Hello All,

Sorry its ben a while giving you an update of my rally rambles but the time has gone so fast this year and I seem to have been at an event every weekend!! To start with I was offical phototorapher on the CVMC Clwydian Cars Stages up at Trawsfynydd way back in May, so the Saturday before the event I went up to the Range to help set the stages up after the recent new tar had been laid and to go for a recce of possible differant photo locations. I always thought the forest end looked good so, after moving in the region of 300 tyres to mark the course ( there was 4 of us ) I took a drive around. Its definatly a place for the brave and commited. Good thing was after speaking with the clerks of the course I aranged a lift to the forest jump during the rally and also a lift back. Result? saves a long walk! ( Lazy sod me LOL). It was a good day and the weather held off this year, also cracking results for the RDMC crews.

My next event took me north of the border to Kelso and Duns for the Jim Clark Rally and my first taste of closed road tarmac rallying and WOW! what an event!! I travelled up a day or two before the start to complete a recce of the stages as for the first time ever I had to submit a "Safety Plan" to the organisers as to where I would be taking pic's when I signed on. The evening before the rally a shakedown stage was set up at Floors Castle in Kelso, only small but good fun as it gave some of the crews a chance to play for the gathered crowds before the rally proper and play they did with some VERY sideways action on the damp tar. First proper rally action came the following day with two evening stages around the famous Langton watersplash followed by and 2 full days of action but unfortunately I only saw 1 stage on the Saturday, as I was driving out of the first stage of the day I spotted a large pothole in the road and put two wheels on the grass to avoid it but there happened to be a bigger hole hidden in the grass, result 2 flat tyres!! Huge thanks to ALL who helped me get going - you are all top people! The second day of full action started with heavy rain that resulted in a car going off in the stage I was on and it was eventually cancelled due to the time loss so with some frantic map reading and a timely phone call I found myself on another stage with the most spectacular jump!! If you ever thought about going up for the rally I would recommend it as the area, people and action are superb.

Now well into June and the most horrendous weather I have seen! I didn't do much but did venture out to the Dukeries rally over in Mansfield and watched the action in Clipstone forest, last years event was dusty but not this year it was more like a tropical african rally as it was raining one minute then hot and sunny the next with steam rising from the ground, all very strange but in fairness it was another good event with some real good action at the double junction I was on especially late on after a real heavy downpour.

The weekend after the Dukeries was the Mid Wales Stages or MIDGE Wales Stages as its now called in Hafren and Sweet Lamb. After an early morning start I drove down to Hafren and parked up in the forest and then walked into the stage to a section I watched last year as it was rather good but the stage was being run in the opposite direction that opened up the possibilities of good pics from a number of bends so I scrambled up a bank to a good vantage point where I could see the cars enter the section around a fresh air left into a short straight then open hairpin left where I was .......... but the midges where everywhere and i almost gave up and travelled home BEFORE the first car appeared - pesky little blighters! When the action started it was the historic cars first and they are most entertaining, well that was until a Porsche 911 decided to visit the scenery and parked themselves off the track nose first against a tree stump. Lucky they did really as it was a long way down to the bottom of the slope! After all the cars had passed I then drove around to the Sweet Lamb bowl just in time to see most of the modern cars pass through the river ford and the jump .......and thankfully ........no midges!!!!

July see's me having a really busy month with a weekend away at a custom car show in Tamworth where I got a passenger ride in the quickest car i have ever sat in, a 1967 ford Mustang Convertible with 530bhp on tap and capable of covering the quater mile in 12.4 seconds. on returning home from the show I have just enough time to sort a few things out before doing something I have always wanted to do, that is go to the Isle of Man for the Manx Rally. Wednesday 18th july saw me leaving home bound for the ferry at Liverpool ready for the crossing and thank goodness it was millpond smooth. upon arrival at Douglas I met up with a friend who had travelled the day before and we then went for a recce of the stages and all I can say is what an Isle!! The recce went well and found some good locations for the rally action to come and it was a little bit surreal driving around places that I had seen on TV for years and now I was there myself. During the following days I met up with a lot of other people I knew including a few RDMC members but the friday night in the guest house I was staying in will be remembered for a long time! It was like an international convention or the start of a good joke as there was, an Englishman, Irishman, Scotsman, Welshman and a Zimbabwean all partaking of a few ales and general hilarity followed with theories ranging from how rough badgers backside's where to how moths are attracted to light's and so on. At the end of the evening we apologised to the guesthouse owner if we where a little bit loud and he said "No, I haven't laughed so much myself in ages! I had to go to the loo a couple of times just listening to you all" We now have a provisional booking there ready for next year. Well the rally came and went all to quickly and after the rally was over I had a tour around the Isle and what a great place it is well worth a visit.

This almost brings me up to date with my ramblings as the last couple of events I attended have been the DPS Ranges stages again up at Traws and again with a few RDMC members competing in the most glorious weather up there and also resulted in me getting the winners pic printed in Motorsport News. August bank holiday monday I went to Oulton Park to see the slowly sideways Group B cars having a run out around the rally course and they put on a real good show for the huge crowds that where in attendance at the Historic Gold Cup Meeting, there was also some good track action too.

Fully upto date and now heading for another busy few weeks starting with the Fferm Farm ghymkana last thursday, next saturday night on the FireFly road rally (that I'm official photographer on) then its the Plains rally a couple of weeks after. (that's well worth the trip out to Mick Jones's timber yard just outside Welshpool) followed by the rally show at Chatsworth, then the Trackrod Rally up in Yorkshire, the Bulldog, the Dublin weekender, Cambrian, Revival and Roger Albert Clark Rally well into November.

I think I have rambled on enough now, see you all on an event or meeting soon

Cheers

Rod