Carfax Stage Rally @ RAF Benson 20th November, 2011

We have not been rallying for a while, due to a house move, which turned out to be a full renovation project. I have had to build new garages for my cars and so the Seat has meanwhile been residing in a shipping container for the last 18 months.

We blew the dust of it for the Autometrix VW track day and the Audi driver day track day, both at Castle Combe. The car ran well and both days did not prove too much of a strain for it and there were no running problems at all.

When Oxford Motor Club announced that they would be running the Carfax Stage Rally at RAF Benson, Which is only 20 minutes down the road from my home, it seemed like to good an opportunity to miss. We dug the car out of the container again, gave it a wash, changed the wheels and we were ready to go.

RAF Benson aerodrome had never been used for a rally before, so it was a new venue for all competitors. For this rally, Zenya, my usual navigator was unavailable. So I asked my son-in-law James Vowles if he would navigate. He did say that naturally he would much prefer to drive!

For his normal job, James is chief strategist for the Mercedes Formula 1 team, and spends every other weekend on the pit wall, this means he will be very calm when put under pressure.

So we arrived at RAF Benson at 7.00 am, it was dark and fortunately dry, we unloaded and got ready for scrutineering. It was quite foggy to start with. We were expecting to see smooth tarmac as all the stages were set round the aerodrome and runways. But to our amazement the runways had not been used for a long time, the base is used for RAF helicopters, air ambulance and police choppers, so hence it was covered in moss and weeds and we were also using service roads that had more pot holes than your average country lane.

We were seeded at 56, which was very low down the order and so we knew we would probably be overtaking a lot of the slower cars in front of us.

We started the first stage, and by the time we had finished we had overtaken 3 cars, unfortunately this had slowed us down in the tight sections. We found out in the first stage that there were lots of hairpins and tight chicanes, and the occasional flat out straight. I said to James that it was going to be very hard on the mechanics of the car and tough on the drive shafts. I was also worried about the suspension as we were hitting the pot holes on the racing line as they were very difficult to avoid.

The 2nd Stage was fine, we overtook another 3 cars, and were now well up in the 40’s. Stages 3 and 4 were run in the opposite direction and during the run we hit some tyres that were being used to mark out the chicanes, hence we had managed to accumulate some impressive black lines down both sides of the car. Stages 5 and 6 were changed round and were very challenging, the pot holes were getting deeper and deeper as more cars ran over them and this was really shaking the car up more than we would have liked. We were really trying hard now and pushing on, we had a spin coming off of the main straight going into the chicane, clearing quite a few bollards on route. James was as always very cool and precise and was telling me that I could take the last bend before the flying finish flat out. So I believed what I was told and sure enough we stayed on the road. We were now up to 21st position, we were moving up the field well which was pleasing. It was now time for lunch, and they turned all the stages round again. We had a quick check around the car, checked tyre pressures, and then retired to the catering van. After the break, all the tyres were cold, and it’s a new stage. We were on the long straight, just as you brake and turn to a 90 left, when there was a very big pot hole…we were locked up before we hit, I tried to avoid it, but it made a very loud bang. I didn’t think a lot of it, and we carried on, we were just catching another car, before the flying finish………we slowed to pick up our time card for the next stage, and steam started coming from under the bonnet. So I turned off the engine and the car was pushed back to the paddock.

When we opened the bonnet, there was a hole in the radiator with water pouring through. At first we assumed it had been caused by a stone, but under closer inspection we discovered the back engine mounting had broken, the engine had jumped forward and pushed the turbo pipe through the radiator. Sadly this meant the end of the rally for us. The mountings had managed to do around 10 rallies, so not too bad we thought. It was a real shame though, as we were the leading Oxford crew at the time, and would have been in line for a trophy.

Apart from the disappointment, James and I thoroughly enjoyed the rally, so we plan a repeat next year, as long as there are no Grand Prix to take up his time. James thinks he may be driving next year, but I’m not so sure…!

It’s now back to APS to get the car fixed and ready to live to fight another day and enter another Rally.

Author: Gary Johnson