Rally of Wales

THE HIGHS AND LOWS OF RALLYING

Getting wet n' dirty at Sweet Lamb in Gwynedd

Matt Beebe and Richard Devenport went into the 3rd and 4th rounds of the MG scholarship, supporting the International Rally of Wales, leading the championship by eight points and finished the ‘Double Header’ event still with a lead of eight points, so the weekend was a success, but there were dramas and valuable lessons learnt by the Trinity Motors/Heartland Evening News backed crew along the way. Matt and Rich went to Wales with a definite game plan to finish the Panaround Rally on the Saturday, without any troubles, allowing them to push for a good result on the Gwynedd rally on Sunday; however things did not quite go according to plan.

The weekend started off in fantastic style with the sun beating down as the event started from Dolgellau town centre, which had been completely closed off for the ceremonial start. There was plenty of time to quiz Gwyndaf Evans about how to tackle his local event and get a few pointers on getting the most out of the MG ZR 1400cc. The first stage was a 16 mile blast along the classic Dyfi stage, Richard and myself soon settling into our stride and really enjoying hurling the MG from one corner to the next along this fast and twisty stage that took us down into the valleys and back up and over the other side. It went really well for the first 8 miles or so until we started catching the dust from the car ahead which was like thick fog reducing visibility to virtually a few metres. The first thing we knew about a corner was when we saw the spectators and trees directly ahead of us, leading us to make a minor detour into a small ditch as a tight corner sneaked up on us but we were able to get back on track and we soon overtook the car in front. Unfortunately another car had been held up as well so we were still in their dust and had to take it easy, really using the pacenotes to tell me where the road went as I could not see it. At one point we did not get out of 2nd gear on a long straight as it was just too risky to go any faster. Despite these problems we were still the quickest MG by just under 20 seconds which was a good start but. I would throw all this away on the superfast stage 2 Dyfnant. Coming into a left hand bend again the dust was a problem and I did not see the bend tighten up until it was too late. I was going too fast and although there was an escape road straight on I could not straighten the car up in time and slid gently into a muddy ditch in between the two roads. There were two spectators on hand who tried to push the car out but it was no good it was stuck and we were out of the rally.

We got towed out and drove back to service since the car was undamaged. We made it just in time to see the other MG’s going out to do the remaining three stages and so decided to leave the guys from MG Sport and Racing and North Warwickshire College to clean up the car and check it was ok for Sunday (thanks boys it was lovely and clean) We made our way out to the stages to see and hear for ourselves just how impressive the Scholarship cars are as they blast past ‘Flat out’! It was not the end of the day we had wanted but we looked on the bright side as we knew we would have another chance tomorrow to make up for this bitter disappointment. The MG was still the class of the N1 field with Gwyndaf setting blistering stage times on his way to 3rd overall.

Sunday started with the Hafren stage which we took very cautiously knowing full well we could not afford another non- finish. There were a lot of log piles and very rough sections so I was very relieved just that we made it to the end. Stage 2 Sweet Lamb is a world famous stage and test venue that has been used on Wales Rally GB. It is clear to see why as it is non-stop action all the way with a bit of everything: fast flowing bends, tight hairpins, massive jumps, a watersplash, river crossings and some scary drops (as Simon unfortunately found out). The buzz this stage gave myself and Richard was awesome and we both started shouting as we crossed the finish line.
Richard said at the end “I didn’t think we were ever going to come down off the big jump, we were flying, the car needs wings fitting, that’s the biggest jump I have ever done in a rally car I hope someone got a photo”. When we checked the time sheets we found we had a comfortable cushion at the front of the MGs after other peoples misfortunes but knew we could not relax as a puncture or small mistake could spell disaster.

There was just one stage to go, we fitted two new front tyres (not quite as quickly as the BTCC boys) and checked the car over. Amazingly there was nothing wrong after the abuse we had just given it so we made our way to the start. The stage was quite twisty to start with but got faster towards the end and Richard had to slow me down at one point worried that I might throw it off the road again but we held it together for the last few nerve racking miles to finish the event, well pleased we could now put the previous days problems behind us.

The final results saw us 4th overall, 1st in Class N1, and 1st MG home. The MGs have once again proved they are a match for some much more powerful cars and Gwyndaf was actually setting overall fastest stage times until a faulty fuse put him out of the event. We would once again like to thank everyone involved for giving us the opportunity to experience the thrills (and spills on this occasion) that is the sport of rallying. Without the fantastic support we receive none of this would be possible.

Championship positions after 4 rounds:

1 Matt Beebe/Rich Devenport
2 Dave Lee
3 Tom Bowen
4 Dan Whitman
5 Nikki Brown
6 Simon Rowley

Matt Beebe