Con had bought a tidy but unfinished Corolla Coupe rally car and also a rough Corolla rally car that he was going to use for parts. But when they got it home the rough car was actually that bad so they wanted to take it out for a run without having to worry about it getting a wee knock. Alltrak is the perfect place for that as the can do a dual entry, it's close to home, and it's much cheaper than a stage rally.
By the time I got down the boys had been out for a run each and were full of stories after they both had crashed and damaged the car. Con was out first and had a big slide, hitting a bale with the passengers door and then Niall had hit a different bale with the front of the car and bent the bonnet. But that wasn't what they were fixing when got there. I car hadn't been used for a while and probably due to that the a union on the rear brakes has started leaking. They tried to fix it and went to get some spare parts but couldn't quite get it repaired. The only option left was to blank off the rear brakes completely. I don't think losing the rear brakes is that big a deal, just need to be a bit more careful on big stops (not that I would really know, I'm just guessing).
From chatting to the boys it didn't really sound like they had leaner anything from their previous crashes so I knew full well that the car wasn't going to finish the day in one piece, and so it proved. The boys both managed to get another clean run each before Con hit the same bale he had side swipped on his first run but this time he did a proper job of it and went in very heavy, head first, destroying the whole front of the car. Both driver and navigator were unhurt which is the main thing.
I'm in two minds with the Rallysport Association events. They fill an important gap in the market that for some reason the MSA don't seem interested in filling. I think it was 6 stages for £75 which is hugely cheaper than proper stage rally and they allow dual entries which halfs the cost of getting a car ready. But coming from MSA events the safety does seem to be a little bit lacking. They seem to start cars at only about 10 second intervals which I would be very worried about. Also the cars don't have plumbed in extinguishers and to compound that they don't require fireproof overalls for the crews. Having said all that I was only there a few hours and I wasn't actually taking part so the things I didn't like might be different at tracks/events. I plan do try a few out next year when I get the Nova built up a bit more but I will be wearing a proper FIA approved rally suit and I will have a plumbed in extinguisher.
Rallysport Association
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