Feedback 2008

Feedback 2008

Southwest Endurance Rally

March 7 - 9, 2008

2008 rally feedback

What follows are comments posted on the BritishRally.co.uk forum, mandh-photography.co.uk forum and emails received after the rally!

Got to have my say. After a late call to navigate for Gary White from oop north (of london anyway) in his 106 Rallye, I have to say that my first time in the forests of the southwest is a memory ill treasure, what a fantastic event. A great drive from Gary, carrying plenty of speed through the selectifs proved that forests can be as much fun as the lanes of the southwest. SHMC should indeed be congratulated on planning, organising and running a 100% excellent, enjoyable event, from the start to the finish. I know lots of other clubs helped along the way with stage marshals etc, but the backbone of the event was the core crew which made the event South Hams own. Fantastic venues, good road and route instructions, all I would ask is that you give the navigator something more to do as it was quite relaxing telling your drivers theres a board in 1200 yards, and then effectively being a spectator for a while lol. And make it three days instead of two. A very hearty thanks to all concerned. Well done. And off course my thanks to Gary for allowing me the privelege of doing the event in the first place, a fantastic experieince overall. I look forwards to seing the pics. Alf Chanter -Car 77

Where do I start.............? Two years ago was good. Last year was great. This year was even better. Massive thanks to all @ SHMC and the 150 marshals and helpers. Most of them were smiling as much as we all were. I'll let everyone else tell you their tales but I must mention a very special place near Bodmin - Dunmere Wood. This place will stay in the memory of virtually all competitors for a very long time. Whoever ordered the rain to give the coating of slime to the track just before we arrived, should be awarded a medal. I think more was learned about car control in that 9 miles last night than any other Selective in the history of Endurance rallying. Unfortunately, a few also discovered what the car won't do - but there is always next year. Just waiting for next year's date so I can organise the "Pass Out" in good time. Bagger (Car 10)

Just got home and i'm totally knackered, but what an event. Everything from wind, rain, threat of exclusion, mud and nearly falling down a 500ft drop and we made it to the finish So nice to see a finish, and 17th o/a fitted in with our plan to 'get a finish'. Top top marks to all the organisers and marshals – thanks.

Well what a weekend! Cracking day/night friday finished leg 1 15th o/a how im still not sure Sat am awesome runs in the woods, Penhale just as fun as in the stage car, then we had a small fire end of the 4th test in porteath thanks to the finish marshals for quick thinking and still managing to chip my time card while i was putting said fire out! Lucky we were running with 2 extigishers so we could carry on! few repairs and bit of catchup, took it rather steady rest of day on the very slippy woods, finished in tackt and still 22 o/a result as far as we are concerned! BIG thanks to all involved most of all to Roger G for putting another 12 months of his life to it! Not forgetting his lovely wife Pam for putting up with it! Pictures please, not sure who was out but saw lots of flashes! Cheers Matt car 52

What a beast of a rally. The variety of surfaces and character of the tests cannot be beaten by any other rally and the attention to detail is second to none. SHMC should be hugely proud to have achieved such a high standard after just 3 years. The saturday was much tougher than any other single day of endurance rallying I have ever done. Congratulations to big brother Jamie and even bigger to Ian for his first win. Phil and Graham pushed them very hard all weekend and it could have gone either way until the end. Bad luck to Dale and Andy, I think we were all out of shape on that "bit". They were making the fight for the lead very tight!! It was great to see so many smiling faces at the end, even many of the crews that hadn't finished. The spirit within endurance rallying just keeps on growing. A sport that is so competitive to still remain so friendly is something everyone involved should treasure. Look forward to seeing everyone on the future endurance rallies. - Owen Turner (beaten by brother, but at least not by my dad this time!! Must try harder!)

A truly great event and one to rival 'The Lombard'. Well done to all the South Hams Team, Audi SW, and such a fabulous set of marshalls. I would echo Baggerman, I will never forget Dunmere, the most challenging selectif I have ever driven. Jamie, just brilliant, and The Rover Centre producing unbreakable cars. Commiserations to Phil, you will do it, but need to come back to a NOV4A. Finally many apologies to all marshalls and crew's I gassed. I have emptied Cornwall of semi-synthetic, in total 17 litres, mostly on the front of Dave Smith's Rover....

Yep', a huge big 'well done' to the team at SHMC for a fantastic event that was organised and delivered brilliantly. You guys continue to set, and indeed raise, the standard which other events should be seeking to reach. Despite not finishing (spit fuel tank Dunmere 1) and depositing £30 worth of unleaded just outside Bodmin our disappointment was more than made up by the end of event 'gathering' in the Novotel bar. Still feeling fragile at this late point in the afternoon. Not too sure what we have got to do to get a finish in the Pug - armour plate it I suspect - or perhaps stick a Rover badge on the front. We watched Dunmere 2, the front runners were certainly going for it. Spoke with Dale at the selective start and said 'give it the beans in there'..... clearly he did! - Jeremy Crook

What can i add that hasnt been said? ive helped "officiate" on the last two and decided now was the time to pull my finger out to do it, clutch went going to the start, walked through the start line and the rest was absolutely fantastically quality from the route planning (roger, 2 andys and co), the set up was spot-on (the vans were everywhere),the route was mind blowing, but the biggest thing for me was the marshals! they were everywhere and all smiling even when we came slithering up to them and it was blowing a hoolie. i too had a big moment in dunmere, thought i was going join dale and co of the list of dunmere "victims". blimey it was slippery in there! shame we lost "polish farm 1", i might have caught a few more in there! a big comiserations to those that retired, especially those that found the "bellever rock" i middled it on my sump guard on full chat and was waiting for the oil light to come on! a finish considering our start and its our first event is a job done by my expectations, a big thanks to my nav, and the competitors that offered help at the racecourse, and of course to the organising team! as for the "dartmoor pixies from the treacle mine " i hope we'll see so more next year! it certainly made me look twice! as we say down 'ere it was a PROPER JOB see you all next year, and i might be able to talk my nav into doing a few more later this year! Rich Brooks - Car 67

Damn good event again. Shame we didn't finish. Sadly the Mini suffered from overheating pretty much the whole event - courtesy of two holes in the radiator, gathered on one of the early forest tests; despite our best efforts - and several egg whites! Missing both regularities on Friday due to a broken rear shock absorber just after the start of the first one meant that we'd not have been classified as a finisher - but as Dave was being sponsored for charity per selectif; we decided to carry on Saturday. The uphill tests (and even the 'A' roads) proved too much effort for the poor overheating engine, so in the end we decided that discretion was the better part of valour; rather than blow up a perfectly good engine. On the positive side, Dave will now have raised a few few pounds for a needy cause; so was well worth the effort. Our thanks to the organisers for a cracking event; to the marshals for their unstinting support; and apologies to anyone we delayed when you caught us. - Dave Walker/Chris Thorley. Mini 1000.

Wow! That WAS an endurance rally Many congratulations to all involved from Roger though to every single marshal, all stayed happy and smiling throughout and the whole event had a very friendly but competitive atmosphere that just makes you want to come back for more. Roger tells me they could take 180 entries ... if word of how good this event is gets round he may soon need all of them! Paul kept us going in the right direction at the right time all weekend, made the tea and even put up mith my stupid jokes Very pleased to finish and even more pleased to justify our slightly flattering (on previous enduro form) seeding .... and the little Arosa finally finished another event, albeit making 'orrible noises all the way back up the M5 and M6 Lots of work to do before the Midsummer methinks. A new set of tyres courtesy of Kwikfit before leaving Plymouth proved a wise move given the heavy rain we encountered on the way back north. The fitters were highly amused by the Colway slicks, and very understanding given the amount of crud they had to remove to get at them! - Cheers, Andy

All joking aside, I'd like to thank every single person who has been involved with the preperation for this event in the last 12 months, i know as a former clerk of the course, the huge effort and organisation involved that now makes this, in my mind, the BEST ENDURANCE RALLY OF THE CALENDER. Massive respect for Ian and Jamie for the way you must have attacked the forests during the event. I know we were fully commited most of the time.Bad luck to Dale and David,who knows what would have happened if you were involved last night as well. As already mentioned I think Dunmere 2 will go down in Endurance history, orders being taken for the official "I survived Dunmere 2" T shirts. Bad luck Dan & joff, you know it's serious when your getting more mpg on petrol than oil better luck next year. The most important person i would like to thank is Graham. I've been spoilt over the past few years with great navs such as Roger Gillard,Paul Robinson, the late Perry Roe and of course my regular buddy "lord Lombard". But now i have another fantastic name to add to the list, faultless,precise and determined all weekend, making my weekend alot easier and more enjoyable. Who needs the Lombard?

As a member of plymouth motor club and one of the many marshals of cann woods can i thank south hams motor club and all the marshals of the whole weekend and also to every competitor who entered. it was a joy to be involved in such a social and good spirited event. it makes marshaling worth while when you get thanked by organisers and competitors alike . i would also like to give extra credit to the car that came to the last stop asride finish in cann woods at the last selectif, as i shouted ok to the clock marshal who gave them the time the competitor said to me out of his window, that was bloody brilliant not just ok.many thanks again to all involved. paul price from plymouth motor club

I'll join in with the thanks and congratulations to Roger G, devco and bulps for, quite simply, a fantastic event. But as we all know it's not just the three of them that make it happen: Chris S and all his marshals were obviously very visible to all, and did a great job with every one of them that we met having good humour and pleasantness. The logistics of getting a huge number of people in the right place at the right time couldn't have been happened just by chance - well done Chris

- the recovery guys, not needed by a lot of crews, but doing a great job for those in need

- the set up and tidy up crews, not visible to any of the competitors but working behind the scenes to make it happen over the two days and making sure we're allowed back into some great venues next year

- and finally the results team, who seemed to be all over the route and locked in the room at the Novotel until the early hours of each morning - great job by Hywel and all his helpers. To all of you a BIG THANKYOU. A relatively trouble free event for us with the notable features of:

- forgetting my road rally brain and thinking that just 'cos PC7 wasn't manned, we didn't need to prove we'd been there by looking for a codeboard

- pulling away from the PC (wo)manned by the nice soldierette at Portreath onto the runway only to have to stop for what seemed ages to scan the whole horizon looking for Cone P

- the repeated downhill section on Dunmere 2. In hindsight it reminded me of something out of It's A Knockout with slopes covered in grease and a manic Stuart Hall laughing his head off at the various antics that must have taken place. We survived, but how I'm not really sure, and I'm betting the marshal at the bottom has some tales to tell

- wanting to get up on Sunday and do some more - maybe next year?

Martin and Rich;Car 55

...I know I was getting tired in places but I'm sure I saw two gnomes waving at us from a bank on the LH side on one Selectif. Must have been dreaming...

Absolute corker of an event!!! Last year was good but this years event was faultless and awesome and as with every Endurance event was a massive adventure and battle of survival as much as anything else. Every single test was of superb quality, even the crazy Dunmere 2 and its slippery slope of death! The 205 tried its best to disintegrate around us, starting with cooling issues on day 1, and then on to the complete failure of most electrical components including alternator and starter motor. It took two batteries to get us within 6 miles of home when sadly the second battery finally drained itself of all life leaving us stranded in the village of Dousland. Fortunately the local pub had live music and a great atmosphere so we retired to the pub before we had the brain wave of sourcing a third battery and driving flat out to the finish to make it to the final control with minutes to spare! Many thanks to the organisers for an event that will go down in history as the best Endurance yet. Also thanks to car 72 for a push start up the hill at Portreath, Claire and Alicia for guiding us across Dartmoor on the final night when we had to go down to side lights to preserve precious volts, and apologies to MartinM and Freddy Camp for the nudges from behind in the queue for one of the night tests when the handbrake failed.

Morning All, Firstly a HUGE THANKYOU to South Hams MC, Marshals and Helpers alike. Anouther first class event and your effots realy do stand out. Thanks to David, my navigator, 20years since sitting in a rally car and it took about 300yards in the first selectif before it all came back to you. Congratulations and well done to Jamie and Ian on a deserved win, your grit and determination never ceases to amaze me. Comiserations and well done also to Phil and Graham, you realy pushed us hard, to hard it would seam. Thanks Owen for pulling my rear wheel off the axel so we could drive to the Hotel. Well done to Mr Lees for 5th Overall and keeping the Nova Flag Flying, South Hams MC are now having to ammend thier environmental impact assesement and plant a few hundred more trees! Great to see many battles going on in the field, Ben and Mike Dawson, Ian Mepham and Dave Town, 1 Second appart in Class 3, fantastic. Well done to all of the finishers, the forests must have been treacherous for the late runners. Rallying Just Dosent Get any Better .See you all on the Midsummer . - Dale

Thankyou to all at SHMC and all marshalls and helpers for a cracking weekend, selectifs were awesome and it was just great fun. The atmosphere of the Enduro Championship is fantastic and makes the weekend that much better. A big well done to my driver Joe Evett who at 17 again proved maturity and car control beyond his years. The comments about how tricky Dunmere 2 was just proves his talent with 24th fastest time in a selectif that has been called one of the most difficult ever!!! Maybe we are just young and don't see the fear like you old boys!!! Personally i didn't think it was slippery at all, plenty of grip in my seat!!! A big thanx to the Green Polo (sorry don't know your names) for pulling us off the grass verge in Quiditchmoor (can't spell it) that we were stuck on, shame it lost us ten minutes but thats rallying!!! See you all on the Midsummer -

James Aldridge (car 46)

Well this was my first rally for many years; and what an extremely pleasant surprise it was. The standard of organisation superb. the sheer amount of work put in by Roger and his team was truly amazing. The number of marshals was incredible, and they were all smiling, even on Sunday during that wind and rain. Thank you all very much. Thanks also to Dale Glover for some superb driving and for putting up with my very rusty navigating. It certainly won't be another 20 years before I do it again ... when is the next one?

What an excellent event. Extremely well-organised and presented very professionally. We started at car 75, seemed to be running at 13 on Friday night when the bar closed but were down to 26th at the restart on Saturday morning due to a missed codeboard (we weren't alone - 34 of the 65 runners at that point missed it !) Clawed our way back up to finish 11th overall on my first endurance rally - more credit to Worth than to me, I have to say ! I almost wish we'd left car 11 in the ditch last night rather than towing them out - then we'd have been in the top ten ! Only joking(ish). Excellent forests, excellent Portreath and Penhale - what more could we hope for ? A third day, maybe ?

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A note from the winning driver – Jamie Turner….

Well I haven't woken up yet so here is my bleary comments, firstly to Roger for you massive efforts on this event, you are a true enthusiast who's organisation and planning have undoubtedly created what probably will be the best enduro this year, a big thanks to you. To the two Andy's, your friendly faces and high spirits are a big contributing element of this hugely enjoyable event, to all the marshalls who stood out in some horrible weather to make this possible for us to enjoy, a massive thanks to each and everyone of you. On to the competitors, commiserations to Mike and Cath, Dale, martin et al, big shame not to see you all finish To Phil, you have truly stepped up to the mark, some of your times earn massive respect, nearly made us fall off the road tryin g to beat you, you certainly made us drive the "seats" off our cars, eh Phil, good job. And Graham, your proffessional attitude to rallying and the serious efforts you put into the sport have made a good driver realise his potential, you certainly did for me! Most thanks go to young Ian, the brilliant piece of navigating you provided was unexpected but excellent none the less, to occupy the seat that housed the great Graham's and Fowles, and to then beat them your parents should be very proud and I put this win down to you, thanks mate!! Also to all the other competitors who make this enduro rallying stand out head and shoulders above the rest with the sheer amount af sociable people that are involved, hats off to you all. Cheers to the two pixies on the side of the road, certainly made me laugh. see you on the midsummer!! - Jamie Turner

definitely the best event on the calendar in my opinion. I think the number of entries confirm this. Thank you to the entire organising crew for such a massively enjoyable event.

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Well what a great event that was. Good mix of test and all well marshalled. Good sporting banter between the crews if not the scrutineer. I could make lots of excusses about not having second gear etc but the top crews had me well beat before our troubles. Thanks to TR4andy for moving over so soon forgot to thankyou at the finish. Good to get out with Peter again and he only went a little green on the regularities. Top result for Jamie and Ian C. Bet your glad you did not give up the navigating last year. See you all on the mid summer.

Great event, fantastic selectives, really peeved that it was a hero to zero event for Robert and me. Still running at the back on day 2 was great fun. Pressure off and had lots of fun. Amazed at how many cars we saw off, I thought at one point we would get a top 10 result just due to the attrition rate! Already looking forward to next year. This was like all the best bits of the Lombard without any of the worse bits. Must be the gnomes? Well done to Jamie and Ian, sorry to see Dale go out, and hard luck to Phil for the runner up spot again! PS There should have been a prize for the muddest crew which clearly would have gone to Martin and Bob!

What a great event, as near to perfect as any rally I can remember. Organising Team and south Hams motor club 'take a Bow'. Dead chuffed for Ian C I'm sure it will be the first of many, well done to Jamie who really had to fight for it. It was a real challange in both seats for Jonno and I. After starting too slowly we picked up the pace and had got ourselves into a respectable position. Slid wide 10 yds before the finish line on the same selectif that Martin and Bob came off. Couldn't understand why we couldn't just drive back on to the track. But on closer inspection the front left wheel had dropped into a drainage hole and was dangling in fresh air. 10 cars passed and 11 mins They then stopped the selectif and Worth towed us out. (Thank You very much). Sorry to everybody else for the Selectif delay. Can we do it all again this weekend?

What an amazing event! Thank you so much to everyone involved for a mind-blowing intro to plot and bash, challenging SW forest stages - can we go round Dunmere 2 again, and again and again , smiling marshalls in inclement weather, Portreath (not as much fun in a diesel - bugger all clutch, and then 1200 yard straights, we hit 62mph with our 57bhp!), and as ever, the amazing camaraderie in the Endurance community. Cheers to Andy for the accommodation and hospitality on Thurs - definitely recommend Chez Ballantyne for others needing somewhere to stay in SW. Slept in novice navigator heaven! Learnt almost as much from a quick glimpse at his road books as I did doing the rally. Already pencilled in SW for next year as a 'must do' event. Even the 11 hour journey back up north - including two tyre changes on the M5 (bye bye Colways!), and a detour to pick up the book cover and drink several cups of very strong coffee, isn't enough to put anyone off taking part. We had a few moments - front wheel came very loose in first 2 hours and something fell off at a roundabout (no idea what yet!); we bust an engine mounting in Hustyns 1, strapped engine in place going into Great Grogley, but that ate through the diesel overflow pipe, which then meant the marshalls had to fight to the timecard through a huge cloud of burning diesel smoke on Portreath and we had very little clutch by lunch time. Learnt then that a pint of Coca Cola poured through the clutch puts you back in the running, and that engine mountings can be replaced by straps, jubilee clips, cable ties etc to get you a finish. 26th o/a so well pleased with ourselves. Now, I just need to learn how the hell you only drop 9 secs over 4 regularities ....wow, I'm still struggling with finding the right route! And Blue Book just arrived in the post as I type this, so I guess there is some bedtime reading there before the next event......

Echoing what everyone else had said, but huge thanks to all the SHMC folks. For the second year in my experience this has been the best Endurance rally without exception. We had a great laugh on the tests, our childish sense of humour keeping us going after missing the infamous codeboard on the regularity. We couldn't quite emulate last year's result but we got a respectable finish (yay!) and even my extensive bar bill didn't take the shine off it. All things considered we were lucky with the weather too as those woods were quite slippery enough even before the big storm came in today! We came so close to an early exit on Largin.... Just a superb rally. A well organised, well marshalled event with added gnomes. Top marks, absolutely fantastic.

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A note from the winning navigator – Ian Collings…..

After being told by jamie and matt that i HAD to do the speech at the prize giving my brain was still completely fried from the event so it ended abruptly after some mumblings about marshals and organisers and i passed over to jamie who is far more experienced in these matters! There was however some other things i wanted to say so i'll have a go now. The marshalling was 1st class all weekend, all the marshals seemed happy 4th 5th and 6th times around for some of them despite the weather! Roger, Andy and the South Hams team did an amazing job with this event, the South West is now considered by many (including me!) as unmissable, even over the Lombard. Both of us worked extremely hard all weekend, (jamie a little harder in some places to make up for my mistakes!) but at no point could we back off, the 3 way battle with Dale and Phil was so unbelievably close right up until the bitter end. I've never been under that kind of pressure for that long before but it made it all the more satisfying when we came out on top. As always the time in the bar was as fun as the time in the car, there were endless stories of peoples escapades throughout the weekend flying around. funnily enough by 3:30am the same stories were being retold in a slightly more exaggerated fashion but it made them all the more entertaining! Thanks again to everyone involved, i'm still grinning now!

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Results arrived today and very nicely done they are to. Like the rest of the event first class.

Emails received:

Truly a great event, I think lady luck was shining on us slightly, This was my first bit of silverware and the wife's not sure where to put the Gnome yet although the kids have called him Santa!!! Thanks once again, excellent event, fantastic stages/selectives, count us in for next year....

Cheers, Ben & Mike Dawson

Andrew, Many thanks for looking after us so well on the Beginners Rally. Shame we didn't have any opposition!! When the rain made some of the forests particularly slippery, we could afford to just back off - mind you we were still baulked by two slower runners we caught,(Mini and Skoda), and 3 cars going off into the trees on one stage - we only just managed to stop to avoid an even bigger accident with car 73, I believe it was. Once again, many thanks. Best regards, Terry Thorp

Hi Andrew, Thanks for a great rally, it was superb and will definitely be back next year. Judging by the British Rally blog everyone rated it the best yet I hope the organisers enjoyed it as much. Best regards. Adrian

hey andy, please pass this on or add to the flood of messages! absolutly enjoyed the rally even with the eventful start we had, organisation was as always top notch and the event ran slickly. Selectifs were so smooth its unreal, even when roger pinder, andy ballantyne and I drove them on monday you could hardly tell we been through. And as for the regularities WOW! no twelve car section will ever get close to those blasts especially the second days ones. A big thanks to my Nav, Rob Garton for getting me round, its certainly a steep learning curve for both of us! If I could sum the rally up in one word, I probably couldnt, but for some reason I keep replying to the question "how was the rally" with "AWESOME" so I guess that'll do! The marshalls were fantastic and the one in dunmere on the downhill PC needs a bravery medal! A big thanks to Mr Gillard (and Pam!), and the whole "team". The difficulties I heard you had, it certainly didnt show up to the competitors. The club should be proud of what was achieved on the weekend of 7/8/9 March. I for one have only one question: when can I get the entry form for next years? -Richard Brooks car 67 finished 46th o/a


Marshals in action on the 2008 event