2006 News...

Yesterday I had some more rally training at the Bill Gwynne Rally School on one of their full days courses. My instructor for the day was Rob Richens and I was to drive a rear wheeled drive mk2 Ford Escort. The day was split into 6 x 10 mins sessions and in each session we were expected to improve from the previous session with the last session being an assessment.

It took me a while to get used to the rally prepared mk2 Escort and in the 1st session I knocked a tyre down early on, which ended that session(the penalty for knocking a tyre down mentioned at the briefing was that the session is ended there and then). My 2nd session I used to compose myself again and get used to the car and the circuit. The 3rd, 4th and 5th sesions I gain more confidence and start to really enjoy driving the car around the gravel track. I was still having some problems getting one of the handbrake turn right, but I had learnt a great deal about rally driving.

The 6th and last session was the assessment where Rob didn't say anything. The 1st 3 laps went well and I got all the handbrake turns right and my lines into and out of the corners were good. On the 4th lap I went a bit wide on 1 of the hairpins, didn't react quick enough and ended up having to brake to miss the tyres(which I did just). Once I reversed out of the problem the remaining laps went well.

In the review at the end of the day Rob said I had done well for my age and complemented me on my lines on the circuit. He also said that I need to quicken my reactions to problems in the car which is something I can work on in the future.

You can see more photos of my day at the Bill Gwynne Rally School if you click here Rally Gallery, or to see a short video click here Rally Video.

Bye for now.