Castle Combe 18th Sept Rally Day-anybody there?

[Jon Doe]

Ok, so there was a thread about the last action day last week- so here is a thread for this weeks day which was rally day.

http://www.rallyday.com/

I only made the last part of the day, so my review will be nothing short of useless.
There was a DB9 lapping very quickly, pretty quietly and smoothly.

In last weeks thread I mentioned seeing this http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomdaniels/4987461916... lapping pretty quickly.
It was out again today and one session was spent in a dual with another similar Evo thing with some green on it, to which it lost.

Anyway, last week I seemed to face in the right direction to see crashes, this week I did the opposite, missing an 'off' for the dangerously silly old Subaru thta cut accross the grass at quarry and also the car which ended up on it roof at 'the esses' 10 mins later.

This was cleared up and what seemed like a final session started. I walked back towards quarry- the Evo with the green was out again, so I watched it round quarry, the speed difference between this and other things in front was pretty huge. Just in front was some sort of Peugeot, it had lost control coming out of quarry and was coming from the outside of the exit of the bend, heading towards the centre of the track (left to right), steering locked full left (trying to correct)... the closing speed of the evo was too much, it had done a swerve right (as it has out of quarry before, while overtakeing slower stuff) but hadn't accounted for the sideways pug. They hit each other pretty much parralel the evo headed in a straight line for the grass, the pug to the other side of the track. The pug driver was kind of trapped as his door was buckled, the Evo became a more animated area. The Evo driver (and I will be the king of understatement here) waved in the direction of the pug in some amount of distress, made contact with his own car several times using his foot, removed his helmet and gloves and placed them on the ground from shoulder height and then continued to move his arms around to emit his feelings in a physical fashion.

There was a large apparent (assumed) price difference between the cars, so the initial feeling was 'ouch' towards the altered state of the Evo. It must be frustrating to find somebody out of control making friends with your car unexpectedly. Then my thoughts came back to the threads of last week about appaling driving and drivers breifings. These, mostly about the action days at Castle Combe being a free for all and this was pretty hectic and no exception. On one hand the Evo guy must be thinking FFS but on the other hand, were there no rules for the sessions? I had seen people overtake on the right and other cars indicate left to show they were pulling over. Although the Evo was overtaking on the right, the Pug wasnt ready for the manoever and cant have even thought of letting the Evo past.

No doubt the pictures of the aftermath will be up at some point. For me, this is the first car on car contact during a track session (apart from the drift demonstration last week, but the cars never pointed in a straight line, so it doesn't count).

Would love to hear about the rest of the day and if anybody caught how that car managed to flip near the end!

[joe_90]

I drove past today (off shopping) and was going to pop in on the way back, but got side tracked. Is that green evo owned by Norris designs? I think he is known for his Combe crashes. I may be wrong, but im sure I have seen a green evo on a trailer behind a Norris Designed van..

Looks like me and the kids missed some entertainment..

[Jon Doe]

Hmm, most people had either left or were queueing to get out by the time this happened.

Not much if any sponsership on the car. It was (from memory##++??) Mainly white with green bits on it.

[stumpsterben]

hello there i was stood on the exit of quarry when this crash happened. basically it was the same problem as what many people have complained about before, the diffrence in performance/skill on the track at the same time. the 2 cars involved were a black/pink peugeot 205 and a white/green evo 8/9. from watching all day (and other days/tracks) the bloke driving the evo is a pretty good driver and very quick. there were none of the usual "no over taking" signs out on the track so from what i could see it was as if it was a race. the women driving the 205 came into quarry and went straight into majour understeer and did preety much the whole of quarry on the outside of the track on full lock with the tyres squeeling like f*** when she got just past the rumble strips on the exit of quarry it started to grip and shoot across the track straight into the path of another 205 and the white/green evo. the 205 infront of the evo managed to swerve and miss the out of control 205 but the evo had no where to go other then the door of the sideways 205. the evo did brake but it wasnt going to make any diffrence as he was in full flight with the turbo fully spooled up (so no idea how quick he was going but at a guess anywhere between 80/100). the evos front passenger wheel locked solid and the front corner off the car looked like it collapsed on the floor and he just slide in a straight line onto the grass dunno what the majour damage was but from what i could see the bumper/bonnet/wing/and wheel were all smashed. the 205 carried on down the track a little bit weaving about before spinning 180 and coming to a stop just off the tyre wall halfway up the straight. i ran up there to get a better look. when i got there (which was like 5 mins before any marshall :S) i could see a women sat awkwardly in the drivers seat on the phone :S with the door and roll cage all bent in ontop of her. when the marshalls eventually showed up they were in and around the car trying to lift her out after a few mins they managed to get her out the passengers side. she was taken into the back of an ambulance holding her arm, looking very white and lost and really upset. the 205 was proper bent dunno if it will be rebuilt or if it was too much of a bannana. the evo didnt look too bad but thats just from the cosmetics side of things. the evo isnt norris's ( i dont think) i think its a privatly owned car which has had most of its work done at norris designs. as an over all summary i dont no who was at fault really as both were in diffrent ways i think mainly its the fact that there were people on the track with all diffrent driver abilitys and performance cars and the lack of rules for an action day. i could be wrong with some of the things ive said but im just saying what i saw and what ive seen of the cars/drivers from other days.

Edited by stumpsterben on Sunday 19th September 21:51

Edited by stumpsterben on Sunday 19th September 21:54

[Jon Doe]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/damaged23/5003744429/

[Matt_N]

Oh dear, I kind of know the driver of the white Evo through a mate.

The owner is friendly with Simon Norris, a well known tuner of Evos and as such has quite a lot of trick bits on it.

The car is very quick and very well set up, it's on a par with the cars that race in the series at Combe.

[RPM1200]

Some more photos from the day here if anyone's interested:
http://will-belcher.co.uk/index.php/2010/09/rally-...