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Rally Of The Midlands - Friday 22nd, Saturday 23rd & Sunday 24th June 2007 Sian Tidley / Hywel Tidley June 2006 (no thats not a typing error) whilst we all marshalled at Higham stage the discussion amongst Sian and Hywel was how we really ought to bite the bullet and get  a rally car and do this event in 2007. Well June 2007 arrived  and so did We! Our Peugeot 205 1600 stage car was on its fourth outing since purchasing it from S.Wales . Our previous run out in May on the White dials stages at Wilbarston left us with dented ego’s after spinning of in style and hitting a tree! A couple of weeks work bashing and spannering in preparation for R of M meant that we were ready to roll off the start line on Friday evening along with some 70+  other crews.  Sian was looking forward to the event and I also was looking forward to co driving in what would be my first  multi venue event for approx 20 years. Our strategy was to enter , enjoy and finish! We were less concerned about where we finished rather than worry about a class 1,2 or 3 we decided to settle into the event and learn from the experience. Well our first stage at Argents Mead saw us drive a perfect stage Hand braking the hairpins perfectly , Sian not putting a foot wrong . We completed the stage in 38 seconds tying with a number of other fast  cars. Saturday dawned overcast and we entered auxilary service unsure about tyre choices. The weather forecast was pretty unhelpful and as we would not be back in service until mid day we decided that tyre selection would be critical. Having chosen to run on our trusty Matador moulded slicks off we set. Sian was a little nervous on arrival at Higham , although having marshalled at this location we had never driven it before. “The Killing Fields” was a reference we had heard ( cars not people) and this did nothing to give us more confidence. Stage 2, we ran at max less 10% just to get a feel for the place. Awesome is a word I would use to describe it. Others may have different views of course, but I thought the stage was brilliant. Lots of technical sections, adverse camber, different surfaces etc, all providing a good challenge. The stage being nearly 20 miles long allowed Sian and myself to get into a good rhythm . Me reading off notes and Sian gaining confidence with every mile she drove. We completed Higham in a comfortable 19.32 and proceeded to  service at Hinckley where only tyre and level checks were needed the car running so far without a hitch. Then off to Mallory  to stage 3 and 4. Mallory was good, short tight and plenty of chicanes to keep you on your toes. We missed the tyre walls and completed both stages , giving us an overall 38th position , not bad when we started at 55. Back over to Higham and after a tight road section ( missed turning on route!) we arrived at the time control with seconds to spare. Higham 2 was a slightly different layout and suited us well, we ran through the stage with only one minor overshoot on a hairpin and completed the stage in 17.02  having witnessed a number of front running cars broken down on stage. Back over to Mallory for more fun and a clean run through both stages saw us return to Higham 3 in 33rd position overall. Our plan was coming together and we were climbing the leader board slowly and reassuringly. Sian was now showing a good turn of speed and only the long straights at Higham were making us realise that a 1600 205 is not really suited to this type of stage. Back into service at the end of a long day saw us in 33rd position overall. Sunday dawned cloudy and with a real threat of rain we  were glad that we had selected intermediate tyres for our Sunday run out. Merevale was brilliant , although short it gave us the chance to show how good the little 205 is on short twisty stages. Sian drove very well and after the two runs through we still held 33rd overall. The rain then came down and cars were starting to spin off at Bramcote. Not a stage for high horsepower rally cars ( unless having 4 wheel drive) the mixture of surfaces caught a good few out including A golf which embedded itself in the perimeter fencing and which , as a result had an interesting rear wheel toe setting, probably about 45’ toe out!! Arbury was very good , again like Merevale short and technical with the infamous canal bridge of course, Sian got a little “air” although she was under strict team orders not to break anything ! Unfortunately run two through  Arbury was cancelled owing to an off by car 101 Mark Gamble/ Stephen Link in a Citroen C2. Back into service we discovered that our cooling fans were no longer working so a hasty rewire by Hiedi ( chief mechanic)  saw us  with one fan working on a manual overide switch. The rain continued and once back out we were running through Merevale in reverse. This time through we noticed how much more slippery some of the corners were where previous cars had run wide or cut and dragged mud onto the road. One hairy moment saw us go through a cattle grid/ gate a bit more sideways than perhaps we should of , but no damage and no harm done!  Second run through we noticed that there didn’t appear to be any gate posts left at the flying finsh so we put 2 and 2 together and guessed that the 205 stuck on the grass verge at stage finish just might have  had a little coming together with said post(s)! Back to Arbury , stage 19 for the final time and our run through was stopped prematurely by a broken cattle grid just before the canal bridge , we had a good run through first time and stage was cancelled for the second  run. This left us slightly disappointed as we think we were on for a really good time through the last stage, the plan was to give it all as it was the last stage , never mind, we all drove through the stage together in convoy  due to aforementioned broken grid. Returning to Nuneaton we were delighted to learn that we finished the event a 30th overall and 5th in class. So we had achieved our aims, firstly to actually compete on the event and secondly to finish the whole event. Our sincere thanks to our Service crew :- Mary, Heidi, Kev, John, Ben and Callum, guys we couldn’t do this without you !!!! Thanks  also of course , to the organisers, marshals and fellow competitors for a great event we will be back next year FOR SURE !!!!! Sian and Hywel Tidley Car 55 Report presented by Hywel Tidley - Pictures by Rally Action Photography