I guess all the crews will have found their way home from the Rally of the Tests finish near Bristol by now. So, in brief...

  • A wonderful performance from Dan & Martyn in Simon Frost's PV544: taking 2nd overall
    • Simon & I prep'd the car some years ago, so it's all Amazon Cars suspension and my engine
    • More recently Kevin Savage has been prep'ing it with Dan's assistance...
    • ...and on that note, Kevin Savage prep'd a host of the top runners in this event
  • So, looking at the top twenty (and there were plenty of other excellent performances from Volvo crews if you look at the results), I see that it was just seconds separating the crews, it was all very tight indeed at the head of the field where 5s would make a big difference.
    • 4th: Dermot & Paul in the 544
    • 9th: Noel & Pete in the Amazon
    • 10th: Andy & Richard in the Amazon
    • 11th: Paul & Amy in the Amazon (no alternator on the last afternoon!): winning the Best Lady Navigator award, a superb result against top class navigators like Elise Whyte
    • 14th: Drexel & Bart in the Amazon
    • 17th: Gareth & myself in the Amazon
  • So, what of the Henchoz'?
    • Paul & I started well on Thursday night, and pretty much maintained our standing throughout - my best performance on RotT (this was my fifth in fact).
      Guy W had woven his magic on the last day: we missed the penultimate timing point of the last regularity - just as I was telling myself not to relax! I knew that the entrance into the field was opposite the second set of buildings on the R, and still chose to enter at the first set - then didn't comprehend why the expected hairpin left didn't actually exist. Eh, well...
      Also, having queried two Wrong Tests earlier in the event (they were both judged in our favour pleasingly), I then called a wrong test on Sunday morning - and definitely did NOT query that one!
      As for the car, the manifold had completed cracked forward of the flange mate to the exhaust (probably after hitting something very heavy in Caerwent on Saturday night) the sweep crews cobbled it together so that it couldn't drop off completely and Gareth says "we'll take it easy on the tests" - do you suppose we did? No, Gareth was still maximum attack thankfully!
    • Amy had a disconcerting start on Thursday night, lying 55th on the road at Friday's start line.
      Then she and Paul inexorably climbed their way back up the standings to 9th overall on Sunday lunch, at which point the alternator parted company with the engine so they tootled around the 4 remaining tests to guarantee a finish.
      That dropped them back down the results to 11th.

Altogether a very sociable outing, and a delight to see old faces, and meet many new ones also. Both Paul and Gareth are considering entering the Legs of Mann, with a Henchoz in their passenger seats...

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