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David Appleby Engineering Azminghur Stages - Saturday 14th Julye 2007 Julian Jones / David Hackett It all started at very early 4am in the morning, Wakes up and gets the Bacon in the frying pan with a big mug of hot coffee, to kick start me into gear, as all I wanted to do was go back to bed and sleep more. I had spoken to Stuart Woodier the night before who had so nicely said he would drive to the event and I had arranged to be at his front door for 4:45am. 4:45 came round very fast and I left my house to walk next door to knock on his door expecting him to be ready. But as normal he was running behind time by about 10mins. So I load the car up and got everything ready to go. We left the house about 5:00am not to bad with plenty of time to get to the stages. When we got on to the M5 at J6 I gave Julian a call to see how far in front he was, He then told me that he had just past Junction 13, at which I told Stuart and he got his foot down to try and catch them up, With about 60mile between us there was no chance of us catching up with them before getting to the Airfield. We arrived at Colern Airfield at 6am Julian only being there 15mins before us. We then had a 45min wait to be allowed into the Airfield to get ready for the days fun and games. We got into the service area and got set up next to our fellow rallying comrades Andrew Graham with Peter Brennan Co-Driving in car 22. And Richard Davies with Gareth Wilcox Co-driving in car 63 Went off to Scrutineering which we past with no trouble at all and got signed on. With the Weather still drizzling a little for the 1st stage we selected a wet tyre, as there was no hint of it letting up and drying out fast, and the tarmac seamed to hold a lot of water where we was service so we expected the same all the way around. With it being my 1st time at the event I said to Julian that the distances that I call will be a little hit and miss for the 1st stage and just edge our bets on the safe side. Which he was very understanding of. Sat on the Start line the light lit, 15seconds, 10seconds, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, GO! We came off the start line with a bit off wheel spin trying to get some heat into the tyres with the tarmac being so slippery. We had a pretty trouble free run, just a few adjustments in the notes for the next time out, setting a 6.55 stage time With the tarmac drying out, we swapped the wet tyres for a dry compound for the 2nd stage as there was a dry line forming around the airfield. We pulled up to the start line for stage 2 hoping for more of the run we had on the 1st stage. We pulled off the line where a sure dry line had appeared, We went off charging in to the 1st chicane knowing this time where it was hiding. We got round that no problem, everything feeling fine. Next came a long very fast 3 left opens, which Julian took with amazing speed, which sent us flying down a very long straight into a square right chicane, But for some strange reason the car went very sideways under braking which was very out of the norm for Julian to do. But Julian and his lighting reactions caught the slide and got the car back under control and round the chicane. No more time was spent worrying about that, we had a job to do and that was to set another fast time.  Next came more Chicanes which lead us into a long straight with a bump which through the car into the air. After the jump was a Hairpin Left but on the exit of the corner the car went very sideways, again Julian caught the slide and at which point shouts to me that we had a punchure. At this point we were not even half way around the stage. I asked if he wanted to stop and change it, to his reply was we will have to. We pulled the car over as far to the left as possible and got the car up on the jack. By the time the jack was up to its height the flat tyre was off and Julian was putting the new inflated one back on. I strapped the flat one back in ready to shoot off as soon as the nuts where tight. Julian was tighten the 1st nut up as I got back to the jack, and said “tell me when u have the 1st  2 nuts tight”  Just as the 1st nut was tightened the car rolled forward and fell off the jack ! (Thank lord for that one nut holding) to which Julian replied “When!” he finished putting the other nuts on and we jumped in and took off, in all dropping around 4minutes to change the wheel. The rest of the stage went without fault and set a time 3 1/2 seconds slower than before. The mood in the service area was a little low after that stage but now was a perfect opportunity for Julian to spend some time getting used to his new shinny sequential gearbox. Then next 3 stages went with out a hitch, with myself making sure to call the splits loud and clear to avoid any more dropped time. To which Julian was consistently setting top 10 stage times, just proving to ourselves that we can run up the top of the board if we can just have a good run. Then stage 6 came, another nice stage with only one split in. (Nice and easy for me) Started the stage and did our first loop ready to split off on our next pass when bad luck struck again about 1 ½  miles from the finish. We came out of a hairpin right when a loud roar was heard from underneath the car. I thought the exhaust had some how come apart. (How wrong I was) Julian said nothing and tried to get the car back to service with out dropping much time. The noise only appeared at high revs which was very strange if it was the exhaust.  The final split was in sight when "bang". Whatever was causing the noise let go and broke. We rolled the car to within 100 metres of the finish to which we had to pull over and stop the car as there was a lot of dust and grit flying into the car. To which Julian said “we are out of the event now”  Upon inspection the prop shaft had snapped. What had caused it to do so we could not figure out. The gearbox went through all and the diff was still rolling but the prop shaft had snapped in the middle of a single piece shaft. Very strange indeed. The only conclusion could be that the engine gearbox and diff are all stronger and the shear torque of the engine and the grip of the tyres on the very smooth tarmac caused it to snap. But on a whole the event was very good and I enjoyed the stages a lot. Could just do with a few more extra gears going down some of the long fast straights. But I would definately go back. Good stage mileage for the cost. Nice to see a club not stinging the competitor for a nice event. Report presented by David Hackett - Pictures by Rally Action Photography