My second trip over Otterburn was definitely as much fun as my first. The weather was very different, instead of sunshine, it was drizzling rain all day. On stage one we had a slight problem with the intercom, which meant that I had to shout to be heard. This was easily solved in the next service by changing the battery! On stage 3 we were putting in a good time until we crashed through a wood and wire fence on a square left just past a farmyard. The car had only cosmetic damage and we were able to carry on. Thank you to the spectators and marshalls who pushed us back onto the road. The time that we dropped meant that we were now lying second in class. Going into stage 10 we were lying first in class by just 2 seconds, but a spin put us back into second place. We finished the day first in class by 11 seconds. We had a brilliant battle with the Fiat X19 in the same class as us, the stages were brilliant and we were actually glad of the rain!

On the 23rd October we will be competing in the Keith Knox Cheviot Stages over Otterburn Ranges. I am looking forward to this event as I had such a great time on the Tyneside Stages, also over Otterburn. On 30th october I will be co-driving for Craig Durose in his peugeot 106 on the Jaspers Bakeries Swynnerton stages. It will be nice to sit in something other than a 205. It has been a while since I have done a single venue event so it will be good practice for me!

Me and my brother will be fighting it out to see who gets the job of co-driver on the Grizedale Stages in December. My brother didn’t get to compete on this event last year due to it being cancelled (a shame as my dad had been looking forward to proving just how good he is on snow!) so perhaps I will let him have another chance this year.

Even though we weren’t competing this year we still had a good day out watching the Woodpecker. After leaving the house slightly later than we wanted to, we missed the 1400’s going through Hay Park. We arrived just in time to see Perez and Burton followed by the rest of the 4 wheel drive cars. Standing on the outside of a downhill hairpin we had a great view of the cars and managed to escape the worst of the dust. Burton’s Peugeot Cosworth sounded awesome as it arrived at the corner and danced around it with ease. Perez took a more flamboyant approach to the hairpin in his Focus, still managing to entertain the gathered spectators. It was great to watch all the cars that I don’t get to see when competing on the events. Several of the Escorts nearly span at the hairpin and one of the BMW’s managed to go 360! In the afternoon we moved to a different spot on the stage, which overlooked a section of stage just after a crest and into a series of ‘S’ bends followed by a long right hander and then uphill. This time we managed to see all the 1400’s that were still running. Justin Lawson overtook Darren Pinchin at the long right hander and went on to win the 1400 category. Jayne Auden’s MG ZR struggled to get up the hill after stalling. She managed to get it going again and finished the event. Perez and Burton had both slipped down the order and we later learnt that Perez had stopped to change a puncture on SS4, costing him about 8 minutes. My phone ran out of battery seconds before Burton came into view. Which was annoying as I was going to take a video of him! After a mad scramble through the dust to get out of the stage we headed to the service area where we caught up with Geoff Jones, we had got an idea watching all the top cars going through the final stage. Perhaps we could rent his Subaru Impreza for the Grizedale Stages…watch this space for further updates!

After scrutineering and signing on we had a lengthy debate about whether to unload the service van and go on the recce. In the end we decided that we wouldn’t bother and went in search of food instead. I spent the rest of the evening working out how to use my new co-drivers watch and reading through the pacenotes. The next morning we were in the service area on Otterburn ranges airstrip well ahead of our 09:24 start time. This gave us time to make sure we were happy with the tyre choice and check that the intercom and terratrip were working properly. It took me about half a stage to get into the correct pace of reading the notes and after speaking with the co-driver in car 67 I now understand what a re-group is. Thank you to him for explaining it! After stage 2 we were lying 2nd in class and by stage 5 we were leading class B9. The stages were brilliant; fast and exciting. I especially liked the section on stages 1 and 2 that went through a mocked up Iraq village. My dad liked the twisty section through the farmyard best. We had no problems with the car and the only disappointment of the day was that stage 9 – which was 17 miles – got cancelled before we got to do it. Apart from that the day was a success, we finished first in class and had a very good days sport. (And my new co-drivers watch is brilliant!)

We had a very good day at Curborough Sprint course on sunday 24th July. The day was organised by Wolverhampton and South Staffs motor club and served as good tarmac preparation time for my dad and I ahead of the Tyneside stages. My dad and Chris and Catherine Fuller took it in turns to drive Chris and Catherine’s 205 GTI round the sprint course. All 3 of them managed to improve on their times with each run and managed to improve on their individual times from last years sprint. I went round as passenger with my dad and with Chris, which was great fun. An excellant day was had by all, despite getting sunburn and Catherine’s phone getting run over on the start line after falling off the roof of the car! Next year me and Catherine are planning to team up against the men, so they had better watch out!

I was very excited about my first trip to the Festival of Speed. Shortly after arriving we made our way up the side of the hill climb course to the rally stage. Stopping en route to the rally paddock, we watched Kris Meeke’s Mini, a classic mini, a Metro 6R4, a Lancia Integrale, a 205 T16, an Audi Quattro and a Lancia Stratos negotiate the narrow, rocky forest stage. To escape the dust being kicked up by the passing cars, we went to look round the paddock and I got very carried away taking photographs of the 6R4, the Stratos and the Quattro. After having a look at rally cars we headed back down the hill to look around the F1 paddock, where I got even more carried away taking photographs. I was amazed by the volume of the F1 car engines – I am still a little hoarse from having to shout over the top of them to talk to my dad! As well as the modern F1 cars we looked at lots of older ones. It is amazing to see how quickly aerodynamic technology moves on. The wings on some of the older cars look very dated compared with the modern cars. We saw an old Peugeot that I like to think could be our Peugeot 205’s great aunt…they are almost the same shade of blue. With so many cars on show it is easy to become car overloaded, so we heading back to our own car to have some lunch and fetch my racing suit and helmet – I had been promised a go as a passenger on the rally stage in a Sierra Cosworth!! After walking back up the hill, signing on as a co-driver and waiting for our run it was time to go round the stage. As I have never sat in anything other than a small Peugeot, I was totally unprepared for the speed and agility of the Cosworth. The thing was never going in a straight line! The boost from the turbo made the straights seem very short and the size of the car made the corners seem very tight and narrow, but it was great fun. I told my dad as I got out of the car “we need to get one of these!” Thanks to Jason Lepley for taking me round the stage and putting up with the giggling when we went round corners. The 3 hour drive to get there and the hours of walking in the midday heat were well worth it. What a brilliant day!

Our entry has been accepted for the Tyneside stages – over Otterburn Ranges – taking place on 31st July. It will be my first event on tarmac and the longest rally I have co-driven in, with 90 stage miles in total. I hope I don’t loose my voice before the end of the day!

Us on the March 2010 Malcolm Wilson rally. We had decided not to take the snow tyres with us, as we thought all the snow would have melted. How wrong can you be? We still managed to finish 1st in class, despite a close encounter with a bank on SS3