Details of my second AWDC championship race at Timsbury, near Southampton.

Well, for a change we got there early! Miracles do happen. We drove down to the site on Saturday and camped overnight, we also went through scrutineering on Saturday plus walked the course. It almost sounds organized.

Gary made some very usefull pace notes which got us off to a good start (mostly the notes reminded me where the steel spikes were sticking out of the ground and other obstacles associated with a former land fill site!). I thought Iwould try mapping it with one of these new fangled GPS thingys, but the batteries went flat half way round and I realized it wasn't as interesting as everyone makes out ;)

The course had a bit of everything, a brisk start straight leads into field which is soft peaty sort of a thing and ended up with very big ruts and sapped the engine power, flat out in first gear just managing walking pace. Then the field hardened up and went through some hedges (well i went through the hedge any way) and lead to a fast straight before plummeting of the edge of a cliff in a trials style section. More rocks and gravel then another cliff and some more boggy bits. Picking the right line into a corner was essential and the ruts were constantly pushing me the wrong way.

It was very hard on the car, full power for long sections at low speed, sharp rocks, concrete reinforcing rods popping up, cliff edges I couldn't see over, dust, water and the such. Jolly good fun though.

Until run six, when Rick got in to have his first experience in a comp safari, I got about fifty yards from the start line when something in the path launched the front of the car just as I needed to turn left a bit. Luckily a passing tree stopped me going to far the wrong way!

Crunch, I will be mostly stopping now! I have decided to make my next car out of tree.	Time to go home. Left hand chassis rail is 8 inches shorter now.

So now I have purchased another Range Rover chassis and am going to try to get it back in shape for the next event. The right chassis leg crushed up about 8 inches and the left one has bent outward and cracked. One damper is banana shaped. The spring pan on the axle is ripped. The steering column is about four inches shorter. The pedal box is buckled. The Brake reservoir is mashed. The panhard rod is bent. The engine mounting bracket ripped the head of the blots in the engine block. One gearbox mounting is ripped in half. The exhaust down pipes and manifolds are no longer in alignment having ripped the studs out. All the front tube work is bent. The right hand wing is shattered, the bonnet smashed and the front cowl cracked. But apart from that all it needs is some filler and the rest will polish out!

© Ralph Hosier 2004