Red hair, new tyres, cheeks and bridges - our Granite story

If there was one event Katherine and I were adamant we were doing this year it was the Granite.  What happened last year has been well documented but it is also my local event and very well supported so we wanted to be out there and thanks to support from E.Watson and Son, Pirelli (more on that in a minute), AW Motorsport, McPhersons Document Solutions, Charles Derby Ecosse, Halo Lettings, San Juan Services, Jim Reid, Clark Motorsport, Songasport and, our long term partner in crime, Motorsport Mugs we made it to the start line!

As this is the second year that Rally2Raise has been going we decided we needed a new angle to inspire people to donate.  In my wisdom one night I came up with the novel idea of Katherine and I doing things waaaay beyond our comfort zone.  The first, which I didn’t expect her to come on board with and was well prepared to go it alone, was to dye my blonde hair bright red the day before the rally.  I received a text from Katherine saying she’s in. And it was probably the best idea we had ever had in order to cope with the nerves leading up to the first event of 2013.  We booked the deed at GOSH on Justice Mill Lane in Aberdeen to happen on 19^th April at 10am. 

Prior to this we had to sort the car. There was the small matter of a hanging off exhaust poisoning who ever dared to sit in the car. This happened early on in the Saltire Classic rally but somehow I got to the finish (and home!) alive. The exhaust was sorted with ease by a lovely fellow from Clark Motorsport (my husband) and the car was brought home so I could de-sticker it as and when spare time arose leading up to the great weekend. 

Tyres were an issue we were struggling with as last season’s had served us very well but were now in need of replacement.  We didn’t have the budget to buy tyres outright so we put together a proposal and sent it to Ann and Andrew Wood at AW Motorsport.  The reply we received was beyond anything we ever expected, we had a full set of Pirelli tyres for the season!

As if the red hair wasn’t enough of an idea to draw attention to the cause, we came up with the novel idea of selling our bodies for sponsorship… namely our cheeks (the ones on our face!) on Ebay to the highest bidder.  This was won by Halo Lettings in Lancaster and they had a simple enough design for us to draw on the morning of the rally.  Katherine bought a waterproof sealant in case we smudged and we were then set up for the weekend to begin.

The morning of Friday 19^th April dawned and we got ourselves ready for our last few hours as blondes for a long long time.  We put our racesuits on as we were heading straight for the press day after the “reddening” and got in the rally car and headed off to the salon.

Upon arrival we were set up side by side and made to decide who was to go first.  Katherine of course.  Whilst I took photos and generally wound her up by saying I was off out the door.  Once she was redded it was my turn.  It was fine seeing it go on Katherine, it looked cool. On me it felt more shocking and very RED. We sat through our development time and larked about until it was time for washing out.  Wow! A massive difference! I was unsure about how I looked but it really suited Katherine.

Between leaving the salon and arriving at the press day we definitely raised awareness, rally car plus bright red hair caused a bit of a stir. We got to the press day and we were just in time for the arrival of the TV crew from STV who wanted to cover our plans for the event.  As people were using the test stage we managed to make a very convincing TV stage out of about 100 metres of track with photographer Gary on the corner ready to stop us should anyone come into sight in the distance. We pretended to do a bit of under bonnet stuff which required our very best acting skills as I didn’t want to touch anything.  However, I did find a screwdriver under there kindly left by my husband and quickly hidden from the camera man. I then did my best to stumble through an interview consisting of questions I didn’t expect and we went on to have some publicity photographs taken by Mr. Songasport. The day was absolutely flying by and loads to do!!

We sailed through scrutineering, possibly because Katherine distracted and flustered the scrutineer by having to show him the label on her racesuit which was tied around her waist.  The only issue was to put a piece of tape on the positive terminal of the battery.  A job I could easily forget about but I shared it, and everyone knows that if you share something it aids memory… or you can blame the other person if you forget.  Friday evening consisted of making lists.  There was only a few things left to do but one of the most important was dust proofing the interior as much as possible. We discovered the day before that at low speed the dust inside the car was at such a level as to give the same reaction as a cold - we spent all Friday night sniffing and blowing our noses!

The morning of the rally was an early start.  Our start time was 11:26 but we had to get up and apply our cheek logos.  I discovered, pretty quickly, that I was allergic to red pigment, which I found odd seeing as my hair was a fetching shade of red at the time.  So my logo was all black. Katherine’s was the proper deal.  I won’t mention the fact that one side was a mirror image of the other… oops!

We had a big breakfast (thank goodness given what was to come) and completed our last checks and headed out.  It’s very strange doing a rally from your own house, most events require being away in a hotel but you can’t beat your own bed to make you sleep well. Kind of.  Apparently I tossed and turned all night, I thought it was the dust breathing but it was probably the nerves.

We stopped for fuel, brimmed the tank and made our way to Duthie Park for the ceremonial start.  There were hardly any cars behind us on account of us asking to be almost last and the fact it was only our third full event.  This was where the nerves hit proper style.  We could barely speak to each other let alone the lovely crews that kept trying to speak to us.  In all my years as a competitor, approaching 15, I have to say that I have never felt nerves like that. And I’ve done Mull with a new driver!

We crossed the start line, gave Stevie Brown and everyone there a laugh and got on with the job in hand, namely getting to ss1.   We caught up the convoy of cars in front us, numbering about five doing around 50mph and figured there’s no point in flying past so we just sat behind them, arriving at the stage with 10 minutes to spare.  Of course by now I’d convinced myself the exhaust had fallen off again so I got out, had a look (‘twas fine) and then admired the view thinking I would just stay all day and do that.  I snapped out of it and got my gear on, immediately I realised the nerves I felt at Duthie Park were just a precursor.  This was now on another level, I have never understood before when people say they throw up with nerves, well, I do now, I was a second away from it.  If I hadn’t been distracted that car would have been covered in technicoloured yawn!  I noticed the rescue set up was identical to last year, while this worried me at history repeating itself, it also instilled a sense of relief as we know them and work with them. A strange conflict of emotions really.  We moved up to the start line and watched the previous car set off. Here we go….

We reiterated our plan, take it steady, chill out and slay the demons, if we go out it’s got to be mechanical.  5, oh god, 4, bleurgh, 3, arrrggghhhh, 2, breathe, 1…. Lets do this…… Immediately it was calm.  I know I have to relax when I drive so I can anticipate what the little bugger is going to do as she can be a skitey wee thing.  Things felt good, the grip was amazing, I just went with what felt right and to top it all, I was enjoying it! Katherine got herself in a fluster over getting lost on the notes….. on only her 3^rd event…. and I’ve tried to explain to her that what she has over other new co-drivers, and it is a rare skill, is that she can find her place very quickly after being lost.  She should be very proud of herself on that one! Anyway, we were getting through the stage and I’m thinking to myself, I need a 2.5 gear here.  2nd is too much revs and 3rd bogs down too much. Forget 4^th, unless you have the high speed already but there is never anywhere to get that.  I looked down at one point and we were doing over 75 in 3^rd which ain’t bad for the old bird (the car not me).  I have to admit however that when we arrived at the massive spectator area I backed right off, a resonance from last year that I doubt will ever leave completely, I can live with that. When the flying finish boards appeared, as you can probably appreciate, we were ecstatic! And to top it off, the dust hadn’t come in.... yet.  That was to change on the slow road section at 15 mph.  It felt like we were inhaling glass shards so when we met my hubby on the road section and he handed us a bottle of water each we were eternally grateful! 

We arrived at ss2 in the nick of time and prepared ourselves, this time there were no nerves and we were eager to get going but I had a sudden thought, had my Halo Lettings logo smudged? To say I was sweating would be the biggest understatement of the century, I must have been working hard! Shockingly no, it was intact! As was Katherine’s.  Bonus!  After a lovely strawberry off Keith Cowan we were off again.  Another cracking stage, we were starting to feel it coming together and really enjoying it! The new tyres were absolutely spot on and I think that was what was giving me the confidence to push a little bit more.  Towards the end of the stage during a particular tight and twisty bit I felt what I thought was the engine cut out. This can happen in the Micra if the lead to engine cut off falls behind the footrest and the passenger presses on it.  Katherine’s feet were nowhere near it though, we had hit the rev limiter and that has never happened before.  We were always tentative and steady even on straight sections, never for a minute did I realise we had gained that much! Still, we weren’t giving it everything we had, we were being as careful as we could and gaining confidence all the time.  As far as we were concerned, we were last by a long way.  After all, our car has the lowest power in any event we do, even a lot of the 1 litre Junior cars are packing more bhp than our wee beast.

After a short road section with dust coming in at us again we arrived at ss3.  Chatting away about what we need to do in service “should we get there” we awaited our start time.  As we sat on the line I tried to visualize a line outside of the huge ruts created by the previous cars so we didn’t get bogged down.  No chance.  At the end of our count down we must have wasted about 30 seconds trying to get forward motion over the hill!  We were asked to look out for a car so every car we saw we had a good look at.  There were a lot but none were the customer we required.  All was going swimmingly until a square left over bridge.  Because the big corner was prior to the bridge we had scrubbed off the speed (something I hate doing as it takes way too long to build it back up again) and thought we were on course to not even notice it.  As the front wheels hit the concrete they gave way and slid sideways so I put the power down to try and correct it, this slightly stepped the back end out causing the near side rear to literally kiss the curb.  Katherine shouts “well held” but I didn’t hold anything, that dunt put us back in line.  We continued through the stage, avoiding the dead cars everywhere and struggling to keep the back end from trying to overtake on the left side.  I couldn’t quite figure out the problem, I knew it wasn’t a puncture but it definitely didn’t feel the same as before.  We carried on and got to the end, set off out the forest at which point Katherine said she could smell burning rubber.  I stopped, got out and ran round to her side only to find there was an epic negative camber on the rear where we hit the bridge.  “I think it might be game over” says I but we quickly gave Barry a call anyway to find out where he was.  End of the road thank goodness! He took one look underneath and confirmed our fears.  Jobs knackered.  Bent the rear beam and with no spares and no way of getting back to service we had to retire.  Gutted. 

While we sorted out trailering the car back to rally HQ (thank you John Morrison for the loan of your trailer) we thought we’d take a look at our times and how far down we were.  When I couldn’t find us at the bottom I assumed that because we’d retired we wouldn’t be in the results for the stages we’d completed.  No, I was looking in the wrong place, we were so far up the leaderboard (for us) that I had to double check our times, which were correct.  We were absolutely made up at that, we had exceeded what we had planned time wise and we felt like we were holding back in order to ease back into it.  We must have been the happiest people at not finishing a rally ever.

We left the car looking sorry for itself in it’s house and went for the post event party in Aberdeen.  A fantastic night (by all accounts) lots of dancing and a man on the bongos.

The rally has, however, thrown up a problem, one which we knew existed but didn’t acknowledge due to knowing we wouldn’t have any pace what so ever, we need to try to trailer the car to events further afield.  However, I don’t have a trailer licence and unfortunately, due to childcare, Barry and I struggle to attend events together. So if anyone has any suggestions, maybe a sponsorship proposal, we’re all ears!       

We’ll be back out on the Scottish in June so see you there!

Rachel