The Audi SW Endurance Experience

What a rally! I thought the Lombard was tough, but this was challenging in whole new, unimaginable on Thursday, ways.

It started off reasonably well with the drive down on Thursday, although it took longer than we expected to get to Totnes and Chez Ballantyne (winning nav of last year's Lombard who had kindly offered accommodation), which wasn't helped by my navigational skills leading us in ever decreasing circles to his house! Didn't bode well for Friday.

Friday morning was a glorious, warm, sunny day. The realisation that we were near as dammit in a different country came with the daffs, primroses etc all in bloom. Far cry from the snow in Cumbria at the beginning of the week. Headed to newton Abbot race course and the kerfuffle around scrutineering, signing in etc. I'm sure it becomes obvious the more you do it, but it all seemed a tad overwhelming to start with.

Lots of known faces though from the Lombard which was great - you start to feel like you belong in the community when people come and ask how you are etc. And then the slow ramping up of adrenalin as you get nearer your start time, and are desperately trying to think of everything you can do to prepare, like plotting onto the maps etc in readiness for the event.

Being able to watch the first selectif from the grandstand helped as you don't feel as you are going into it entirely blind, which is what the Lombard was like - dark, at Gaydon, with not a bloody clue what you have let yourself in for. The first two selectifs were round the race course and eased us in to it all again. 73 starters and we were Car 54 so nearly an hour to wait after the first car, and then we're off.

Round the race course, trying to remember how to read code boards as fast as possible, and call corners, chicanes, etc, and next thing you know, we're out on the main road, navigating to the next one. We didn't do too badly on the first two - 23rd and 36th. Not bad for a diesel on what should have been sprints!!

Then on to farm tracks, with a killer 90 right between cones with the most massive ditch if you overcooked it. I don't think anyone did though but I didn't envy the marshall at the next 90 left where we ahd to stop for a signature. He must have been leaping out the way for more than just us! We didn't do too well there, coming 51st and we did even worse on the next one when we almost got lost in a farm yard and went anticlockwise rather than clockwise round a cone, which got us a 10sec penalty and brought us in 52nd. Without the penalty, we'd have been high 20s so you can tell how competitive it was already.

Then back on the road and off, somewhere or other, to Tom's Hill, which was a forest section. We were trying to work out how to call manouevres on the way there, a skill that we had forgotten slightly, but it must have worked as we were 26th on that selectif. Dave's driving on forest sections is excellent, and as long as I can call easily when we have a complex set of cones to get round, we seem to do OK.

On this road section, there was an almighty clunk and as we drove away from a roundabout something metal vanished away bouncing off the underside of the car. We still don't know what it was! But, shortly after, there was an ominous vibration from the front left, near my feet, and finally Dave pulled over to check. Front wheel had come loose! Quick tighten up and off we went again.

The next selectif was forest again, and we had to queue to get in, then were escorted in groups of 10 to the start, and then did our selectif, and out. I don't know why we didn't too well on this, but there were a couple of stages which had got very soft in some of the areas round cones and the Golf doesn't always do brilliantly out of soft stuff, being so heavy. (And 57bhp isn't much!) So we finished this one 52nd. Hmmm.

Then into more forest. The weather was still good, though it was beginning to cloud over, threatening rain, but it held off. The forests were smooth and fast, and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. The only problem was that the first selectifs were quite short, so you are just getting into the swing of it, and then you're out and on to the next one, juggling road books, maps, timecards, helmets, pens, stopwatches etc.

I discovered that remembering to start the stopwatch was easy, but stopping it a whole other ballgame. I didn't remember to stop it once on the selectifs all rally! But it hardly matters as that's what the marshalls do. I can imagine that when you get really good and you start querying a second here or a second there to ensure a placing, then it matters, but for now it really is trivial whether or not our time through a selectif is right or wrong. The fact we have completed the selectif is a great start, and finishing the rally and enjoying it is still our top priority!

Anyway, we did great through there, finishing 20th. Dave was getting into his stride now and we were getting a few moments in the queue before each selectif to check for any potentially difficult calls, which as helping.

It was taking longer to get through the selectifs than our timecard showed it should so I was leaping out at every opportunity to get a delay allowance, which I reckon you should get every time there are 4 or more cars in front of you. You never know when you will need it, and I'm sure it helped us on Friday as things started to run later and later and there was little opportunity to make it up on road sections as my crap map reading came to light!

Having been almost babysat with tulips on the Lombard, this plot and bash stuff was a whole new experience between selectifs and I far too frequently got it wrong. Luckily, Dave has some sort of inbuilt compass which tells him when we might be wrong, so my admissions of "Dave, I'm lost" usually accompanied by howls of frustration were taken quite well.

The next stage was Okehampton Camp which reminded me of the Showground stage on the Lombard to start with. ie I bloody dreaded it! Sharp corners through buildings are not my idea of fun at all, and for some reason my brain freezes. It was also a split and merge selectif so you have cars coming at you from all directions! However, after the first time round, when we finally found the car park we had to 90R then hairpin left into to get a stamp from the marshall, I really began to enjoy it, and apparently our back wheels were nowhere near the ground after the split as we came round again. And then, we got to do it all over again, which was brilliant, and I was laughing my head off as we came round. And we knocked 20 secs off our time the second time. But, so must lots of other people, as we only moved from 31st to 30th there. I don't know what cars 34 and 37 did, as they ramped round the first time in 3.10 and 3.21 to win that selectif, and then took 3.55 the second time.

Then back out to find some more forest. By now it was a very grey day, and everything was running late but we managed to pick up another 14 minutes delay allowance, which is always a relief to me. Although this was a short stage, Dave absolutely hammered it, and we came in 17th - much more like it! Maybe the general hilarity on the previous stage had eased the tension caused by me getting us lost so often?

More forest, and a 2mile section that was fairly closely run, with us ending up 38th. For some rason, I was having minor problems getting what the code boards said from my eyes to brain and thence to pen, as tiredness slowly worked its way in to me. And there were lots of code baords on this rally!!! There was a car off here, think it was 7, the Nova in big ditch on a right hander. Saw them again though on Saturday so they must have got out OK and finished the rally. Bit of a shock seeing a car like that though, and was very relieved we didn't follow them.

Straight back into Assycombe out of that one, another almost 2 miles. We did way better through it the second time and were at least managing not to get lost between selectifs when they were only several yards apart! The forests were beginning to get dark now so nav light on, and we ramped through there in 38th place. There was a problem chipping us as we came in right on the arse of someone else - Dave catching the minuteman up!! But when it came to checking the results that night, it all seemed reasonable enough to me, so no query. As if I would anyway. Once it gets to that point of querying every moment, I think I will have ceased to enjoy it as much.

Then a longer stretch of forest, 2.7 miles. I've decided that ignoring the trees is the best option, and weirdly feel safer in forests than on really open selectifs. Especially ones with bloody great ditches at the side! When I added "Rough for 100 yds" at the Racecourse from the amendments, I had no idea how rough. We were climbing a hill and suddenly came across piles of timber, right next to the track, branches strewn across our route, and cones and tape at the side denoting major potholes. That was quite a stretch and pretty hairy. But, we did OK on that too and came in 28th, only 45 secs behind the lead car, which is good going when there was such a hill in it!

Then it was the Time Control and a chance to grab some food. Dave had a few things to check on the car so I walked up the 1/4mile road to the tea room. Part way there, it dawned on me that it was pitch black so I went back for the torch. Then, a little further up, I realised that we would need meal vouchers, so headed back to get them! Back and forth, passing people in the dark, could have been anyone! Met Dave the second time so walked up with him to get food.

Roast beef which was just what the doctor ordered, though by now I could happily have drunk a gallon of tea and the mug of tea never materialised before we had to leave. Gutted! Debated methods for incorporating a teasmade into my office as the tea deprivation is the hardest part of the Endurance!!

managed to get us lost leaving the bloody control, what an idiot, but we finally made it to Bellever 2 and romped round that, 21st this time. There was one car off, fairly spectacular, high up a track, but they seemed fine, although probably pretty miffed. From what I've read on the forums, they holed the sump on a rock in the middle of the track, so it wasn't an off as much as a breakdown.

Then the nightmare began. Regularities. I am going to have to get more experience with these. I can't quite recall how many turnings we missed but having learnt from Andy Ballantyne that NAM means Not as Mapped, and LWR is Long Way Round, I was so pleased that we'd worked out which way to go round the triangle, we missed a bloody code board. Damn! However, on return to HQ, it turned out we were in good company as 34 cars missed it, and only 31 got it. I'm sure it wasn't there......;o)

The timings went completely out the window just trying to find the route, and I was amazed we apparently finished it and only lost 45 secs. To me, that is bordering on miraculous. We were 35th through that one, and then had another one straight on top of it. There must be a way to do these things, as we then dropped a further 62secs on the next one. My insecurity about whether we are going the right way doesn't help Dave in the slightest, so I need to sort this out and learn to read the whites better. The guys who won dropped 9 secs over the whole of the 4 regularities. How do they do that?!! I tried using the stopwatch to time us to checkpoints, but we seemed to be so far out of it, and I was concentrating so hard on just finding the TCs that the stopwatch times went completely out the window. Another learning curve to climb, another time!

By now, exhaustion was beginning to set in, as well as frustration with myself at my seeming inability to read a map correctly. Two forest stages and it would be over for the night. Short section in Langage, where we came 38th, and then a somewhat exuberant push round Cann1 where we completely failed to stop astride, sliding gracefully over it towards the marshalls, grinning our heads off.

We couldn't find our way out of a paperbag by this time and the route to the hotel was only not as circuitous as it could have been because we had explored the whole area at length earlier, failing to find the road up to the forests. A roundabout turned out not to be a roundabout at all, but a block of houses with a road up each side!

Back to HQ. Park up, drink beer. Drink beer. Looked at interim results and we appeared to be standing 26th before penalties. That was impressive as it means our selectif times at the very least are good. Walk to Ibis hotel up the road. Note to self, always stay in HQ, however much it costs!!

Woke up to find we were 36th. Could have been far worse! So, put in a query about the code baord as 15 mins seemed hellish harsh and everyone was talking about it, so did the sheep thing. It was later reduced to 5mins for all of us as that should have been the penalty for a regularity. Whatever, fairly level playing field if 34 of us had got it!!

Saturday is now quite a blur, so I'm going to have to write that some other time. Suffice to say, more cars off, broke engine mounting, strapped up, bust diesel overflow pipe, filled clutch with fuel, smoked a helluva lot over the squaddies at Portreath, got lost in a field we should never have been in on Polish Farm 2, Polish Farm 1 got canned for many of us as the farmer was doing summat, got 62mph down the 1200 straight at Portreath, others were doing 85! Dave spent lunch break sorting out car and cleaning clutch with coca cola, I thought we were out at that point. Must trust my mechanic and the Golf far more!! Dave Walker went out after the Mini had overheating probs again, so did Jeremy Crook, sadly. Phil Bayliss had had a few probs overnight but seemed to be back in the running, and a co-driver, no names mentioned "cheated" by asking about our time on a previous selectif and looking at my codeboard answers! All in good humour though ;o) Missed an 'island' on Penhale to go round, and hence a code board, but found it on Penhale 2! Amazing beach down there.

By 4pm Saturday, could barely think straight, and just wanted it all to end! Couldn't make head nor tail of the diversion on the A38 even though it was simple as hell. Joe reversed into someone's spots in a garage, they'd had a 16 min off in Quidditch Moor or whatever it was called but were back in the running again after a tow out. Dale Glover (seeded 4)hit a tree, bent both axles and had to retire on Dunmere2. Dunmere2 was probably the most exciting bit of forest ever. Freefalllllll!! Rain, major wind, cold, tired. Dave drove Northcombe like a demon and we came 12th! Fucked up on the night nav again, no great surprise and this time lost 4mins on one but only 35secs on the other. And then into Cann 2 and the final bit of forest. Exhausted. Quick run back to the hotel and stupid idiot booked in 3 mins early at the control. That and the missed code board on night navA cost us 11 mins which would have put us 22nd, so lessons learnt as that would be my dream finish. Beer, beer, beer, sleep. Home.