Disappointing first day for Paddon at Rally GB

Hi Well, it has been a disappointing day here in Wales for us – something that has been becoming a little too frequent lately. Nevertheless, we are still in the rally, despite losing a lot of time cruising through the afternoon stages with broken rear suspension.

The rally started with a super special stage around the Cardiff Docks last night. After a few problems and unsettling moments prior to the start of the stage we did not set the best of times, but we were not at all concerned, as the real rally started today.

Having not done any testing in the car prior to the event, it was always going to be a little bit of an unknown as to how exactly the car would handle. But we knew this and were well prepared to fine tune as the day progressed.

Over the first two stages the car was quite difficult to drive, with a lot of under steer and constantly locking the front brakes, which created big push going into corners. With some small changes we were able to get things better in the 3rd stage and it was feeling good. To our surprise our times were still okay on the first two stages, even though there was a lot to come once we got the car dialled in. Unfortunately we didn’t get any more chances today, as half way through the third stage we hit a big rock in the driving line, which smashed a trailing arm on the rear suspension.

Without this arm the wheel assembly moves freely forward and back in the wheel arch, as well as forever changing its direction in and out under acceleration and deceleration. With only a remote service in the middle of the day, where we were allowed to use just the parts that we carry on the car, we could not fix it without a complete hub assembly. So we strapped it up with 2 tie straps.

We knew that if we retired we would accumulate 15 minutes of Super Rally penalties, so the objective was to minimise the damage by losing less than that driving a broken car on the stages. With the wheel literally held on by a thread, we managed to lose only 4 minutes over the 3 stages, which wasn’t too bad, all considered. I must say it is a different sensation driving a car like that, with the back of the car having its own mind and not knowing when it is or isn’t going to snap out. It is even more interesting at 160 kph when it is moving all over the place!

So, despite not being the best of days, we are still here and, thanks to the great job the team did tonight repairing the car, we will be fighting fit tomorrow. We have dropped back to 7th PWRC, but a top 5 is realistic. Tomorrow the target is to set fast stage times on roads that are faster and more flowing than today. I’m looking forward to it and will keep you posted.

Hayden

Hi

Well, it has been a disappointing day here in Wales for us – something that has been becoming a little too frequent lately. Nevertheless, we are still in the rally, despite losing a lot of time cruising through the afternoon stages with broken rear suspension.

The rally started with a super special stage around the Cardiff Docks last night. After a few problems and unsettling moments prior to the start of the stage we did not set the best of times, but we were not at all concerned, as the real rally started today.

Having not done any testing in the car prior to the event, it was always going to be a little bit of an unknown as to how exactly the car would handle. But we knew this and were well prepared to fine tune as the day progressed.

Over the first two stages the car was quite difficult to drive, with a lot of under steer and constantly locking the front brakes, which created big push going into corners. With some small changes we were able to get things better in the 3rd stage and it was feeling good. To our surprise our times were still okay on the first two stages, even though there was a lot to come once we got the car dialled in. Unfortunately we didn’t get any more chances today, as half way through the third stage we hit a big rock in the driving line, which smashed a trailing arm on the rear suspension.

Without this arm the wheel assembly moves freely forward and back in the wheel arch, as well as forever changing its direction in and out under acceleration and deceleration. With only a remote service in the middle of the day, where we were allowed to use just the parts that we carry on the car, we could not fix it without a complete hub assembly. So we strapped it up with 2 tie straps.

We knew that if we retired we would accumulate 15 minutes of Super Rally penalties, so the objective was to minimise the damage by losing less than that driving a broken car on the stages. With the wheel literally held on by a thread, we managed to lose only 4 minutes over the 3 stages, which wasn’t too bad, all considered. I must say it is a different sensation driving a car like that, with the back of the car having its own mind and not knowing when it is or isn’t going to snap out. It is even more interesting at 160 kph when it is moving all over the place!

So, despite not being the best of days, we are still here and, thanks to the great job the team did tonight repairing the car, we will be fighting fit tomorrow. We have dropped back to 7th PWRC, but a top 5 is realistic. Tomorrow the target is to set fast stage times on roads that are faster and more flowing than today. I’m looking forward to it and will keep you posted.

Hayden

This article originally appeared on aprc.tv.

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