Here we have the car in scrutineering, Sid talking to Paul Lawrence from Motorsport News. We were a touch irritated that while we had been expressly forbidden to run LED spotlights these were on other cars and not checked at scrutineering. They would take a lot of work off the alternator and let you see.
On this event much of the mileage is in the dark and Sid was told by the crew to run the halogens only when in the stage. So we take the start, off to Killer Kielder for the equivalent of a BTRDA round in the dark. Three cars went off on the very first corner.
Coming back to Carlisle for first service the 504 stalled in the control and took a bump to restart. Everyone points at Sid for draining the battery until Andy Tearle (a sometime British Telecom technician) gets the meter out to show the alternator is not charging. So Jonathon gets under the car, sump guard off and the alternator is found hanging by one bolt. The battery is recharged from the van. Fixed, and away we go with lights, albeit relative candle power is low. No better place to find a problem than in service!
The main point of the night stages is to finish them. Mission accomplished. And the next morning we look very like a rally crew, shown here Friday morning with a little opposite lock.
It is a pity that level of skill was not maintained, as soon after Sid put the car in a ditch on the outside of a 9R into 9L in Falstone Forest. Fortunately about ten beefy marshals heaving on our webbing tow line hauled us out with only five minutes and some mud flaps lost. We then had the nav side wipers come off so Sid would confirm which bends he’d been through so Stef could read some more notes. Quite a good exercise if a bit frustrating.
We survive to fight another day. And still smiling.