QUB Summer Lanes Rally 2012

Saturday the 21st July was the Queens University of Belfast Motor Clubs Summer Lanes Rally. QUBMC is our club so we were involved with the organisation in the build up to the event, so by the day of the rally it's a big relief that it's the end of the stress and the work. This year we had 3 student members (Conor Auld, James Scott and Philip Campbell) in charge and as none of them have competed on any motorsport event they had a bit of a mountain to climb. Luckily Conors father Clifford Auld was able to step in and be an experienced voice to guide them through. Together they managed to secure some new lanes for this years and they did a great job. The event ran great and everyone seemed to really enjoy the rally. It's probably the best that the rally has ever run. The same team have more ideas they want to try out and are keen to take on the organising of the event again next year which is brilliant news.

As I compete in the event my involvement in the organisation has to be limited to non-test stuff and so this year I made up some new code boards. We have used the same code boards every year, they are simply car number plates with a 3 letters followed by 3 numbers format. I felt that they are too short and didn't slow the cars down enough so the new code boards are 4 letters and 4 numbers. To allow the boards to be use for many years to come I build them with 96 individual, quick change code plates with 2 digits on each. This will allow us a huge number of code combinations and it will make it easy to change the code between cars if we want to.

We had a good clean run through all the tests with only a single penalty (for grazing a pylon) so we were really happy. I think the few autotests I have done in the car have produced a great improved in my speed on the technical sections. I am much more confident maneuvering the car on the handbrake than I was before and I can place the car much better. My new ecowing Kumho tyres proved to be dead on too, I didn't notice any reduction in grip over the quatrac's that I had on before. We finished up 17th overall which I am happy with. I know there are a few things that I could change on the car to gain a few seconds and I still haven't got much confidence on the loose. On the whole everyone ahead of us is much more experienced than we are and they have cars build for this kind of event, but hopefully we will be able to catch up with them someday.

1st Overall, Pete Moore and Will Corry Jnr, with CoC Philip Campbell.  

Results:
RallyScore

Photos:
Peespeed Photography

MOT & Insurance Time Again

I haven't been getting up to much motorsporting of late so things have been a bit quiet round here. After 6 months of looking Rachel and I have finally been able to find a house that we like and has space for our lives. Unfortunately it needs a fair amount of renovation so it has been sucking up all my time for the last few months and it will continue to do so for at least a few months more.

But no matter how much other work I have on I still like the keep the Nova road legal. So first job up was to renew the road insurance. My policy was with REIS and, although I've never had to put a claim in against it, they have always been easy to deal with so I saw no reason to change. The renewal quote was £302 but as I plan on doing a good few events during the year I got them to add on on event road section cover which bumped it up to £365. I have previously been buying insurance at each event, which is £18.50 a time, so if I compete in 4 events this year I will have made an overall saving on last year, and every event after that is a bonus.

So with the easy job done the next one is to get a new MOT. I know the Nova is generally solid so the MOT doesn't hold much fear foe me, and if there is play in the suspension parts I would rather change them anyway rather than have something fail during an event. I am lucky enough that Mark next door is a Vauxhall mechanic, he took a look over her and said all was well except my front tyres are done and the sump gasket is weeping, easy peasey.

I picked up a sump gasket, 5L of 5W40, and an oil filter in Fyfes and delivered them to Mark to fit. I could do the work myself but as I said the house is taking up all my time and Mark isn't too hard to pay. Unfortunatly the 1600 Nova engine needs two sump gaskets, one above and one below the baffle plate, so only half the job was done the first night. I rang Fyfes the next day to get another gasket and the first thing the fella on the phone asks is did I know that engine requires two gaskets! Why hadn't I been talking to him the day before and I could have got the work done in one go rather than having to push the car between garages with no sump attached and dripping oil everywhere!

So with that sorted I just had some new tyres to buy. I had been running a pair of Vredestein Quatrac 3's and I had been pleased with them but I had done a few autotests with them and pretty much destroyed them. I only managed to get 974 miles out of them which is pretty shocking but I suppose that is to be expected when I turned so much of the tread depth into smoke. I had heard good things about the Yokohama A021-R's and all the southern autotesters are using them but when I priced them they were €130 each which is just too much to spend on tyres when I have new house stuff to buy. As I don't seem to get much mileage out of my tyres anyway I just took the easiest option and bought the cheapest Kumho's that Modern Tyres had, which turned out to be ecowing KH19's. An eco tyre on a rally car is a strange thing but sure we will see how it goes, no more autotesting though.

Insurance: £365
Gaskets: £7.96 each, £15.92 total
Oil filter: £3.40
5W40: £25.60
Labour: £65
Kumho ecowing KH19: £45 each, £90 total
MOT fee: £30.50
REIS Motorsport Insurance Specialists
Fyfes Motor Factor
Modern Tyres
Kumho Tyre ecowing KH19

Springfling Rally 2012

Rachel and I took part in the Springfling Rally on the 21st April and it was bloody brilliant, I think it was probably the best Lanes Rally yet. It was well organised, the test were great and there was very little queuing, I couldn't ask for anything more.

We finished up 18th out of the 36 starters so I was happy enough with that. We got a 30 second penalty for not stopping astride the line on Test 4, I was only a couple of inches over but over the line is over the line. That was the only mistake we made all day so I can't complain. Most of the crews that beat us are out more often or have more developed cars so I think our finishing position was about right. I don't have the experience yet to be able to push on the loose tests but I hope that will come.

As usual the Nova ran perfectly all day and never gave me any bother. Our friends Neil Anderson and Kerry Moreland was out in Andy Hughes 306 GTI and they had lots of trouble with a holed radiator and didn't make it back out again for the tests after lunch. I drive the Nova to all the events so being able to drive it home again is the most important thing to me. I've been thinking about buying a Clio 182 but the Novas reliability is more crucial than the extra horsepower, I never find myself short on power anyway, it is always a lack of traction that holds me back. Better to stick with what I know and trust, for the time being anyway.

I have videos from most of the tests so I will get them uploaded sometime in the future.

Results

Costs:
£60 Entry fee
£18 Insurance
£10 each for club membership
£30 Petrol
Total £128.



Wheel Bolt to Stud and Nut Conversion

I started this job about a year ago and got it half done but then I crashed the car which put finishing the work on hold. I finally got round to finishing the other half of the car last week.

I had bought a full kit of bits from AG Motorsport along with got some permanent Loctite 270 threadlock to hold them in place. A quick clean of the threads with a M12x1.5 tap and I was ready to get stuck in.

There isn't must involved in putting in the studs, just a drop of Loctite and lock two nuts together so than I can wind the studs into the hubs.

AG do a 60mm or 80mm long stud and I went for the 80mm ones. That was the wrong choice!

They stick out so far I couldn't tighten up the wheel nuts as they fouled the socket. So off came the wheels and out came the hacksaw. It was a real PITA having to cut the studs on the car but that will teach me to not measure things up correctly.

As I didn't want to repeat the same mistake when it came to doing the other side of the car I measure up correctly and trimmed the studs in the vice taking about 23mm off. The shorter studs made it a bit tight to get the 2 nuts on but I got them installed easy enough. I'm really pleased with how they turned out and should make changing the wheels much easier. Just for reference, the Haynes manual says to torque the wheel nuts to 90Nm.

AG Motorsport
I bought my studs and nuts from AG but that is just where I found them at the time, I though the price was ok and the service was good. I have since been told that Rally Design are cheaper so that might be a better bet if your looking to source some for your project.

Hilary Autotest 2012

Last Saturday (31 March 2012) was QUBMC's annual Hilary Autotest. Rachel and I took on the event this year as we wanted to leave the student members free to concentrate their efforts on the Summer Lanes Rally in July.

Autotesting is a fairly easy to organise event and as we were being allowed access to the same bit of ground that we used in 2011 there wasn't a lot to do. Rachel organised the regs and paperwork, and got Paddy to do results. Then all I had to do was to drew up the tests and do the scrutineering on the day. I took quite a long time to draw out the tests as I haven't really autotested before but I think they turned out ok. Our bit of ground is very long and narrow so that makes things a bit easier as there are less options, there was only one bit that the competitors asked to be changed so my diagrams can't have been that far away. The 2011 event was well received so I think we were repaid for that this year and got 15 entries, which we were delighted with.

The Hilary is a beginners autotest so I took the chance to try out the Nova on it's first proper autotest. It meant that on the day I was pretty busy between scrutineering, setting up the tests and trying to compete. Luckily Phil, James and Peter were on hand to help out or I would have been totally stuck without them.

In autotesting the max time for each test is the fastest time in each class plus 20 seconds. With that being the case it's not surprising that I didn't set any actual test time all day. From watching the experienced guys it was easy to see how they were so much quicker than me, their car just never stops moving. Even with my lack of talent being taken into account I think the Nova also held me back. I struggled with traction when getting the car moving and the handbrake wasn't tight enough to bring the back end round, I had to try and press the foot break and pull the handbrake at the same time which requires more coordination than I've been blessed with.

I really enjoyed my days autotesting and would be keen to give it another go but not without making some changes to the car. I think the main things I would need are a LSD and a hydraulic handbrake. My arm and shoulder were near pulled out of me yanking on the standard handbrake all day! Nice skinny tyres on the back would make life a bit easier too. Paul Blair says all the FWD autotesters use a Quaife ATB LSD so that makes things more straight forward as I wasn't sure whether I should be looking for a platted diff or a geared diff. The geared diff suits me better as it is a fit and forget item, happy days, I just need to save up the £600 now for a new one or find a good second hand one.

I tried out some new camera mounting positions and I was really pleased with how they turned out. Unfortunately my autotesting was embarrassingly bad so I don't know if I'm brave enough to put them up on YouTube but hopefully I'll be able to edit something together that doesn't make me look too bad.

Results
Really Mean Sounds Report

1st Overall, Paul Blair



Circuit of Down 2012

We had the first road event of the NI Night Rally Challenge on the 2nd March and it went really well. Davy McElroy organised a great event for Newry and District Motor Club and I felt that the route was pitched perfectly for the beginner crews that we are trying to encourage. It was mostly good roads with just a couple of twisties thrown in to give them a flavour of what a "normal" navigation rally is like. To keep things as simple as possible we ran the full route as a preplot. This allowed us to check that all the crews had the correct route before they started and they could concentrate on just finding the correct roads when they where out in the car.

Everyone that I talked to said they really enjoyed the rally and are keen to take part in the next one, which is exactly what we were hoping for.

We had three new crews from the South West College which was brilliant to see. College students are exactly the type of competitors we are looking for so hopefully we can build on the three crews we got and possibly encourage a rivalry between the NI colleges to bring out some new young people.

The next event of the NI NRC will been organised by Cookstown Motor Club on the 30th March.

I was helping out on the night and was doing tail sweep in the Nova. I had a great night buzzing about the countryside but I was only getting into the swing of it when the route was finished. It gave me a real taste for nav rallying again and I can hardly wait to get back out competing again. I just hope that some of this years traditional navigation rallies get enough entries to run.

MGCC Autosolo 2011, Videos

Just a couple of videos to compare Niall's and my fastest runs on Test 1 and Test 3 of the auto. Pity I didn't have the camera on for Test 2 where I beat him because on just this video evidence I beat me every time.

MGCC Autosolo

I've never done an autotest before so when I heard about the MGCC's autosolo I thought it sounded spot on as there is no reversing. My car is pretty hard to see out the back off due to the bucket seats so forwards only suits me great. As you were allowed dual entries I asked Niall to come up to have a spin too. He built most of the car so really it's about time he got a run in it.

The first test we were to do was Test 2 and it was pretty complex. For a couple of people who had never autotested before it was very difficult just trying to remember where we were going, never mind concentrate on trying to drive the car. Once we had our heads round the correct route it became very clear very quickly that traction was going to be our biggest barrier to quick times. We weren't that bothered though as we were only there to race each other.

During the day we both got a few penalties and a few failed tests but it was great craic. The weather stayed good so that makes any motor sport day much more enjoyable. My nice new Quatrac tyres didn't enjoy the day much though and they were pretty torn up by the end, I'd say they are down to half their tread depth already.

Unbelievably in the final results we both finished up with the exact same total time, a joint 7th in class!

There were some real nice cars there on the day, I'm a big fan of the Sebring body kit on a MGB GT.

Suz Graham's video of me:



And Pete Moore's video of the event:


Costs:
Entry fee £17
Petrol £23, it wasn't all used.

Ballynahinch Autumn Lanes Rally 2011

Saturday past (12th November) saw the second running of the Ballynahinch Autumn Lanes rally. It was a good event last year but it was even better this time round. BADMC had managed to reduced the road mileage and found a lot of new venues. Most of this years lanes were new and less autotesty than last time. Those were the only 2 issues that let the event down previously so with both having been worked on it turned out to be a great rally.

I have been out in the Nova a lot this last month so I was feeling very comfortable and was able to push pretty hard right from the off. The new tests were good proper lanes tests that I could get my teeth into, and not too many 180's round cones which really kill my times. As well as that the tests were well set up and most of the cones were taped to show which way round to go so we were clean all day and I really enjoyed all the tests. We did get a bit caught out though with there being no lunch halt. The tests were well scheduled so we only had a couple of minutes to wait at each so there was no chance to eat until things got held up a bit due to a faulty clock on the last loop.

I had installed a steering wheel knob for the first time to see if it would help me steer through the tight sections more quickly, but I couldn't really get into the way of using it. Normally when coming out of a tight section I loosen my grip and let the steering wheel slip through my fingers to straighten the wheels, but with the knob on I can't do that very easily. I found myself changing between my normal "quarter to three" grip and using the steering knob much too often, sometimes in the middle of corners, and it was just making thing more awkward. I can see the benefits of the steering knob though I think I'll persevere a bit longer and see if I can get used to it.
Andy Hughes had replaced his 106 for a 306 GTI before the rally so I was really pleased to see that we weren't too far behind his times considering he has twice the power, and due to a Quaife ATB diff, twice the grip. Having said that it was his first time in the car so I'm sure hes not fully up to speed yet. I think that traction is one of the things that is holding me back most so I will have to look into getting an uprated diff for myself. There is currently a used one on eBay that I've my eye on so I will see how the auction goes.

I had the GoPro in for all the tests so I will try get the footage uploaded soon.

Costs
Entry fee: £65
Club membership: £10
Petrol: £25 to fill the tank before the start.

Ballynahinch Motor Club
Results
Peespeed's Photos
Neillpics Photos

Firecracker Nav Rally 2011

Well that is the championship over for another year with the Firecracker Rally on Friday night having been the last round.

It was a good night for trying out my new tyres as it was dry and clear and the Class 2 championship had already been decided. There had been heavy rain in the days leading up to the event so from TCB to TCD had been scrapped due to flooding and so we had a relaxed section instead. This suited me fine as it meant I had a chance to explain to the following crews why I had been driving so slowly!

I wasn't getting on at all well with my new tyres. I had no feeling from the front of the car or from the brakes so I was being extra super cautious in the corners. I've heard that there is a releasing agent used at the factory to get them out of their moulds and it takes a few miles to scrub it off but it's not something I've ever noticed before. I have to say though that by the end of the night either the tyres improved greatly or I had just got used to them because I though they were working great. On the few dirty sections of road it definitely felt like they were biting in harder and giving me good grip. All in all I'm very pleased with my new Quatrac 3's.

We were getting on pretty well, there where a some tricky sections and Rachel was deciphering the instruction quickly, but Andy and Neil where right with us all night. We swapped road positions several times but it wasn't until they missed a junction, leading to a wrong approach and a couple of missed secrets that we could put some space between them and us. Once we seen that they had made a mistake we knew if we kept it clean for the rest of the night they couldn't catch us.

The navigation for the second half of the rally seemed to be easier and we didn't need to push too hard but we did get caught out when the road turned 90 right after a crest and we carried straight on up a farm lane. We were leading a convoy of 4 cars at that point and 3 of us went up the lane before we got stopped. My panic braking knocked off the shelf above my peddles and it was hanging down round my feet which make it very difficult to drive but I get it wedged back into place somehow and we didn't lose too much time.

At the end of the night we were 1st in class 2 which makes it 3 class wins from 4 starts this year, a record I'm very proud off. The only one that let us down was getting stuck in that field in Tyrone on the Erne Safari. We pulled the championship back to make it look like it was tighter than it really was with Davy and Clive beating us by a single point in the end. I had great fun at the nav rallies this year and with more wins than anyone else I feel pretty confident we would be in a good position for the 2012 championship.

Before the next outing I need to look at removing the shelf above the pedals and relocating the switches that are mounted on it. I need adjust the exhaust to stop if touching the body as it is making a terrible racket and I need to reattach my rear view mirror as it has fallen off.


Firecracker Results

New Tyres

I was in fairly desperate need for some new tyres on the Nova, the ones I had on it were well past their best. I had been planning to just get another pair of Pirelli P6000's but Andy Hughes changed my mind. He had used Vredestein Quatrac 3's on his 106 for the Circuit Retro and was really pleased with how they performed. The Quatrac 3 is an all seasons tyre, half snow & mud and half dry tarmac. I think it should suit the style of rallying I do very well. Most of the nav rallies are in the winter, on dirty back roads, so the more open tread pattern should work well for clearing the mud and water. And the more solid, dry tarmac biased outside edge should help the tyre handle and wear better. The M&S section of the tyre should also be an advantage on the very dirty lanes and farm yards I find myself in on lanes rallies. Hopefully it will be a winner all round.

The tyres were £55 each fitted for a 185/60 R14.

Ciaran

Bit of Work on the Nova

There was some work needed on the Nova before the Orchard nav rally. First on the list was to get some more light. I'd toyed with the idea of buying some expensive spotlights, but then I caught myself on and bought some much cheaper and 80% as good Ring Rally Giants from eBay. Spotlights are much to vulnerable on a night nav car to spend a lot of money on. They would be the first things to get wrecked if I ended up nosing into a hedge somewhere. As there is plenty of space between the bumper and the front panel on a Nova I decided the best/easiest way to mount them would be to weld a couple of plates to the bumper steel and then make up some simple "L" shaped bracket to come up over the top.

All the wiring was still in the car from the previous small spotlights that I had so I only had to ran a bit of new cable to the lights and tidy up the existing wiring and I ready to rock.

I'm really pleased with how the brackets turned out and the lights are now mounted very solidly. I might even get away without having to fit any stabiliser bars.

The next job was refitting my front mud flaps to the new wings. I made up some small brackets from aluminium angle and used Rivnuts to attach them to the car. Rivnuts are brilliant. They are similar to a rivet but have a threaded insert to allow you to screw a bolt into sheet metal. I intend to use them in many other places on the car.

The final job was to make up a bracket to mount my trip and rally timer. I wanted to move the instruments closer to Rachel as she was having trouble reaching them while belted in. The easiest way to do that was with a simple folded bracket.

However this wasn't up to the job. It bounced about and vibrated so much it was next to useless. Rather than scrap the bracket and start again I thought that a brace at the top would hold it all together much more firmly. I made up this wee steady bar and it has done the job perfectly.

So that's a few job checked of the list, but as always there are plenty more to do.

Ciaran

Hero to Zero

What a weekend, absolutely brilliant! Two events in two days is a great way to spend a weekend.

First up we had North Armagh Motor Clubs Orchard Navigation Rally. It was the first nav' to run in the second half of the season, everyone was well up for it and the club didn't disappoint. The event ran in the area south of Armagh City for the first time and it was a worth while change, the roads were great. I had to press on most of the night and the roads took a lot of driving. It had been fairly wet leading up to the rally so there were large puddles on most route with us having to wade through a couple of flooded sections. Having not had the Nova out on a nav' for almost a year it took a bit of getting used to, I've grown used to having power steering in the Passat, but the Nova coped very well with a couple of miss judged yumps. The first was just before the relaxed section and as I was following another competitor I only had my dipped lights on, which are very poor and I didn't notice the bump, so didn't slow down for it. We got launched feet into the air, well it felt like that anyway, and then landed hard. The Bilstein dampers I have in the back of the car seem to be a great job as it landed nice and sweet and without drama, unlike some other crews I talked to who also got caught out and then had the back of the car bounce back off the road again. Or that might just be the famous 106 torsion beam rear end. The second bump was just after relaxed and had a dip just before it so this time it launched us up onto our nose, there are scratches on the front of the bumper! Our underbelly served as a warning to Clifford Auld who was following as he just managed to get slowed down in time and avoided doing the same thing. Great nights craic and it was fantastic to see all the old faces out again. Speaking of which, Paddy McCollum came out of retirement and put in his usual high quality performance to finish first overall. In doing so he has completed the full set and has now won all of the rallies in the navigation championship. To my knowledge he is the only person to have done this. And to top of the night we won our class, happy days.

So after a late night and then up early to get the car washed it was down to Larne for their first running of a lanes rally. Larne Motor Club had organised a very compact route with the total mileage for the event being just 55 miles and with most tests being lanes rather than autotests I was very much looking forward to the days motoring. The morning was very wet but it had mostly cleared up for the start. The rain had left the tests in a bit of a state and all were very slippery. This wasn't helped by my front tyres being almost completely worn out. I have to admit that I wasn't happy with my driving. I wasn't aggressive enough, I had no confidence in the grip and I was just rolling up to stop lines rather then attacking them, a very poor effort on my part. Other than that I was enjoying the rally, I love being out in the Nova no mater what I'm doing. Unfortunately my lack of confidence in the front end grip and my general poor driving on the event led to me getting stuck for 8 minutes. I was on a bad line coming into a 90 right and understeered into a soft bank that I couldn't reverse out off. I have it on video so I'll upload it in the future so we can all enjoy my mistake. Luckily a marshal and the land owners sons came to my rescue and got me out so we could carry on. There wasn't a mark on the car but the time loss was massive and meant we finished the rally in last place. My brother, Niall, was out on the rally as well in his newly acquired Sierra. He got on well and put up some very competitive times but he suffered the same fate as I had and got stuck in the scenery. The first test had a deep gravel section and and the Sierra just dug down into it until it was sitting on its belly, game over. He wasn't the only one to get caught out on that section as the Fletchers Escort ended up the same way. All in all we both enjoyed the rally and will be back next year, even though we finished last and second last.

Few things to sort out before the next event. I need to adjust my spot lights, they are shinning a bit high. I need to get 2 new front tyres, probably go for Pirelli P6000s again. And I need to work out a better way to mount my jack as it rattles a lot where it is and isn't actually very secure.


North Armagh Motor Club
Results

Larne Motor Club
Results

Moonraker Nav Rally 2011

I'm not supposed to be in front of the computer right now. I should be out competing in Dungannon Motor Clubs Moonraker Rally but unfortunately it was cancelled due to lack of entries. DMC usually get a good entry for their rally as they run a popular rally school, so the fact that even they couldn't get enough crews to make the event viable is a very bad sign for Navigation rallying in general.

Entry numbers were down towards the end of last years championship and it was decided that if 2011 was also a bad year then there would be no championship in 2012, which looks very much like it is going to happen.  I have been talking to Davy McElroy who runs Newry and District Motor Clubs Circuit of Down Navigation Rally and he didn't seem optimistic about the chances of it running either. Bad times ahead for Navigation rallying.

The Moonraker being cancelled is even more disappointing because I've spent a lot of time over the last few weeks getting the Nova ready for it. Got some new spotlights fitted and my rally timer installed, all ready to get stuck into the second half of the championship. I'm now left in the situation where the championship that I built my car for doesn't exist anymore, not sure what I'm going to do. There are a few more Lanes rallies popping up on the calender so I can do those as the car is now, but to do anything else I'm going to need to get the Nova log booked. That's not a big problem because I have most of the bits to get it up to spec but it's the extras that will require a bit of money. I'll need to upgrade my competition licence and get a rally suit and helmet. I think that will have to wait till next year.

QUBMC Summer Lanes 2011

Saturday at the Summer Lanes was great fun. I haven't done a flat out bit of driving for ages and it was brilliant to be back in the Nova again and even better the sun was shining. The Summer Lanes is open to all cars so there was quite a mix of cars among the 40 crews that started. My Nova, MX-5's, 1980's Starlets, a BMW CSL, Minis, Midgets, a Manta and the ever present RWD Fords. We completed 16 tests and everyone seemed to be having a great day out.

Rachel and I had a good run but made a mistake on the first run through the long Evervale test and incurred a test maximum which meant we posted a 5:31 rather than our 2:19. Losing over 3 minutes put us well out of the running but we kept our heads and didn't make anymore mistakes for the rest of the day, ending up 18th overall at the finish. Without our penalty we would have been 9th which I would have been happy with. Some of the lower cars had problems with the rougher sections of the route but as the Nova sits quite high my main worry was punctures. I didn't hear of anyone getting a puncture so maybe I was worrying about nothing.

I have a few things to look at before the next event. The engine felt a bit down on power, I'm not sure what was wrong but if felt a bit "flat". We turned down the fueling to pass the MOT emissions so maybe we went a bit too far. The handbreak wasn't as tight as I've been used to so I had to reverse a couple of times, not very tidy, or quick. Traction was also a minor problem, some new tyres might help or it might just have been that the lanes were greasy from lack of use.

I filmed the rally on my in-car camera so if I ever work out how to edit the footage I'll put up a link to it.

My Favourite photo is from Peespeed, I swear that's the way I meant to do it:
http://public.fotki.com/speedy/2011/qubmc-summer-lanes/img-4095.html


Results:
http://www.anicc.org.uk/Resources/Documents/20110723_QUBMC_SummerLanes_Results.pdf

Photos from the Pros:
Peespeed
http://public.fotki.com/speedy/2011/qubmc-summer-lanes/

Pete Moore
http://pete-moore.co.uk/?p=1514