At last, well nearly!

Astoundingly I will (or at least should) have my new helmet for the test Adrian and I are doing before the Dukeries. Just when I thought my trusty old Peltor would have to see out another season I got a call saying my new helmet is on its way. Excellent news! Hopefully the extra clarity will cancel out the increased noise in the forest. I know Adrian is still over the moon with his new helmet, I hope I'm similarly impressed. To be fair if the helmet is half as good as my new race suit I'm going to be delighted!
My new suit has drawn complimentary comments even when it's hanging up airing, although when the neighbour mentioned my lovely, bright "space suit" I was a little taken aback! At home the big advantage of the new suit over my old suit is just how light it is, I'm not concerned about hanging it off door frames or wardrobes unlike my heavy old suit.
For more information on race suits click here.

Dukeries here I come!

As can be read on the Roofing Rally Team blog {here} my next event will be the Rainworth Skoda Dukeries Rally. Based in and around Sherwood forest it should be a great event and I'm really looking forward to it.
Whilst we won't be able to check the pacenotes as we do on other events they will still be far better than an OS map! Adrian is looking forward to watching the DVD to give him a better idea of what we'll be driving along.
We have a test session in Wales booked for the week before the event so hopefully we can set the car up to suit Adrian. It will be nice to finally have a clean, problem free rally and hopefully the test will ensure that's exactly what we get on the Dukeries.

For full event information visit the Rainworth Skoda Dukeries Rally website here. For more information on the Roofing Rally Team click here.

Congratulations!

Well done to VfB Stuttgart 1893 e.V. who managed to win the Bundesliga despite my support! Good luck to them in the final of the DFB cup (German FA cup) against 1. FC Nürnberg. Follow the cup final on VfB Stuttgart's website here.
Additional congratulations to London Wasps who are now champions of Europe having won the Heineken Cup Final at Twickenham last weekend. Wasps website here.

19.05.2007 @ 15:30

This has absolutely nothing to do with motorsport or rallying at all.
I'd just like to wish VfB Stuttgart good luck for the final game of this season's Bundesliga. If they win they're champions! As you may have guessed kick off is at 15:30 on the 19th.
Follow the game and the team on their website here.

Maps.

I started rallying using OS maps on road rallies and even now quite enjoy rallying off maps. However I was up with my parents-in-law last weekend and saw a Victorian era map of their local area. Wow! With every field marked on the map became just difficult to read, being black and white didn't help either. It wasn't quite as difficult to read as the OS map for Jersey but then there wasn't as much habitation around Halsham when Victoria was queen.

Back to the woods...

My next event is certain to be a forest/gravel rally. Adrian wants to use the Escort for a forest event or two before (hopefully) doing the Jersey Rally.

Having rallied almost exclusively on tarmac for the last 5 years it will be nice to get back into the woods again. We did the Premier Stages last year and thoroughly enjoyed it and am looking forward to more of the same from the next event!


As an aside it looks like I'll be off to Bavaria to collect a helmet and other items sometime next week. The disappointing thing is that it will be a one day trip so I don't get a chance to sample the local brews...

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my son Mark who is now one year old!

Next event.

After the problems at Down Ampney Roofing Rally Team are thinking long and hard about what event they will contest next. There is going to be at least one test session before any event is undertaken and the search for suitable test venues is already underway.

Meanwhile I still have a couple of offers to do a road rally to think about!

A picture from Down Ampney

Thanks to Aron Brown for this picture of the Roofing Rally Team Escort at the finish of stage 8 ~ ironically the last we completed!

MOMO underwear

For the Down Ampney rally I was wearing fully FIA approved (8856-2000) nomex underwear made by MOMO. I have the black long johns, pullover and balaclava and was very impressed with their fit and comfort. They were chosen to match the race suit it must be said but I'm really impressed with them. Adrian is also a MOMO convert too.

Our sponsor AAT (link) supplied them and will be happy to discuss anything MOMO related. MOMO quality is cartainly as good as any other manufacturer and supply seems quick too.

Down Ampney result.

There were 2 good things for me to take from the Owen Development Stages at Down Ampney:~
(A) my race suit is really, really comfortable, light and generally excellent. The time card pocket on the leg worked perfectly ~ I don't think I'll ever be able to rally without one again!
(B) Despite being a gravel car and running in full forest trim at the weekend the Escort was competitive until the clutch broke followed by yet more driveshaft issues.
Until we retired the Roofing Rally Team Escort had been performing well despite its high ride height and soft suspension. The brakes even coped well despite being a bit smaller than is ideal for tarmac.
We had a slow start in the morning and dropped to the tail off the top 10 but once we'd changed tyres and had a lunchtime break Adrian got the car performing as it should and we set about trying to capture 3rd overall. Looking at the times on the event website we weren't far off achieving that, that was until our mechanical gremlins reduced us to frustrated spectating.
We now have a few items to focus on before our next event:~ (1) sort the driveshaft issues (2) find me a helmet (3) get some testing on proper gravel forestry roads.

Ready for Down Ampney.

Well almost everything is in place for the rally on Saturday.
The car's ready, we've nearly chosen the tyres we want to take and our suits are packed ready for scrutineering. All I need now is a helmet! My trusty open face Peltor is being pressed into service once again, hopefully for the last time.