Severe gearbox problems and an off could not prevent the
Rally2Raise team of Rachel Clark and Caroline Lodge from finishing the Speyside
Stages rally last weekend.
The drama started almost immediately for the team in stage
1, Teindland. Their E.Watson and Son,
Pirelli, AW Motorsport and McPherson Document Solutions-supported Nissan Micra
1300 hit a rut which bent the sumpguard and forced it into the gear linkage
resulting in the loss of fifth and reverse gears and a third gear which was
extremely difficult to engage.
The car was nursed through the next two stages before a
service halt at Huntly where the Clark Motorsport crew of Barry and Archie set
about repairing it sufficiently for it to continue in the rally.
“The rally did not get off to a good start for us,” said
Rachel. “We hit the rut with a fair bit of force. With the gear linkage damaged
I didn’t think we’d make it through the next two stages before service but we
did and the service crew did a great job to allow us to continue.”
The crew completed stage 4, Gartly, with no further problems
and headed to stages 5 and 6, two stages which shared the same start line but
which split after a few miles. The girls’ rally almost came to an end in stage
6 as the Micra slid off the road into a ditch. Fortunately some spectators were
on hand to push the car back onto the road.
After another service halt the rally was completed with
three more stages. These were successfully negotiated and the team headed to
the event finish in Elgin city centre.
“The Gartly stage was absolutely fantastic, it’s my new
favourite stage. Stage 5 was ok but we were very lucky that there were some
spectators nearby in stage 6 otherwise we would not have got out of the ditch, huge
thanks to them for helping us.”
“I was very happy to get to the finish. It was a tough event
for us, the dust and heat made the inside of the car like the Sahara at some
points. It’s disappointing that the gearbox problems meant we couldn’t go as
quickly as we’d have liked but we made it to the end when many crews didn’t and
we were 65th which isn’t too bad from a start position of 97. Thanks
to Caroline for a superb job on the notes, thanks to Barry and Archie for
servicing, thanks to the 63 Car Club for a brilliant event and thanks to all
our sponsors for their support. ”
The team are hoping to contest the Merrick Stages in September
as their next event. Please visit www.rally2raise.co.uk or www.facebook.com/rally2raise for
more information about the Rally2Raise project which is supporting the Nystagmus
Network and Bottle Stop in 2013.
