Tag: Historic Rallying

Today the Winter Trial presented us with 5 Regularities, 1 Navigation Test and two speed tests. A true test of grit and concentration. We started the day in corrected 4th position, still in contention for the podium. With so many events in one day and truly icy surfaces to cover the expectation was for a shake up in the classifications. There were too many possibilities to pick up penalties and big offs.

As we got into our rhythm today we had good hopes to stay in the game. The test at Nordring in Austria was mostly covered in thick snow and presented a chance to beach oneself… We just wanted to play it a bit safe to make sure we ended up with a decent time and avoid big penalties when getting stuck in a snow wall. This strategy worked out well and it [...]

Our little error on the Regularity yesterday morning cost us 3 places and we dropped to 6th in the intermediate standings. There was a silver ligning though in that the organizers have introduced a deduction of the worst regularity option. So corrected for that we are still third. Presuming we do not mess up another section we are still in podium contention!

Today we explored the Czech hill country and boy were the roads for the Regularities slippery. We could match the required pace exactly and could barely correct for lost time without risking a big off into a lake or down a hillside… In spite of the challenging tracks we managed to complete all the regularities close to the ideal time. We may have lost a 2 minute penalty when we headed in the wrong direction at a time check and missed our self [...]

The morning was bright as we woke up to find out that we ended yesterday in 2nd place and 1st for the day. A proud result, but lots of pressure early on in the rally! Our friends in the Merc 280S also climbed a few spots and all was looking right for the 3rd day.

Our first regularity this morning, just over the Czech border, was a slippery affair and included gorgeous winding mountain roads. Soft snow cover on most sections, but unfortunately we found our team mates in the Porsche 924 just shy of the finish by the side of the road. They had been hit by a local forrest guard coming up the hill, cheating a bit of left hand side road. The impact was mild, but both cars had quite a bit of damage. The 924 burst its wiper fluid container, so it looked as though the radiator had been hit, but [...]