Competitor comments after the event …………..

……..Very good rally, fast & furious, Nav sick all night. SS2 was wicked.
Thanks to all involved, see you next year.

…….Very well organised rally, Ace tarmac roads although whites a bit rough. Thank you to all the organising team for all the hard work. Had a brill night, really enjoyed the whole event.

…….. The smooth bits I liked the bumpy bits I didn’t! As usual, Clocaenog was brilliant, wish we could have gone around again!
Apart from the car catching fire after Cwm forest it was a very enjoyable event. Congratulations to the Organisers

……..Booking in a minute early didn’t help with our results, but that’s the game!

……..It was our first time to taste the fine lanes you have – and how good they were! The rough bits weren’t too rough, what a relief! ……. And everyone was so friendly, officials and marshals. My daughter was looking forward to tonight and we weren’t disappointed. Made a hash of things in the first half but it got better before petrol. Second half we had we had the car before and the car after us as company, lovely crews and a laugh as well. Thank you very much, we’ll be back!

…… Very good novice event, Rough whites. We will try to be back next year!

…….The route was very interesting although there still seemed rather a lot of plotting, even though some was already plotted. Everything seemed to go to plan. Only one or two wrong turns but not much time lost. All in all, a good night.

…….My first rally and I really enjoyed myself. Liked all of it, good laugh

…….Top event, well enjoyed by both driver and navigator. Thanks to everyone involved

…….Excellent event with very good choice of roads. Good organisation and selectives just the correct length. Nice breakfast and start/finish venue. Whites were too rough. Excellent night, we got better as the rally progressed. Only a few hairy moments. All in all a very good event.

…….Well organised event. Marshals spot on, plenty of time to plot.
Well done Rhyl & District and Well Done to Dan Jones – first ever event and not one wrong slot all night – must run in the family

…….. Enjoyed it all except for feeling pukey all night. My first rally, bring it on!

…….In my opinion it was a very well organised rally and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The whites were a bit tricky though, had to push the car at one point at an uphill section. No real dramas, just glad to have finished. Thank you to the organisers and marshals.

…… Great venue and an excellent route but with four pages of route information to plot it was very daunting to complete in time. Forest and whites were a bit of a car breaker, what a hoot though!
For our very first rally it was very well organised and a great atmosphere. We were going great until a rear hub broke which pitched the car off the road and into a ditch, ending our night on the third selective. Many Thanks, sorry we missed breakfast

……. I think the organisers and marshals were friendly and helpful for every need we had. Being beginners it was the ideal event for us to do and I’m sure it will be welcomed by others. An excellent event for beginners to get an introduction to rallying.

……..Well organised – Good Marshals – Good route. For our first rally we really enjoyed it. Hard going and some very rough roads

…….. All the route was very well planned out. Recommended to anyone thinking of trying a rally. Very well organised, really very good for beginners.

……. Fantastic Rally

…….. Great rally, good mix of roads, good format for practicing plotting. The car got stuck in first gear on the first selective and we had to do about 5 miles on a competitive section with a puncture! Eventful night.

Well folks, it's been a long time since I sat in a rally car being used competitively.
I have returned to road rallying after a long break following the op on my spine. I've been itching to do it for some time now and the opportunity presented itself in work. Rob Hill and I had decided to build a BMW compact rally car for some rear wheel drive fun. His old man managed to find us a 318ti (1.8 16v) compact for a reasonable price, and we set about building it. It is amazing how long it takes to get parts for such a car.
Many late nights resulted from having to change a worn clutch, leaking headgasket and all other bits (seats, harnesses, cage). Big delay in the cage turning up resulted in fitting it the friday before the rally. It arrived the thursday afternoon from sparco, but was not finished by them. The windscreen bar brackets were missing, so we fitted the rear half and left it at that.
The first tyres came courtesy of Big Dave ( knoblies that caused the car to be wobbly,) followed by a set from Bagsy, (very low profile, 2 inch ground clearance) then we bought some!
We arrived at the event with many people looking at the car, scrutineering was a doddle, passed with no problems. Plotting was exceptionally well organised and useful to have help from other navs. Then we were off.......
This being Robs first rally, he was a little unsure of what to expect. He was a bit slow into controls but with a bit of pushing we were going great.
We caught many cars, and I had to slow Rob occasionally as we topped a few blind crests but all in all we were going well. SS4 was going to be tough though. Timed to the second and starting on a rough white. Off we went and got stopped by a DSO. We were there for at least 15 mins, (felt like it anyway) whilst he checked my harnesses were so tight that I could not breathe. We dropped 60secs coming into ITC4a, gutted!
No more problems until SS6, Fast through the tight and twisty first part, square right, 60 left .......... and into the scenery. Cue lots of swear words and dissapointment. We were down into soggy mud and water, Rob got his feet wet getting out, but it wasnt all bad, mine were dry!!
We were stuck, no way out.
Bagsy told us not to rally a green car, and he should know!!
Thanks to Arthur for pulling us out in the end. Rally plates off, steady stroll to the finish. No damage to the car.
Looking at the results at the end showed that I had missed pcA, now that is a novice mistake, more gutted about that than going off .
Great drive, really enjoyed it.
Thanks to the club for organising it, Thanks to those people who helped us get there with donations of parts, and Thanks to Rob for a mostly great night.
Watch out for us again in the compact.

Stuart Frost

--------------------------------------------

Sat night, 21st April, saw 56 rally cars lined up at the start of the Jack Romain Memorial Novice Trophy Rally at the excellent and ever popular venue of the White House Hotel in Rhuallt

The event, named in memory of one of Rhyl Motor Clubs founder members, “Mr Motorsport” – Jack Romain, who dedicated his life to motorsport and sadly passed away last year, is aimed at encouraging both beginners and novice crews to take part in local motor sporting events. It took in some of the more popular rally routes along with a few lesser known detours that the local Ordnance Survey local map has to offer, finishing at the White House after some four and a half hours of competition.

Despite early setbacks, the crew of Robin Williams and Jason Chinnery took first overall award on the rally. The pair not only picked up a puncture on the first section but also had gearbox problems with the car stuck in first gear for a while. Fortunately the first sections of the event were an easy introduction to the rally and they dropped only a minute. They picked up penalties at just two more controls to finish the night exactly minute clear of second placed novices Elwyn Lloyd and David Bates. Stuart Thomas and Graham Thomas came in 3rd novice.

Mei Davies and Steve Jones were leading the event when they decided to take an untimely and somewhat painful excursion away from the designated route on the third section. Cyril Jones and Dan Jones would have taken the overall award but were excluded by a Driving Standards Observer – road rallies nowadays are often won and lost simply by obeying the rules!
“Semi-Expert” crews were allowed to enter but were only eligible for class awards, this being a novice event. Local crew David Ricketts and Dick Jones from Abergele were the crew to gain fewest penalty points all night and took the Class Award for “Semi Experts”

Another local crew to do well on the event were Father & son team of Mike & Garry Way from Prestatyn, who picked up a very creditable “1st Rhyl & District” award by finishing 15th overall.

Other local members to compete on the event included:
Aiden Richards and Pete Dale – 10th overall
Gwyn Reynolds Jones & Brian Howatson – 19th overall
Ruth Webb & Lee Webb – 22nd overall
Wayne Trevor and Ian Spraggon – 36th overall
Scott Trevor & Sandra Jones – 43rd overall

Iain Baxter

Think it went down well ?
WELL DONE to EVERYONE INVOLVED –
but EXTRA especially to Clerk of Course JPW -
This was HIS "first event" too!!!
(and what an EXCELLENT job was done Sir!)