DRT Charity Stages
Driver: Adrian Smekss
Navigator: Erik West
Vehicle: MG Metro 6R4
Seeded: ?
Finished: Retired
Binbrook has been lost as a venue so Adrian Smekss and I joined the other 83 cars and took the start of this traditional event at its new venue of Cadwell Park. Having had the car rebuilt since Hixon (see separate article) Ade decided we'd better go up on the Saturday and use a track day to shake the car down and get a taste of the venue. Having had the car built for loose surfaces Ade wanted to try the new power steering and get a few miles under his belt before we took the new car into the woods.
Meeting in a cold and very blustery paddock I was very pleasantly surprise when the car was rolled out of its covered trailer. It was a credit to TAL and Adrian, it looked immaculate. In fact by most observers it was reckoned to have been the best 6R4 seen for the last 5 or so years.
After a quick systems check, drivers briefing and harness set-up we were out onto a very wet circuit to learn about the new car and Cadwell Park as a venue. We were running out of revs along the back straight, our forest spec gearbox keeping us limited to around 115mph, oh well we were sure there would be chicanes there tomorrow. Whilst the 6R4 was packed away I managed to have a chat with a couple of competitors from our own Tyre'd Goat Slalom, finding out that they were going a lot quicker than we were along the straight, although I was lead to believe 145 in a TVR required much bravery and plenty of tyre smoke round the following corner...
Sunday dawned dry and warmer, not what we really needed as speeds were likely to be higher ~ something that was not going to suit or car's set-up. We started the first stage 30 seconds behind an Impreza. The first right-left chicane saw the Impreza spin as we left the start line, as we approached he sorted himself out and took of, we then found our tyre choice to be totally wrong! The tyres offered very little grip, with the rears being worse than the fronts leaving Ade steering a wild ride! For most of the stage Ade was able to keep the back generally behind us and despite struggling for grip we were setting an OK stage time, that was until the rear finally managed to overtake the front on a 90 left, spinning us of towards the grass and stalling the engine. Some 20 seconds later (and a gentle roll onto the wet and muddy infield) the engine deemed it was time to re-start; we were back up to a reasonable speed again. Approaching the merge and following chicane we slowed to a sensible speed only for the "hero" behind to tap us lightly on the rear ~ 'Imprezaman' had taken his brave tablets... Unfortunately for him we then proceeded to use our extra power to leave him behind, we split towards the finish and took the long tight 180 right with the caution it deserved in a Kamikaze 6R4. As Ade turned in to the remaining tight 90 left 'Imprezaman' managed to drive into my side of the car damaging the door pod and rear arch beyond repair! Excellent, after Hixon's carnage we'd managed to find another driver who thought stupid manoeuvres are part of rallying ~ he was also ignorant enough to not bother coming over to apologise either!
After a check over in service our pristine and beautiful 6R4 was looking sad but did have the correct tyres fitted for stage 2 at least. 'Imprezaman' had the ignorance to wave and smile at us as we queued for stage 2, unfortunately he wasn't able to beat our stage time though! Stage 2 was a far better stage for us as we started a climb up the leader board after our disastrous first stage. Ade got the car working well although the long straight we were sure was going to be chicaned wasn't and that cost us a bit of time as we held back to keep the engine in one piece.
Stage 3 saw a bit more of a concerted effort from us with Ade throwing the car round and me calling the bends and lines as well as I could. A tightening left caught us out slightly and we sacrificed our front spoiler to a hay bale. This cost us a couple of seconds as we slipped across a bit more infield but all-in-all we were happy with the stage time, whilst still not being at the real sharp end we were setting times that were acceptable for a forest spec car on a shakedown. We'd already agreed to stick with the one set of tyres for the day so weren't overly bothered about our overall position, especially after stage 1's nightmare!
Stage 4 was flying by with Ade really coming on form and the Metro doing everything that was asked of it, we'd merged with an Evo but left him on the short straights, loosing out top speed wise to him meant that he was able to gently draw us back in on the long back straight, unfortunately he concentrated more on our braking point for a fast right and totally missed his own braking point. Can you guess what happened next? Yes he hit us at speed on Adrian's side damaging the door pod and rear arch beyond repair! We recovered ourselves off the grass and got to the finish of the stage, quicker than before but having still dropped a handful of seconds.
After many colourful and choice expletives the service crew set about trying to prepare our now sorry looking 'new' car for the next stage. The driver of the Evo did come over and say sorry, admitting he’d been waiting for us to brake before he did, unfortunately a 6R4 stops a lot better than an Evo!
I wandered over to the results and saw we were just out of the top 25 and not looking likely to get into the top 15, Ade and I then discussed the options available to us. The pristine 6R4 was battered and bruised needing a lot of work before its next event and we still had two stages left. These final two stages used the full circuit; in fact they were far more suitable for a race car than a forest 6R4. We decided to put the car away and save mileage on the diffs, engine and general wear and tear as well as keeping it away from more errant drivers who were unable to drive behind us without pulling desperate moves resulting in contact.
I wasn't at all disappointed to not complete the event having felt that it was a circuit race with co-drivers adding extra weight, the stages were simple and easy to remember and weren't that challenging when the correct tyre choice was made. We'd seen our car hit twice by other drivers ~ if we wanted that much contact Ade would have entered rallycross instead! So we came away from the event very disappointed with the event itself and single venue rallies that use merges, we could have done as many miles on the track day for less out lay and more enjoyment ~ the track day also had far less delays and was better run.
Had the event been at Binbrook it would have been far more enjoyable, it would have suited the car better too. As it was Cadwell proved to be very frustrating and expensive for no real enjoyment and a small amount of stages too! C'est la Vie as they say.
Erik West
