Darrian T90 - Richard Merriman

Sunday, 31 March 2013

Tour of Caerwent 2013

The first Caerwent rally of 2013 with new standing co driver Tom Wood due to Kath being away. The weather seemed to be on side for the event dry but still bitterly cold. We had been seeded car 7 for the event and both agreed from the off that a finish would be an achievement in its own and any result after that would be a plus.

Stage 1 was damp in places with standing water. At the end of this stage we were lying 4th Overall 2 seconds off 3rd place and 3 seconds off joint 1st place. I was happy with all the calls and comfortable being pushed on in certain points and being given more confidence to brake later. On Stage 2 we had no problems reported just extremely slippy in places with lots of water and pot holes to catch us out. Stage 3 we jumped up to 3rd Place behind O’Leary despite earlier worries in the earlier parts of the stage that the rear tyres were going off. On stage 4 we took time out of O’Leary closing in to just 10 seconds behind him and currently holding 3rd place overall. Stage 5 saw a new set of rear tyres and adding confidence as well as grip . We set the fastest overall stage time and taking 5 seconds out of O’Leary. The final stage of the day saw a tough decision for the crew to either push for 2nd and collecting all important full welsh championship points or settle for 3rd and not risk breaking the car or pushing too hard.On stage 6 we decided to push on which resulted in fastest overall stage time by us and due to gearbox problems for O’Leary we took 2nd place overall and the Class win.

I would like to thank Barrie Jenkins, Karl Davies, Chris Davies and Ben Merriman for the help and support. Also a big thank you to Tom Wood for an excellent job done in the co-drivers seat and settling in to the team so well.
Big thank you to Forresters Motor Club for a well run event!

Saturday, 16 March 2013

Tour of Epynt 2013

Tour of Epynt was our first venture to Epynt in the 2013 season. It was a very cold and damp throughout the day.

On the first stage we found it very slippery and struggled to get heat into the tyres. On the second stage we had slightly more success with it being a longer stage generating more heat. At service we changed over to intermediate tyres hoping this would cure our problem. On stage 3 we decided to push quite hard off the start ending with a big moment in front of Neil Central Jones. We stiffened the car up for stage 5 and found it to be a lot better. Stage 6 was our final stage after changing back to slick tyres and pushing quite hard only for the diff to let go after the jump on the entrance to Bamfords causing the retirement of the rally.

A massive thank you to Barrie Jenkins, Karl Davies, Chris Davies and John Curzon for sticking out in the cold conditions. Also another top job done by Kath, sorry about the result!
Thank you to JMS Photography and Geoff Bengough for the images.

Wednesday, 13 February 2013

Rali Cwm Gwendraeth 2013

Rali Cwn Gwendraeth was the first event of our season which started with constant rain and slippery conditions.

It was a slow start with the windscreen misting up on the first stage but we resolved this problem before stage two but for the next three stages we had no problems. On stage five we spun dropping around 20 seconds and then finished off with a good sixth and final stage being happy to come away with 4th overall, 2nd in class and top Welsh Championship score.

I would like to say a big thank you to Kath Curzon, Barrie Jenkins, Karl Davies, Neil Central Jones and Ben Merriman.
Also thank you to JMS Photography and John Curzon for the pictures.