In which Sid and Stefan and The Beast do actually finish the RAC (spoiler alert a bit late there).
With Storm Arwen having blown through, the rally callously leaves many households still without electricity and heads south for some less-damaged forests in Wales.
Saturday’s rallying had been cancelled but there were still plenty of miles left and that Sunday night the stages were very icy, but not as icy as they were rocky so still on gravel tyres. We survived these with only one instance of Stefan shouting get off the brakes and turn it in. Which Sid had already realised, but it doesn’t hurt to be told sometimes.
On Sunday night the show moved on, further south. Just one more day, again finishing in the dark. So early Monday morning we set out for Neath and Walter’s Arena, which is a purpose-built rally track based at the site of a sometime coal mine. As you can see this is not at all like the pit lane at Yas Marina or the dust bowl at Laguna Seca. Never say Motorsport isn’t glamorous.
Sid usually finds Walter’s a bit dull due to the fairground jumps put in for the spectators. But this stage was wide flowing and lovely. We gave it a really good go and had the fun of it again. The three top crews went out on this stage.
FancyBit, alias FNC 181T our old Opel, is still going having benefitted hugely from being able to receive plenty of TLC during the day off on Saturday.
As dark falls on the last day it also begins to rain. Sid is still driving for the finish with no interest in standing by the road with the OK board waiting in the rain for recovery. And then Sid’s wiper falls off, which is a bit frustrating. (Owen has just drilled and pinned the wipers on Teal.) We get to the final stage finish quite slowly with Stefan helping with the steering because his wiper is nailed on after its previous failure. Jim Bowie of Chelmsford Motor Club is there to congratulate us on a finish.
Now we have to make Carmarthen and the finish MTC through a Welshpool rush hour complicated by enormous agricultural machinery in town and a rail crossing gate that is having some sort of fit. With only mild illegality we just make the very final time control. Job done.
Well done to Andy, Dave, Jaimie, Jonathon and Stefan. A win in the Safari class in circumstances we need not elaborate further. High paw.