Saturday 7th July
Started again in very cloudy weather, so much so that we had not noticed
we needed some more petrol. So our timed
first stage had to now include a petrol stop at what must have been the busiest
& slowest garage in the area. By the
time we arrived at the start of the timed climb up Gargellan we were almost the
last car and could not make up any time without gaining more penalties. And penalties accumulate at one point for
every 1/100th of a second too fast or too slow…. A Subaru appeared
from somewhere and blocked the road as we were queuing behind parked cars to
get back in front of some who had overtaken us on the climb not realising they
were supposed to keep to an average speed.
So we were temporarily stuck out of sequence until they were spoken
to. Just about made it back onto
schedule. But its very hard to judge exactly where the front of the car is to
1/100th of a second when it triggers the laser beam. So more points collected!
But the weather improved and the sun came out and we met up with Paul B
again in his Lancer Turbo on the return down the mountain and drove in convoy
for some time with Sandy riding in Paul Bs car to take some nice shots of us in
motion. By the time we got to the end of
this first timed section we had thankfully made up for our lost time getting
petrol and joined the queue for the next series of tests. More difficulties in judging car positions
gained us more penalty points. But not
too many this time. More than can be
said for the closed level crossing where we were the 4th car in line
awaiting the ploddy train to pass. At
least it was not as long as the herd of cows on their way to or from milking
the previous day….
We then routed through the Silvertal, Duns & Nenzing at times over
some very small windy (no overtaking possible) but picturesque roads to our
lunch stop in Brand – a most beautiful resort which will get a return visit at
some point outside a rally. What a nice lunch it was too but only just long
enough for the car to cool off a bit in the hot sun before starting the
afternoon session.
So far this was our best day. And
so far so good. Our last test at the
Vandans village circuit (twice around the closed roads of the village) was
going very well and bang on target until the inevitable happened right at the
end when the brake and accelerator pedals momentarily swapped places…..Still,
even with these unexpected points we still had our best day finishing with
around 2900 penalty points (ie 29 seconds adrift over 3 days).
But many other crews fared much better due mostly to experience and
competence (plus a little luck) and we finished 81st out of 167
starters, almost half way down and out of the prizes. But we did finish second on one test and got
only 9 penalties on another so there is much hope for our next event. We know we can do better next time. Most importantly we enjoyed ourselves
immensely and it was a good way to celebrate the old man’s 60th birthday.
