Monteberg Rallysprint, Dranouter near Brussels, Belgium, May 3 2015
Belgium's Monteberg Rallysprint was our team's first venture into Europe and it proved to be a fantastic experience where everything clicked and we hit a top time head on - well almost.
The Monteberg Rallysprint format was three recce runs over the 9km stage to make pace notes on the Saturday and then four timed runs on the Sunday. One thing that became quite clear during recce was the huge cuts that would be necessary to carry our speed through the corners.
On Sunday morning's first stage, we lined up on the start line on slick tyres and - sod's law - it started to rain. We felt we took this first pass at a conservative pace so were pleasantly surprised when we were 16th fastest. We also noticed that the previous cars had been cutting corners we hadn't marked to be cut and so we amended our notes ready for the second stage.
For SS2, we changed to wet tyres even though the rain had stopped as the road surface was still wet with some dry patches. It was evident that the corners would become very slippy too by the amount of mud thrown up, this made cutting even more important, especially on some of the 5th gear corners. We were delighted to be 5th fastest and 12th overall.
Before the third stage, we got chatting to experienced Monteberg Rallysprint driver Richard Weaver in car 61 who has competed at the event numerous times and he told us that a five minute stage time was the 'holy grail' to aim for at this event, but to achieve that it would need to be dry.
Unfortunately, the road was drying but still very muddy in places for us. But, the car felt good and it was one of those stages where everything clicked. Mathew was spot on with the notes, the gear changes were slick and braking points felt just right on every corner. Mathew stopped the clock on five minutes dead at the end and the official time was 5.00.45. We were ecstatic. We had finished 4th fastest ahead of seven-time Belgium Champion Patrick Snijers in his Porsche 997 GT3.
On the final stage, we took a conscious decision to get round and finish and so we backed off somewhat and the 13 seconds slower time than the previous run showed this. We had the Manx national rally in two weeks on the Isle of Mann and we didn't want any dramas beforehand.
So in the end we finished ninth overall and had a fabulous weekend of motorsport. The whole community got involved with the rally and spectators were out in force. This is a fantastic event and one that will be in our memories for a long time - so we will definitely be back next year.
Usual thanks must go to our sponsors DAF, F&G Commercials, Mirage Electronic Cigarettes, Sheffield Rolling Road, Quidbake, Signs Xtra, KHA Business Solutions. Also a big thanks to Alex Taylor of Northern Bodyshell Prep and Rachel Heel for the on-event support.
For SS2, we changed to wet tyres even though the rain had stopped as the road surface was still wet with some dry patches. It was evident that the corners would become very slippy too by the amount of mud thrown up, this made cutting even more important, especially on some of the 5th gear corners. We were delighted to be 5th fastest and 12th overall.
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| Photo courtesy of Vila-racing.be |
Unfortunately, the road was drying but still very muddy in places for us. But, the car felt good and it was one of those stages where everything clicked. Mathew was spot on with the notes, the gear changes were slick and braking points felt just right on every corner. Mathew stopped the clock on five minutes dead at the end and the official time was 5.00.45. We were ecstatic. We had finished 4th fastest ahead of seven-time Belgium Champion Patrick Snijers in his Porsche 997 GT3.
On the final stage, we took a conscious decision to get round and finish and so we backed off somewhat and the 13 seconds slower time than the previous run showed this. We had the Manx national rally in two weeks on the Isle of Mann and we didn't want any dramas beforehand.
So in the end we finished ninth overall and had a fabulous weekend of motorsport. The whole community got involved with the rally and spectators were out in force. This is a fantastic event and one that will be in our memories for a long time - so we will definitely be back next year.
Usual thanks must go to our sponsors DAF, F&G Commercials, Mirage Electronic Cigarettes, Sheffield Rolling Road, Quidbake, Signs Xtra, KHA Business Solutions. Also a big thanks to Alex Taylor of Northern Bodyshell Prep and Rachel Heel for the on-event support.
