Very tough night last night ….. Dropping us to fifth overall as a result of getting a bit boggy in worthy farm (Glastonbury mud) … Like most we lost a bit of time, but we got our round all the PCs !
Well from Hero to
Zero on Saturday morning – on the way into the first gate of the first test at Exeter racecourse the steering went light and pitched us into a spin at a fair speed …. We managed to stop before battering a tree and a wall down, backed off and continued round the circuit perimeter …. But rapidly realised that we had no ability to steer left …. Many ‘moments’ later Finished the test but passed by an Alfa …. No good.
At the end of the test we parked up to investigate why either I had lost the ability to drive to the left or Beastie had suffered a failure …. Pretty obviously the steering rack had come apart ….. An unusual failure but purely down to component quality.
After a call to our mothership at Blidworth, Steve at TR Enterprises got a rack in his hands and we plotted a fix but retirement was recommended because the rack, the UJ anove it and possibly the track rod end was damaged. A bit of fix later and we were on our way, having to cut 2 tests to keep inside OTL …. At this point the possibility of a big trophy this year evaporated after quilts a promising start.
The first fix broke quite spectacularly mid morning, pitching us toward a bank in the Devon lanes …. We escaped unscathed thanks to the handbrake but limped to the next TC and cut the Regularity. Another fix we did the last two of the five morning tests, the final before lunch a Builith Wells where we limped round to post a time and avoid another big penalty.
At lunch we had the assistance of the service crew with some equipment and pinned the rack together with steel dowels ….. This gave us a chance to post two good times on the next two tests and finish a regularity but failed at the afternoon TC where we stopped for repairs again outside a pub.
The rain can and we ran out of bits and pieces so we cut straight to the main control at Machynlleth whet we found some more bits and the service crew, who had come up with the same fix as we had en route. The hairiest drive I’ve had in a long time, steering left with only the handbrake and throttle to keep the pressure off the rack as best we could.
Decision time at that point – to take the car into the forests for the night stages and risk wrecking her completely or cutting straight to the MTC at Llandrindod Wells …… An a crippling penalty that would surely see us last in the event.
Peter Banham and the service crew worked with me to install a tie bar system to hold the tack together and it looked and felt like it might hold. Only if could get a reliable fix could we do the night section ….
We then heard that one of the later cars running had gone off badly and landed roof down in a river after leaving the road in the lanes …. thankfully the crew got out and airlifted to hospital, both well enough to leave today but a sharp
Reminder to us what was at stake if the steering snapped again.
However, we are driving a TR4, we fixed it, we checked it, we tested it and …. And nowhere is far in a TR … So into the forests we went. And our we came after a decent run, not perfect but we were definately back in the event.
Blue Beastie 