Conister Trust Historic Manx Rally - 28th to 30th July 2005

As this would be our first visit to the island, Anthony and I decided to take advantage of the two pre-event recce days on the preceding weekend, flying out from Birmingham and doing the Stage recce in a hired 1.4 Seat Leon

The weather was sunny and dry on the Saturday and Sunday and over a busy two days we managed to prepare our notes for 18 of the 22 stages with two runs over each stage. We were immediately struck by the contrast between the very fast mountain roads some of which form the famous TT circuit and the other very narrow and bumpy roads which go to make the Manx Rally one of the most challenging on the calendar. Despite the Seat having much better ground clearance than the Mini we bottomed out on a few nasty bumps and these were well cautioned in our notes. However I was confident that if the weather stayed dry, suiting our Yokohama 0032R's tyres then we could give the other Mini's a run for their money. I was also convinced that our decision to remove the LSD after trying it on the Leukaemia was absolutely right with the bumps, yumps and constantly changing camber of the Manx roads.

The competition in our class, B2, was going to be very hot with local Manxman and top mini driver Glen Leece, and Mervyn Johnston from Tullymahon in Ireland another Manx regular in his very rapid Manx Racing mini now in a red/white rather than his usual green/white Irish colours. British championship regulars Matt and Dood Pearce in their Blue/White Cooper 'S' had class wins on all the British Historic championship rounds so far this year and were our main target along with Mike Barratt and Michelle Calvert in the Hot Wheels Cooper 'S'.

We completed our recce on Thursday having sailed on the I0M Steam Packet ferry from Heysham to Douglas. The ferry was packed with Rally crews and some who arrived a bit late were left behind and had to get the next ferry the following day !

The weather had changed completely from the previous weekend and we were greeted by a very wet and murky Douglas, with the mountains shrouded in mist so we decided to start the event on the more conservative Yokohama 008's which offer a lot less grip but are more predictable in the wet.

The service area was set up in the Car Park behind the TT Grandstand and the Historic entry of 53 cars was sharing the event with the modern Manx International Rally round of the British Championship headed by the Mark Higgins in the Eddie Stobart WRC Focus.

DAY 1

While the Main Event started at 18.00, the Historic cars started one hour later at 19.00 for the first leg of 3 stages to the first service back in Douglas.

The first stage was 6.3 miles of “Marine Drive” starting on the cliff road above Douglas. We started fairly cautiously as we hadn't done a stage event since Flanders almost a year ago. We were 13 seconds behind Matt and Dood Pearce and 30 seconds behind Merv Johnstone and Glen Leece, in the very slippery conditions. The next two stages were two short runs through the streets of Cambeltown of 1.26 miles. It was already starting to get gloomy and my mood was similar as the car which had been running smoothly, spluttered off the line firing on 2/3 cylinders all through the stage with the many spectators wondering why our pace was pathetically slow - we dropped 30 seconds to Matt on this short stage. Mike Barratt with some quirk of the timing was 10 seconds quicker than the fastest Minis and quicker than the winning Porsche 911 of Steven Smith. The repeat run was a little better with us still dropping a few seconds.

Back at Service we changed coil, plug leads, and points and set off with the car seeming a lot better for SS4 Cronk-Y-Mona over the mountain roads now in the dark and as we climbed up to the start in 50 yard visibility mist - Great! This required a great effort from Anthony on the notes and some bravery from me. This was 10.89 miles and after 3 miles we caught and passed Alison Lock in the Austin Cooper S, 4 miles later we caught Phil Foster's yellow Anglia, Anthony called 500 to cattle grid so we started to overtake but I was hesitating and suddenly the cattle grid appeared out of the mist with the grid on the left hand side and a gate on the right hand side - the gate was shut and were alongside the Anglia! We just managed to pull in behind the Anglia avoiding a very expensive retirement. We quickly passed him and Phil hung on to our tail as long as he could to the end of the stage thanking us for showing him the way. This gave us 30 seconds pulled back on Matt Pearce, but local ace Glen Leece was 1.5 minutes quicker than us !
We made up another 15 seconds on the last stage of day 1, Cronaa, a very narrow and tricky stage which has a deep ford and 3 crossings of the Manx tramway system , despite crashing through the ford at the start of the stage and then hitting a low wall on a slippery downhill hairpin right. This gave the service crew some improvisation work to pull out the wing and make a new sidelight lens out of a plastic bottle.

DAY 2

We had still got a bit of a misfire so we tried a change of plugs from grade 8's to grade 6's and this removed the problem completely so we started day 2 in good fettle, just 10 seconds behind the Pearce Mini knowing that without the misfire which held us back on day 1 ,we could pull the time back. All the stages from now on were in the daylight but the day started very damp, so we kept on A008 Yokohamas for safety.

The first 3 stages were very tricky and we only gained 27 seconds on the Pearces, but this was enough to put us in a slight lead from the other class B2 contenders from the British Championship. Back in the first service the rain had stopped so we decided to change tyres to the A0032's and I really got the finger out on SS9 Rockmount and pulled 30 seconds advantage in the 7.82 miles and then another 20 seconds on SS10 giving us a 1 minute cushion over the Pearce mini. They were finding their car a handful over the twists and bumps with their LSD set very tight, which is ideal for forest gravel but not these tarmac stages. We had no LSD and this better for this event.

After another service in Douglas stages 11 and 12 were a repeat of SS6 and 7, so we tried harder but ended up were slower than before after an “off “on SS11 into a bank and further bending the nearside wing but losing about 10 seconds. We finished the section with two runs along the seafront at Ramsey.(pic along seafront img -0775)

Our second run benefiting from better braking distance judgement and improving by 4 seconds on a short 1.2 mile stage, but Merv Johnstone's rapid Mini was still 5 seconds quicker ! So we finished Day 2 as 8th Historic and almost 1 minute ahead of Matt Pearce.
Mike Barratt was 10th Historic but some 10 minutes adrift and broke down after the last stage a few miles from service and the final control of the day.

Somehow he struggled to the Service area and Trevor Hancock quickly diagnosed a possible broken rocker shaft /blown head gasket. As there were no servicing time restrictions for Historic competitors at the end of each day it was feasible to strip the valve-gear remove the head and replace the rocker . This was off in no time and it came out in two pieces! We borrowed a spare head gasket from another crew but no-one carried a rocker shaft. We made a few phone calls and Mark from our service crew rang his brother who lived in Castletown, said he knew where some scrap mini engines were and Spen and he set off into the night to return at 10pm with a “borrowed” rocker shaft. While this was being procured Mike Barratt service ace Trevor had removed and replaced the head gasket, the rocker shaft was fitted when it arrived and the car ready by midnight for the last day's rallying.

DAY 3

The final day started well , the cars were regrouped at the end of each day in position order so we were now in between an Escort Twin cam and Michael Pedley's TR7V8,
and we improved our position over the other Minis on the 3 stages, altho' Matt pearce lost 30 secs to us on stage 18 with a problem after an excursion.

We now had a 2 minute cushion with 4 long stages to go, but anything can go wrong and usually does. On the run out of Douglas to the start of stage 20 , I noticed a rattle coming from the nearside rear , we pulled out the inspection panel to check the top of the shocker , which was loose but would not tighten.

We had no option but to press on taking it easier on the bumps. It seemed ok until the SS21 when we had a huge moment after some very bad bumps which thro' the car off the road and we just kept it together to get to the end of a very bumpy stage.
Back at service we had 20 minutes to sort the problem - we found that the mounting of the top of the shocker in the wheel arch had ripped out completely. With the help of Mike's service crew , Spen cobbled together big plates and washers which hopefully would get us thro' the last 2 stages , both were very long at 11 and 13 miles.

This worked brilliantly and we stormed thro'the last two stages over the mountain roads to the flying finish in front of the TT stand, to finish behind the 2 flying minis but ahead of the other British Championship contenders , a great result on our first visit to the island .

Class B2 -Final positions

Merv Johnston/Richard Hyland ....... Morris Cooper S ... 2:58:42.3
Glen Leece /John Tarrant ............... Morris Cooper S .... 2:59:09.9
Peter Horsburgh/Anthony Preston .. Austin Cooper S .... 3:11:29.3
Matt Pearce/Dood Pearce ............... Morris Cooper S ... 3:13:26.6
Mike Barratt/Michelle Calvert .......... Austin Cooper S .... 3:25:26.6
Philip and Barbara Smith ................. Mini Cooper S ...... 3:33:52.2
Alison Lock /Jody Watson .............. Austin Cooper S ... 3:48:18.1