Richard and James Leggett Ypres Historic Regularity 2024
Richard and James’ round the world adventures in Alfa Romeos continues; this week its back to Belgium! The weekend of 22nd-24th November was the Ypres Historic Regularity Rally, with Dad and I back for a second year. This year the sole plan was to not come last and to focus on some improvements. Regularity rallying is based on average speeds, which change along the course of the route. The UK events require the use of average speed tables and on the fly mathematics to target arriving at controls on the correct second. In Belgium things are a little more serious. Crews use computers which they programme with speed changes, whilst waypoints are virtual using GPS and timing measured to 0.1 of a second. Learning from last year where we were the only team using speed tables, we invested in an app which I pre-programmed (twice – Normal and exceptional) before the event. All we had to do was keep exactly on time.
We cleared admin and scrutineering with relative ease – huge progress on last year that even afforded us time to clean the windows! Over the start podium at 6.38 pm and off in to the night. A scrappy night with the new technology, learning how to communicate with each other, but a lot of fun. The event started with two closed road sections, helmets donned and chipmunk mode activated. We arrived back over the podium at midnight to hilarity from the Irish crew, some naked Belgiums had stopped play! It turns out 60 rally cars outside bedroom windows isn’t appreciated, but the stoppage was only temporary. We also had the marathon stage – 45.133 km with 24 speed changes. The maximum lateness you can score is 2 minutes, the top crew lost 15 seconds…
Saturday morning and road book collection at 8.08, one of the advantages of being a long way down the field is you get a lie in! We gradually improved throughout the day, getting the hand of the tech, but no real dramas. On one section we were perfectly on time for the first time all day, only to see a clutch of ducklings considering crossing the road. As we approached they stepped out to a slow motion ‘nooooooo!!’ from us simultaneously. We didn’t hit any but lost 3 seconds! The last stage of the day and we arrived to most of the other cars waiting at the start. A protester was blocking the start of the stage. Three police cars later, the protestor was removed and timing for that section scrapped, however we had to drive the route to stay on the road book. 40 rally cars were unleashed flying round some Flemish back lanes at high speed! A long drive back to Ypres and our only penalty of the weekend for getting back five minutes early, but when you’re almost last anyway you may as well get home!
Sunday morning and an early start, but running third from last meant a considerable lie in compared to others. We noticed the occasional puff of smoke from the Alfa and a hot start misfire. By mid-morning she was running hot, and getting harder and harder keep cool. The final stage of the event we decided we would drive round carefully to get to the end, but of course 1 minute in and we were already back on the case of keeping time. The expansion chamber was full so there was no way to add the 20 year old can of head gasket repair, so we made our way home and over the podium for the final time, finishing the event. We tried some new timing tricks on Sunday morning, only to realise how we should have been playing the game in the first instance, but still nowhere near the other crews – a perfect example is where we had 1m03 penalties and the next closest crew had 0m 28… We’ve some work to do to get anywhere near that…
50/52 finishers, 63 starters. NOT LAST!
The question for me is do we go back next year? We had a great time, made some great memories with new friends, but the quality of the competition is leagues ahead of us. On the 5km shake down stage the top crew lost 0.7seconds. We’re not in that league. But we also only do one event like this a year, so we’re not even really trying. I’ve found some much better tech and dad is working car improvements, but I feel its only worth going back if we do some practice.
Knutsford Targa 17/11/24 by Jack Mason
33rd overall out of 60
4th in Class (Novice up to 2 litre)
2nd in Novice Class under 1400cc
(No wrong tests, cones or penalties all day)
A trip up north to Parkwood Outdoor Centre near Bradford saw Ben Benford and I compete in the Knutsford Targa.
It was an event that I was really looking forward to as it was my first gravel Targa, as well as the first event with Ben navigating for me. Seeded car 55th out of 60 overall & the Novice Class (up to 2000cc) which was 12 cars in total. It was an improvement from last weekend running last on the road at Rushmoor.
With 7 tests in total it was a great day getting to grips with gravel in the Proton as well as finding the rhythm with Ben guiding us round!
Test 1 was 0.7 miles which was great to a get a feel for the test layouts, venue & grip levels! Test 1 put us up to 43rd overall.
Test 2&3 were a couple of miles a piece and all went really well, getting more used to the gravel and tests we pushed up to 34th overall & 4th in the novice class.
Test 4,5,6 also were a mix of long and short tests, made interesting by the heavens opening and making the grip levels disappear. Leaving passage controls was probably our biggest loss of time throughout the day! Post test 4-6 we were sat 35th overall & 4th in class, behind a 2.0 Escort.
As the darkness set in whilst we waited for the final Test we pulled onto the start line in the pitch black. We pushed hard for the 3.2 mile final test and didn’t leave much on the table. Our efforts on the last test were repaid by jumping up 2 more rungs on the leaderboard finishing 33rd overall beating a fair few 1400,1600 & a couple of 2000cc cars was the cherry on the top 
We couldn’t have asked for a better first event on gravel with Ben in the passenger seat! We will definitely be back in 2025 as well as maybe entering the BTRDA Goldstar Targa Championship next year!
Wydean Stages 16/11/24 by Chris Lear
Experienced the trials and tribulations of rallying on this year’s Wyedean Rally. SS1 (Speech House) went pretty well considering Ross Clements and I hadn’t been on gravel since October 2023 and that was the only previous time we had used the Sierra XR4x4 in competition too. Looking at the times, SS2 went even better. Only had a couple of small issues to fix in first service (cooling fan fuse blowing/slipping power steering belt). All ably fixed by Edward James, Nick Wilkins and Steve Pedlingham. Back out to SS3. Another decent run but we did dislodged the exhaust guard so we’re very noisy dragging it around the second half of that stage. Sadly SS4 (another run through Speech House) was cancelled for us due to an accident (hope the crew involved are OK) so it was off back to service. On the way the dragging guard exited stage left. No further issues until we arrived at the Service time control. Whilst waiting we suddenly gained a misfire. Drove up to the service area and whilst manoeuvring into our spot, smoke erupted form under the bonnet. We were on fire! Thanks to Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert Dibble and Grubb (you know who you are) it was extinguished. Thank goodness a firestick is as good as the marketing for them says! A split power steering hose was the culprit. Thanks to Edward James, Nick Wilkins, Steve Pedlingham, Grant Victory, Mike Watson and probably a few others I’ve forgotten for all your help.
Video courtesy of Special Stage Rally Video
Wydean Stages Marshalling by Malcolm Richards
Rushmoor Targa 10/11/24 Jack Mason
RDCC Treasure hunt round 1 organised by Wendy & Russ
Results for the EJM Preparation Treasure Hunt – Round One
1st – David Fletcher and Chloe Browning
2nd – Jack Mason and Charlie Mason
3rd – Stephen and Emily Wild
4th – Mart Thomas and Ben Benson
5th – Martyn English and James Leggett
6th – David Hall and Simon Attreed
7th – Miles Chamberlain and Lisa Parry (who managed to not use a printed map for the first time!) 🙂
Prescott Party Autosolo October 2024 by Dave Hall
This year I’ve been trying to fit a few Autosolos in around family life, including the two Redditch and District Car Club run events at Shenington Kart Track earlier this year, along with a BTRDA championship round at Kemble Airfield in my Vauxhall Chevette.
Last weekend I competed in the inaugural Prescott Party Autosolo, organised by neighbouring club Sixty & Worcestershire and held at Prescott Speed Hillclimb Course. The event used the car park and paddock area along with the surrounding network of steep and narrow access roads.
Sunday dawned bright and sunny, and there was a decent entry of 38 cars and drivers including a few juniors and novices. It was the first use of this venue for an Autosolo since 2020 and the organisers were treating it as a test event. As such, the number of course layouts was limited to three. Competitors were given four runs at each layout with the time for the worst attempt at each being dropped.
On walking the course for the first test the proximity of various large kerbs, trees and grass banks became apparent, and several competitors almost slipped over on the shiny tarmac surface, which was helpfully covered in wet autumn leaves and moss.
However, a steady first run confirmed that there was at least some grip in places. Pushing harder on runs two and three resulted in sideways moments up the previously mentioned grass banking! Surprisingly for me my times were ok, sitting in 12th overall with the nature of the tests probably suiting the Chevette better than the usual pack of MX5s.
The second test layout was a slight variation on the first, and the surface had dried slightly. Unfortunately a cone got in the way of the rear quarter panel of the Chevette on my quickest run, and a half spin on my last run resulted in no further improvement up the leaderboard.
The final test layout was much more open, and my times were closer to the leaders, with my best of run of 35.0secs being only 0.6secs off the fastest time. However, it was too little too late, and 10th O/A was the end result.
Fastest time of the day went to a rapid Dave Fooks in his Ford Puma, with Andy Thompson 2nd in a classic Mini, and Mike Lear 3rd in an MX5.
As a future venue there is a lot of potential for other course layouts and the steep elevation changes added a slightly different challenge compared to the more common airfield events. Hopefully a return date can be negotiated within Prescott’s busy schedule for next season.
Next job for me is to get the Chevette ready for night events to use for the EJM Preparation Treasure Hunt Navigation series, and then hopefully a few Targa rallies at the start of 2025.
Rallying History Historic Rally Festival 2024 by Russ Mason
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