In the end, it was better to get rid of that and get something that was a bit more sensible on the costing, but that car has just been sold again to Guy Smith’s dad and he is going to go historic rallying with it.
When it comes to going rallying, it’s almost a case of forgetting everything you have learned on the track. I have very, very limited experience when it comes to competing in the forests, but the two big things for me as a circuit racer going rallying are the trees and the drops.
You go out on the Welsh stages and there are huge drops all over the place; some of the things are marked in the pace notes as being fresh air. I foolishly asked one of the other guys why they marked it fresh air and he replied by telling me that it was just a long way down! The next day, I virtually stopped at a point that was marked as fresh air and that was all there was – a drop of something like 300 feet.
Even on the Robin Hood, you are very close to a lot of trees and to be honest with you, I think it is something that a lot of circuit drivers should go and do as they often complain about the fact that the gravel trap isn’t quite right and things like that. Well even in my little Escort, you are doing something like 100mph down a track that isn’t much wider than the car and have trees a couple of feet either side of that. It focuses your mind that’s for sure!
I like the camaraderie of it all and I love the cars. I always lusted after a Mk II RS2000 when I was 17 or 18 as my best mate had one. It’s only taken me 30 years to get one myself! You do have to have a different approach when doing rallying and the experienced guys know when to push. That is something different for me as normally on a circuit, you are used to going flat out all the time, but on the rally stages you sometimes have to back off a little bit.
