TG drives Wales Rally GB: day two!

What a BLAST! Day two of Wales Rally GB was awesome, simple as that. Five stages, four in the forests, one at Chirk Castle on tarmac, we’ve come through it all unscathed, the car is back in the service park without any bodywork damage, and we’re lying second in class. Wow, just wow.

Let’s not pretend things have been easy. The first two stages at Clocaenog on Saturday were a real test for the new makeshift sumpguard (literally a piece of 5mm thick steel plate that weighs about as much as the engine) that 586 Engineering had welded on overnight. We seemed to plough through those two stages on the belly. Rough as anything.

Oddly though, the biggest problem was the sun. It was shining. It doesn’t often do that in Wales in November. Driving flat out from light into dark, barely able to see through the muddied windscreen and trusting your co-driver that this is a ‘five right’ and not a hairpin or something, does call for a certain amount of commitment.

Read our report on driving day one of Wales Rally GB

We came out of stage two with something loose under the car and a gearbox that suddenly had issues selecting reverse and was clunking the shifts more. It got steadily worse through the day – we found out in the evening that one of the lower engine mounts had broken. That’s how rough Clocaenog was.

Stage three, Aberhinant was just plain scary. There was one section where they’d built up a causeway through a quarried section, about six foot higher than the surrounding ground. It was a mile of darkness, all grey rock and slate, like a Lord of the Rings battlefield. Loose, treacherous, and narrow, we saw two cars off in there, and nearly went off ourselves. Frightening.

We managed to rupture the exhaust somewhere in there too. Observers had previously told us that we were the third noisiest car in the National part of the rally, the only louder things being a Metro 6R4 and a Lancia Stratos. Now, apparently, we’re the loudest. The pops and bangs on the overrun were now a physical thump under the car, like the whole exhaust is bouncing up and hitting the car. We were already sending small flames out the back, later we’re told that bigger flames were happening right underneath…

Stage four, Dyfnant, was just mega. The best I’ve felt in the car, I think the best I’ve driven. The stage surface hadn’t been so destroyed by the WRC cars, and had a lovely flow to it. We also caught two cars in that stage. OK, so one was an Army Land Rover Defender and the other was an Escort MkII that had crashed and got going again, both of which cost us a bit of time to get around, but I couldn’t care less, it was epic to drive. Piling through there in the Hyundai i20 on Wales Rally GB even beats howling up a Tuscan hillside in a LaFerrari being chased by a McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 (something I was privileged enough to have done at the start of this week). Yep, this has been a terrible week at work…

Read our report on driving day one of Wales Rally GB

Chirk Castle is a mile long sprint around a stately home’s front drive. It’s fine, because it’s great for spectators, but not really what Wales Rally GB is about. And we’re in gravel mode with knobbly tyres. Not ideal. Still, we were 28th fastest overall and fourth fastest front wheel drive. Happy with that!

And that was day two. The crowds in the forests were just ace. So many people had hiked into the hills. There was fancy dress, flag waving, yelling, cheering, stamping, waving – it was proper. Thanks to everyone for making the effort – your support makes me want to drive faster than my co-driver is happy with… 

Now we just have to get it to the finish. Wish us luck…

First picture: Jamie Matthias