North West Stages Rally Report

We arrived at Blackpool and the weather was challenging; the service area had been under the sea! Eventually we managed to put the awning up under gale force winds! I was thinking how wet and slippy it was. This was the first time for us doing a multi venue event so we were all a bit apprehensive.
We’d got together our excellent crew for the chase car, and our main service area was sorted with two mates – if they could keep themselves from being swept into the sea! Having then sussed out the first stage route, stage maps, and having attached an inflatable dinghy to the rear of the car, we were ready. We set off for Weeton army barracks, expecting some rough terrain and slippy concrete, and were entertained by 5cm deep puddles when we found a ‘large pool’ in the middle of the stage.
So having completed two runs of Weeton, we travelled up to Blackpool seafront, no time to take in the sights; we were on a tight schedule. We set off on the 3rd stage with the Norbreck castle to our left and the Atlantic lapping the promenade…. we left the start line with the back wheels struggling to find any grip, down a long straight and upon arriving at chicane, nearly had a heart attack trying to slow the car down to get through the chicane. (I’d been toldthat if you could survive the whole rally, you were doing well, even at the 3rd stage I was starting to understand what that meant). I scrubbed enough speed off to get through the chicane and found it to be slippier the further we went into the stage. Having completed stage 4, we were all set for the next day