The following are two short reports that I wrote for the North Wales Car Club magazine Torque:
The Plains Rally 2010
The Plains Rally 2010 was my third forest event as a co-driver in the Peugeot 205 driven by my dad – Patrick Messer . After the snow and ice of the Malcolm Wilson tyre choice on this event was much more straight forward. In fact the only dilemma of the morning was whether to have a hen egg or a duck egg with breakfast at the B and B. Seeded at 217 we’ve managed to creep up a few places per event this year. Hafren (stage 4) was very fast and flowing and tested my ability to keep up with the notes! The Woodyard (stage 7) was great fun – don’t we all wish we had a special stage in our back garden like Mick Jones?! Going into service after stage 3 we were leading class 1.4c, ending the day second in class and 6th 1400. Great stages, good craic, a grand day out!
The Quinton Stages 2010
After hoping for rain all week we were disappointed to find that there had been none. We were in for a dusty day. I was slightly apprehensive about stage 1 (Dixies). My Dad had told me that the last time he went over Epynt his co-driver retired from co-driving because of an off they had. My apprehension wasn’t necessary, even though we nearly hit a bank and nearly spun at a corner. On stage 5 (route 60) we managed to hit the bank and spin at the corner. Crychan (stages 2 and 6) and Monument (stages 3 and 7) were good, fast stages and on the second run through we managed to improve on our times from the morning. And then, finally, on stage 7, rain! We ended the day first in class 1.4c, after having a great battle with Sion Mathews who had been having drive shaft problems. Even with the spin we both had a great day and this co-driver won’t be retiring just yet.