Glassfibre step Ladders: Hewitt Ladders Rally car at Rockingham Stages 2010 Report

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Rockingham Stages 4th & 5th December 2010
Peugeot 205 XS - Car 70
Driver: Paul Daniels, Co-Driver: Steve Whitehorn

I guess Rockingham is an event we are going to find very difficult to forget. The Thursday morning prior to the rally, we were waiting for confirmation that it was actually taking place! Confirmation was received, with a note that the service area had been moved to the Inner Paddock, and no spectators were allowed.
We arrived on Saturday to a race circuit that had been completely covered in snow. We followed the road to the Inner Paddock to find the conditions only slightly better, all crews out with shovels to clear the way for the rally cars. We got the car ready and took it through scrutineering. Drivers Briefing followed, where we were told that new stage maps had to be drawn at the 11th hour, which (credit to the organisers) they did very well. After the warnings of ice and slush (especially where the track never sees sunlight!), we headed back to the car and waited for stage 1 to begin.
Stages 1 & 2 were relatively short, but gave all drivers a feel for the lack of grip. The forest tyres we had bought shortly before the event paid off, although not giving us much grip, they made the car predictable when it started to slide. Fortunately, we had plenty of cars in front carve up the slush for us, and the results made for interesting reading as we jumped up to 30th overall!
We switched to some full wets for stages 3 & 4 on a different map, and despite reducing tyre pressures, we just couldn't get any grip out of them. Stage 5 was to be run at night, and was on a new map. After identifying a number of areas of the route that hadn't been driven on yet, we opted to go back on the forest tyres. This proved to be an excellent choice as we made a good run, although I had to point out where the corners were as well as calling them since Paul simply couldn't see them coming! Again, the tyres gave us a predictable car and we put in a respectable time. We reflected on a good day's rallying, and put the car, and ourselves, to bed.
Day 2 arrived with stages 6 & 7 to be run on the same map as stage 5. The slush and ice had cleared quite a bit, so we opted to get the intermediate tyres cut a bit more and use them. We collected a couple of pirhouettes on the first run, put down to trying a bit too hard, but made an improved run on the following stage.
Another map for stages 8 & 9, and change again for stages 10 & 11. The car performed superbly in the gradually improving conditions, and after retirement of a fellow competitor, we finished 3rd in class.

All in all a great weekend of rallying. Massive credit to the organisers - Middlesex County Automobile Club and Thame Motorsport Club, without their efforts the event would have been cancelled. And a big thanks as usual go to our service crew, regulars Pete Whitehorn and Kyle Abell, backed up by Big Andy. Also our sponsors Hewitt Ladders Ltd

Steve Whitehorn, Co-Driver