BTJ, or Big Tall Jeff, was in the Navvy seat for this event again.

Overnight it had rained, so everywhere was wet, and the Clerk of the Course warned us in the drivers briefing that the “nadgery bit” was used to keep bulls, so was covered in Bull by product. The nadgery bit is a very tight and twisty section of this event, and is always called that, or the menagerie bit.

Stage 1 and the first corner gave us indication of conditions as we had our first spin of the day. Into the nadgery bit and the only thing I have driven on with less grip is polished ice, 1st gear at idle and we were still under-steering off the concrete. One corner had a car parked in a large hole on the outside of one corner, with wheels off the ground. We finished the stage OK, and back in service were tempted by road tyres, but decided against in the end.

On the second stage, back into the nadgery bit, and at the corner the other car had been in we gracefully, and very very slowly slithered wheels first into the hole. Any where else and we would have been fine, but the wheels were off the ground and we were beached. The stage had to be stopped as we were blocking it, and a large group of marshalls manhandled the front back onto terra firma. We took a stage max, so that was the end of any hope of a decent finish, but the car and us were unhurt so not too bad.

During the morning the stages started to dry, and after lunch we started to be able to let loose and have some fun.

Towards the end the steering kept locking, but after one particularly large bump in particular. Haven’t investigated the cause yet.

The other minor issue was fuel surge. After long or sharp left hand bends there was hesitation coming back onto power, very characteristic of surge. The tank has been opened up and a couple of changes made so that should help.