29 December 2001: Christmas Stages, 46th overall.
The Christmas Stages was run by Northallerton Auto Club at Croft Circuit in North Yorkshire in cold but dry conditions. A couple of spins on the first stage left us in 75th place, but after a few setup changes, a distinct improvement throughout the day left us 46th overall. The tall gearing meant the car was not suited to the very tight stage layouts provided, meaning we did not get past third gear all day. The car ran faultlessly throughout the event, though a few close calls with chicanes resulted in minor cosmetic damage. Guest co-driver Rebecca Atkinson made her rally debut at this event.

Here's a video clip (700Kb) of an incident whilst experimenting with tyre pressures. Video clip by Carolyn Wallis.

We also feature at the beginning of this video clip by Mad Video of the same tricky decreasing-radius bend. Photo by Dr Ian Wallis

November 2001: Jim Clark rally, 2nd in class N3.
For the fast Scottish Borders roads of this weekend's Jim Clark Memorial Rally, we fitted the Astra with a new gearbox. This had a taller final drive to suit the long straights, but without a limited slip differential, which cost much time on each of many muddy corners. Three miles into the first stage we got a puncture, and the time lost by stopping to change the wheel left us 98th overall at the end of the first leg. The second leg went much better - several flat-out big jumps in the Swinton stage were great fun. We overtook cars on most of the stages, and survived a few hair-raising moments, some involving sun-blindness and/or slithering up muddy banks. We finished the event 51st overall and 2nd in class N3, behind the 200 BHP Honda Integra of TV F1 pundit Tony Jardine.

Notes taken at the time:

Maximum speeds on each stage were logged by the GPS.
Stage 1 Hit a rock and punctured after 3 miles, change to mis-matched road tyre. Drove alongside Capri before passing, had to drive off road to pass a stopped Nova on long straight. Time 23.15 Stage max = 22.00 max = 85mph.
Stage 2 Less than 2 miles into the stage, we followed a Ka for 3/4 mile before passing. Nearly caught Cortina at end Max = 107mph Some time lost at hairpins (completely stopped & nearly stalled)
Stage 3 Waited extra 30 sec at start & still caught Cortina near end, had to pass under braking in muddy farm (nearly hit him) Brake pedal got long. We were more consistent. Max 100mph
Stage 4 Passed Escort (Smoking) on muddy verge into sun. Hit kerb/drain on last corner despite notes saying "do not cut". Max 95.5mph
Stage 5 Went off at end of jump straight at downhill square right, stalled & had to reverse, then spun 2 corners later for no apparent reason. Road dry but bad mud in places. No Passing. 110mph
Stage 6 Generally good, caught Escort 3/4 way through, only held slightly, brakes better. max 105mph
Stage 7 Good, long brakes. Caught Manta at end Max 102mph
Stage 8 (big jumps) The stage where we pushed hardest Had to reverse after overshooting one hairpin. 99.3mph
Stage 9 No comments recorded. Max 93.7
Stage 10 Had a half-spin at a square right in bad mud after ford, because of a mistake in our pace notes. Also lost a few seconds going wrong at a long-way-round-triangle. "Tyres went off in middle" 88.0
Stage 11 Only mistake was a handbrake hairpin where we went round too far. "The best stage" max 97.5
Stage 12 Low, sun in eyes was very off-putting. (no max reset)
Stage 13 Big silly moments in farm yard after a ford - very slippery, we were all over the place looking for somewhere to have our accident. (no max recorded)

7th October 2001: Lightning Stages. Did not finish.
We suffered transmission failure halfway through this event at Binbrook airfield in Lincolnshire - the gearbox input shaft snapped without warning, stranding us on stage 4. Here's a video clip (900Kb) of us overtaking on stage 3. Video clip by Robert Wallis.
Photos by Simon Clarke.


Links to photos by rallygallery.com:

On their first outing in the Group N Astra GSi, Simon and Stuart won the Best Vauxhall award at this event at Oakington, near Cambridge. Photo by Simon Clarke.

April 2001: YOI Gudang Garam Rally Indonesia, did not finish.

The Gudang Garam Rally was based in Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia on 28th-29th April 2001. This event is the second round of the FIA Asian Zone Championship. Most of the championship contenders are based in Asia, but driver Simon Wallis and co-driver is Stuart Leach are part of a three car British team with backing from United Oils. Simon and Stuart hired an ex-works Timor S515i, run on this occasion by ATMSport.

This the first time we had competed outside Europe. Asian rallies can throw up unaccustomed challenges. The service park was in the middle of the jungle, with armed guards at each corner ready to deal with tigers. From the outset it looked to be a challenge to finish this this two day rally. On the forest track on the way to the first stage, there was a big bang from under the car and we skidded to a halt sideways - some of the bolts from the petrol tank guard had fallen out and the guard dug into the ground like a grader, wedging up a big pile of mud and crumpling the boot floor up. A few minutes with a spanner and we had the other bolt off, but it took a few more minutes to drag this 30 kg piece of bent metal out from under the car without bursting the petrol tank.

With no underbody protection we had to drive the first two stages very slowly, but were still 20th out of 40 by the end of the day. Then on the road section back to rally hq there was another odd noise - the wheel arch liner had come free and was dragging along the ground.
But worse was to come. On the way to the start of the second day, we suddenly lost power, saw a puff of smoke, smelled burning oil, saw the temperature in the red zone and realised that the engine was severely overheating. It sounded like a bag of nails and despite finding a petrol station and topping up with oil and water, we could not restart the car so were resigned to a day of spectating. The other two British crews in the team also retired later in the day.

There are some more photos from Rally Indonesia on the United Oil Rally Team web site.

  The recce was very muddy, and in places was too slippery even for our jeep: