mk6 Fiesta (scrap head special) with the 1.25 engine in. However this was a runner, and by this time I had a sizable lead, so all I needed to do was complete the test correctly at a decent speed to keep the win.

Thankfully the Fiesta withstood the abuse of me and others using it, and we took the win by over 13 seconds.

Turns out the engine Red Shed II needs a bit of work (it was sold to me as head gasket may be going, so I always knew this was a risk). So its off to head the engine refreshed, before some more work to get the car ready for the Witney AutoX at the end of August.

This video shows how late it was getting at the end of the event, but also how the dust stayed in the air making it feel like driving in fog!

It was a return to a now familiar venue, but a new part of it for a all grass evening autotest.

I used the rally ZR for this one, the tests were quite long and flowing. During the evening I had good fun, but also managed to get one wrong test and with all runs counting this ruled out the win. However I still finished up 2nd overall and 2nd in class which is still pleasing.

Then just a few days later it was back out in the rally car and off to Abingdon for an Autosolo there. I hadn’t done one at this venue for a very long time, and with it being relatively local it was good to return. With this being part of the national and regional championships, I was never in for a top result but I had good fun despite the rain and the competitors who didn’t marshal due to the rain…

The end of May was a return to the usual SOCC Banbury Skip Hire venue for another autotest. For this I teamed up with Tim Sawyer to nav for me in Red Shed II.

The tests were run over two sites, giving a real mix of tight and twisty and more open and flowing. However no matter the test, the venue was very dusty and we both got covered in the dust during the day.

The day started well and we were leading from the off…. however a wrong route (my fault not Tim’s) put me back by 30’s…. Luckily there was still lots more tests so I had the chance to make back the time lost.

The rest of the tests were challenging and got longer as the day went on. Thankfully I stayed cone free all day and stayed on the right route and ended up taking the win by quite some margin.

Photos by M&H Photography

After a long drive down to Kent from Liverpool via Aylesbury due to a work commitment I arrived at the very edge of Kent for my first visit to Manston Airfield. I travelled down the night before, and choose the rally driver diet of a double cheeseburger and chips for my dinner followed by a number of Wagon Wheels for dessert – maybe not healthy but it was good

I was set to double drive with David Lobb in his Turbo Charged Vauxhall Adam, we have done a number of events together and work well as a team. I was driving my usual ZR with David navving for me.

David was first to drive as he knew the venue having been there last year, and said how good the event was. For me it was all very new and very busy. The tests were hard work and very busy for both sides of the car.

Getting to the start was a bit of a worry for David when the car wouldn’t start on the trailer, we checked a number of basic things but in the end I found one of the main relays was suspect. After hitting it a few times it fired up into the life, and thankfully didn’t cause us any more issues during the day. Though I did carry a by-pass wire with me all day just incase!

After David’s first set of tests there was no time to rest as I was due back out just minutes later, this was the theme for the day with little rest for us double driving crews.

On to the first test and after a bit of a moment on the grass where I locked up and took out an arrow (luckily not a cone!) the tests all flowed ok. As is the nature of such events you don’t really know how well you are doing but it felt ok and I was generally a little quicker than David which given I had seen the tests was to be expected early in the event.

However in the queue for the second set of tests with David driving I could see I was leading with David second. Clearly things were going well and we needed to keep this going! At this point I thought the second driver advantage would drop off and the relative lack of power in the 1400 ZR (standard engine save for some slightly better cams) would see me drop down the order.

Lunch time (and another burger!) and it was back out for more tests, it really was a long and busy day. The rest of the day continued as per the morning staying clean (apart from one cone all day) and pushing on where we could we were still leading going into the last two tests.

The last two tests were long, as they were joined up versions of the various tests during the day. Going into these although I knew we had a healthy lead, this could all still get away from us. So I threw everything at it, quite literally nothing was left on those last two tests and the poor ZR took one hell of a thrashing…

In the end we kept our lead and won the event overall by 1m 14s on just over 30 competitive miles, so a winning margin of just over 2secs per mile against some much more powerful and arguably faster crews from the main BTRDA national championship it was very pleasing to take the win.

With the weather unseasonably hot it was a return to the evening autotests run by Witney MC.

These are simple and good fun, the grass had been kept short by resident sheep over the winter, this meant the grip was generally higher than the normal first few events, in fact with the recent dry weather and no wind there was a lot of hanging dust!

With the Kent Targa Rally looming and having not used the ZR for a while this was an ideal shakedown before then. So I ran the car in targa mode complete with spares etc…

A big entry meant not all tests were completed but good fun was had by all and at the end I finished up 2nd overall. The ZR behaved it’s self and it was good to get back in the proper rally car after using the Rover 25 for a while.

Its been a busy few months since the last update, so here is a quick overview from motorsport during that time….

First up was the March SOCC 12 Car, this was a fun return to the lanes and we finished up clean and just a few minutes down it was a tight night and this placed us 6th overall and 1st in class. Always good to get a class win.

Then just days later it was out in Red Shed II, this is a Rover 25 bought originally for parts but it ran ok. So it was taken out onto a car trial to see how long it would last….

The day was dry unlike last years mud fest, this made for a lovely day outside but made the hills more challenging. After a few hills I got back into things and we finished up 14th overall and 3rd in class – not too bad for a totally standard car collected just days before the event.

Then just a week later it was a return to Weston Park navigating for Wayne Larbo in his Evo III, this had been through more work and had more power than before. This is event is short and sharp but with more modified 4×4’s banned it allowed us to have a fun and sideways day out at a former RAC Rally stage and finish up 6th overall and 1st in class.

Next up it was back in Red Shed II (Red Shed I was used and then scrapped around 2018) back to Silverstone Rally for another SOCC autotest. After sorting out the handbrake so it was more effective it was back to the fun – although I got a few too many cones we had good fun and finished up 4th overall and 4th in class.

Then after a few weeks away it was back again in Red Shed II but at Banbury Plant hire, this was a hot and dusty day and after a wide range of tests it we ended up equal 2nd overall / in class. Some great fun was had in Red Shed II which is proving to be a useful test bed for the rally car, and may stay longer than originally planned…. Though this may mean the end of the Golf… Decisions to be made.