Lombard RAC Rally 2005 - This week!
Discussion
www.endurorally.com/extra7.html
I'm planning to be out and about with the cameras at Wollaton Park in Nottingham on the Friday PM/Evening - anybody want to join me?
More to the point, can anyone remember the 1985 Lombard RAC route through the Park? I'd like to be in position at a good photo location (bearing in mind it will be dark if the times I have seen are correct - hmm, batteries for the flash units) before the cars start to arrive.
Here's a press release.
LOMBARD REVIVAL RALLY SETS NEW STANDARDS
The 2nd Lombard Revival Rally is flagged away from Cowley,
Oxford, on Thursday night, for the start of four demanding
days and nights with an authentic route which revives the
traditional spirit of the Lombard RAC Rally.
Nearly 140 entries, all built to the new 1400cc Formula
launched recently by the Motor Sports Association (the UK
governing body), underline the growing popularity for what
is the only totally fresh initiative in recent years for
Britain's rally scene.
A total of 38 crews are wearing distinctive red door
numbers as past competitors of the original Lombard
rallies. They include former winner Neil Wilson, driving
his own Ford Puma, who won in 1985 as co-driver alongside
Henri Toivonen; and Britain's oldest rally regular,
78-year-old Willy Cave. "You should never give up, and you
are never too old; one day I will win this event," says the
man who was in the Standard Pennant team with Paddy Hopkirk
when they finished third overall in 1954.
The youngest competitor is 14-year-old Robert Lloyd,
navigating his father in a Volvo which cost £300, probably
the cheapest rally car in the line-up.
They all face a gruelling 1,200 miles around the UK, with
12-hour days. "This could not be more different from the
World Championship rallies of today," says Neil Wilson. "We
do our own servicing, we have no advance practice, no
pacenotes, and we get 52 off-road venues, timed to the
second, including famous forests, country parks, hillclimbs,
circuits, every kind of surface, night after day, day after
night. . . The atmosphere is brilliant, just like the
Lombards of old."
Cars set out on the Abingdon Circuit prologue on Thursday
14 November; on Friday, they drive via Silverstone to
Nottingham, where at 16.30 - just as darkness falls -
drivers face an authentic re-enactment of the city-centre
Wollaton Park stage from the 1985 road-book, before ending
the night several hours later at Chester. Leg three leaves
Chester on Saturday and heads via Radnor Forest to end the
day in the Forest of Dean and Caerwent before the rest halt
at Newport. On Sunday, the final leg, there are no fewer
than 19 venues, including Esgair Dafyd, Eppynt and Sweet
Lamb, before finishing at the Great Orme in Llandudno.
Several manufacturers are supporting cars, this new
Endurance Rally formula being the only branch of the modern
British club scene to attract factory interest. Mercedes
are supporting an A-Class, one of the more unsual entrants,
with Vauxhall, Daihatsu and Suzuki also involved. Britain's
local motor clubs and nearly 1,000 marshals form the
backbone of the event organisation, which has been steered
by the Endurance Rally Association.
"We are delighted to be back," says Neil Edwards of Lombard,
"and every car is a clubman. The winning names go onto the
original trophies alongside Carlos Sainz from 1983; we are
just picking up where we left off in every respect, with a
concept that is bang up to date, with all cars
environmentally friendly and all cars we can identity with,
in showroom standard condition. It will be highly
competitive, with every car on the same Colway tyres, and
everyone on much the same horsepower. Something unique and
rather special in British rallying is now unfolding."
The Lombard Revival Rally is supported by Colway Motorsport
Tyres.
For more information, including a full entry list, route
and photographs, please visit www.endurorally.com
or contact:
The Endurance Rally Association
5, Ashbrook Mews
Westbrook Street
Blewbury
Oxon OX11 9QA
T: 01235 851291
F: 01235 851292
E: mail@endurorally.com
I'm planning to be out and about with the cameras at Wollaton Park in Nottingham on the Friday PM/Evening - anybody want to join me?
More to the point, can anyone remember the 1985 Lombard RAC route through the Park? I'd like to be in position at a good photo location (bearing in mind it will be dark if the times I have seen are correct - hmm, batteries for the flash units) before the cars start to arrive.
Here's a press release.
LOMBARD REVIVAL RALLY SETS NEW STANDARDS
The 2nd Lombard Revival Rally is flagged away from Cowley,
Oxford, on Thursday night, for the start of four demanding
days and nights with an authentic route which revives the
traditional spirit of the Lombard RAC Rally.
Nearly 140 entries, all built to the new 1400cc Formula
launched recently by the Motor Sports Association (the UK
governing body), underline the growing popularity for what
is the only totally fresh initiative in recent years for
Britain's rally scene.
A total of 38 crews are wearing distinctive red door
numbers as past competitors of the original Lombard
rallies. They include former winner Neil Wilson, driving
his own Ford Puma, who won in 1985 as co-driver alongside
Henri Toivonen; and Britain's oldest rally regular,
78-year-old Willy Cave. "You should never give up, and you
are never too old; one day I will win this event," says the
man who was in the Standard Pennant team with Paddy Hopkirk
when they finished third overall in 1954.
The youngest competitor is 14-year-old Robert Lloyd,
navigating his father in a Volvo which cost £300, probably
the cheapest rally car in the line-up.
They all face a gruelling 1,200 miles around the UK, with
12-hour days. "This could not be more different from the
World Championship rallies of today," says Neil Wilson. "We
do our own servicing, we have no advance practice, no
pacenotes, and we get 52 off-road venues, timed to the
second, including famous forests, country parks, hillclimbs,
circuits, every kind of surface, night after day, day after
night. . . The atmosphere is brilliant, just like the
Lombards of old."
Cars set out on the Abingdon Circuit prologue on Thursday
14 November; on Friday, they drive via Silverstone to
Nottingham, where at 16.30 - just as darkness falls -
drivers face an authentic re-enactment of the city-centre
Wollaton Park stage from the 1985 road-book, before ending
the night several hours later at Chester. Leg three leaves
Chester on Saturday and heads via Radnor Forest to end the
day in the Forest of Dean and Caerwent before the rest halt
at Newport. On Sunday, the final leg, there are no fewer
than 19 venues, including Esgair Dafyd, Eppynt and Sweet
Lamb, before finishing at the Great Orme in Llandudno.
Several manufacturers are supporting cars, this new
Endurance Rally formula being the only branch of the modern
British club scene to attract factory interest. Mercedes
are supporting an A-Class, one of the more unsual entrants,
with Vauxhall, Daihatsu and Suzuki also involved. Britain's
local motor clubs and nearly 1,000 marshals form the
backbone of the event organisation, which has been steered
by the Endurance Rally Association.
"We are delighted to be back," says Neil Edwards of Lombard,
"and every car is a clubman. The winning names go onto the
original trophies alongside Carlos Sainz from 1983; we are
just picking up where we left off in every respect, with a
concept that is bang up to date, with all cars
environmentally friendly and all cars we can identity with,
in showroom standard condition. It will be highly
competitive, with every car on the same Colway tyres, and
everyone on much the same horsepower. Something unique and
rather special in British rallying is now unfolding."
The Lombard Revival Rally is supported by Colway Motorsport
Tyres.
For more information, including a full entry list, route
and photographs, please visit www.endurorally.com
or contact:
The Endurance Rally Association
5, Ashbrook Mews
Westbrook Street
Blewbury
Oxon OX11 9QA
T: 01235 851291
F: 01235 851292
E: mail@endurorally.com
grahamdance said:
Give me a wave, I'm navigating for Jamie Turner in car 47, a BRG Rover Metro GTi.
I can't wait! I've plotted the small amount of information thats already been sent to the competitors, the route looks fantastic, some really good venues being used.
I just hope that Jamie and I can continue our form from the Welsh Enduro back in August
Sure thing. I'll aim for a few snaps as well.
The info in the press release above is wrong is seems - not only the wrong date but the wrong time of first car arrival.
People have been advised at Rally HQ.
Hopefully the route between Silverstone and Nottingham will avoid the M1 which can be completely horrendous northbound from around mid-day on a Friday. Mind you Nottingham late PM on a Friday will not be much fun for the higher numbers.
I'm wondering if I can get over to one of the Welsh forest stages as well. Can I justify the time and cost?
Lombard Rally 2005 at Wollaton Park, Nottingham.
Some piccies - untouched except for re-sizing and crushing for the web.
As you can see from this long shot of the start line it was quite a bright and sunny, though cold, day in Nottingham. Just as well as the selctif started about an hour late, which was fine except for the cold beginning to take a real hold and, from a photo perspective, light fading earlier than anticipated in the procedings.
Some hardy spectators - day 2 of 5 for them! (And there were quite a few who seemed to be heading for every spectator stage as well. Excellent support).
And a general view while we waited.
Due to some processing issues I don't have scans of all the shots yet so the early sunny ones are very thin in the ground - I'll post more when I have scanned them. But, in no particular order, here we go.
I did see Graham Dance passing - just as I was getting into position at a new location which was a bit dark. Think I should have a shot of the car in one of the still to be scanned films but not sure how usable it is.
>> Edited by LongQ on Saturday 26th November 02:01
Some piccies - untouched except for re-sizing and crushing for the web.
As you can see from this long shot of the start line it was quite a bright and sunny, though cold, day in Nottingham. Just as well as the selctif started about an hour late, which was fine except for the cold beginning to take a real hold and, from a photo perspective, light fading earlier than anticipated in the procedings.
Some hardy spectators - day 2 of 5 for them! (And there were quite a few who seemed to be heading for every spectator stage as well. Excellent support).
And a general view while we waited.
Due to some processing issues I don't have scans of all the shots yet so the early sunny ones are very thin in the ground - I'll post more when I have scanned them. But, in no particular order, here we go.
I did see Graham Dance passing - just as I was getting into position at a new location which was a bit dark. Think I should have a shot of the car in one of the still to be scanned films but not sure how usable it is.
>> Edited by LongQ on Saturday 26th November 02:01
Took the plunge and went to watch at Sweet Lamb today. Oddly no relevant digital shots. I arrived early (Scamer van outside the entrance at that time) only to find the event was running late. Then discovered it was running late from a revised schedule which was already an hour later than the times I had!
So I was rather cold by the time things started to happen and didn't get into my normal swing of mixing up shots from different cameras. Not helped by the good light beginning to go by the time the action started. Oh well, never mind. I'll get the films processed as soon as I can.
Saw a couple of crews wearing helmets - though without intercomms they must be a problem - also the weight for several hours a day would have an adverse effect on many oldish necks. One navigator wearing a cycling helmet - protection against the roll cage head bang I suppose.
Quite a bit of damage around. But still a lot of people running a hard pace and at least a couple of cars I spotted still running despite having been reported as retired. Good efforts all round considering the cars are virtually road spec and will have covered about 1000 or more rough miles up to that point in just 4 days.
And yes, it certainly does look like fun.
So I was rather cold by the time things started to happen and didn't get into my normal swing of mixing up shots from different cameras. Not helped by the good light beginning to go by the time the action started. Oh well, never mind. I'll get the films processed as soon as I can.
Saw a couple of crews wearing helmets - though without intercomms they must be a problem - also the weight for several hours a day would have an adverse effect on many oldish necks. One navigator wearing a cycling helmet - protection against the roll cage head bang I suppose.
Quite a bit of damage around. But still a lot of people running a hard pace and at least a couple of cars I spotted still running despite having been reported as retired. Good efforts all round considering the cars are virtually road spec and will have covered about 1000 or more rough miles up to that point in just 4 days.
And yes, it certainly does look like fun.
nightdriver said:
Initial reports are that Jamie Turner/Graham Dance have won, Matt Fowle/Peter Joy second.
If its correct then Well Done to you chaps, you looked very good when I saw you come through.
Well Done to everyone that finished, thats one hell of an acheivement, and Well done to everyone that took part.
Matt
Seconded.
Jamie and Graham were a couple of minutes behind overnight iirc so that is some result. And I have to say the guys in front of them through Sweet Lamb looked faster. The Corsa's/Nova's looked better suited than the Metro to the bits I of the selectif I could see - but then speed is not everything.
Owen Turner was still running as well despite reports that he had retired at some point yesterday.
Lombard Rally 2005 at Sweet Lamb in Mid Wales.
I think these are more or less in chronological order. I do have more but the remainder may be of interest only to those in the cars! (If you see what I mean.)
There are a few shots on another film that I expect to finish off this week but I don't think they are very interesting - mostly experiments. I am more than willing to have a look through the 'balance' if anyone has any specific requests by car number.
The Sweet Lamb stage passed through the Rally School area which offered a good selection of views and different photo opportunities. 3 water splashes, the biggest of which was the second. A couple of official photographers made sure the trough was full of water.
The first official car through seemed to get a bit damp and stuttered to a halt for a few minutes. Clearly this could be fun ...
Congestion ...
So the first competitor through that I saw (there may have been others I did not spot at the time) with a water splash issue was ...
.... got going again after a minute or so.
Eventual winners Jamie Turner and PH'er Graham Dance.
Jamie Turner's brother Owen who had been leading but had some severe mechanical problems and was rumoured to have retired at one point.
Recovered and made it to the finish.
Nice to see the Mini which not only finished but had the oldest competitor - Will Cave, 78 years young.
>> Edited by LongQ on Tuesday 29th November 01:36
>> Edited by LongQ on Tuesday 29th November 01:46
I think these are more or less in chronological order. I do have more but the remainder may be of interest only to those in the cars! (If you see what I mean.)
There are a few shots on another film that I expect to finish off this week but I don't think they are very interesting - mostly experiments. I am more than willing to have a look through the 'balance' if anyone has any specific requests by car number.
The Sweet Lamb stage passed through the Rally School area which offered a good selection of views and different photo opportunities. 3 water splashes, the biggest of which was the second. A couple of official photographers made sure the trough was full of water.
The first official car through seemed to get a bit damp and stuttered to a halt for a few minutes. Clearly this could be fun ...
Congestion ...
So the first competitor through that I saw (there may have been others I did not spot at the time) with a water splash issue was ...
.... got going again after a minute or so.
Eventual winners Jamie Turner and PH'er Graham Dance.
Jamie Turner's brother Owen who had been leading but had some severe mechanical problems and was rumoured to have retired at one point.
Recovered and made it to the finish.
Nice to see the Mini which not only finished but had the oldest competitor - Will Cave, 78 years young.
>> Edited by LongQ on Tuesday 29th November 01:36
>> Edited by LongQ on Tuesday 29th November 01:46
Graham - congratulations on a great result.
I did manage to get a couple of shots at Wollaton - one on each run - but one of them is a little, shall we say, unsharp as I wasn't expecting you to be the next car along so wasn't ready. Not sure why but I blame the low temperature slowing the brain. On the other hand if anyone wants a shot of a metro giving an impression of tremendous speed, then I may just have one.
Obviously I should have made better speed down to the hairpin when the light at the gravel car park deteriorated. The marshalls were kept quite busy replacing the cone whilst I was there.
Love the story about Owen Turner's car. Incredible. How many spare gearboxes do they have lying around?
My excuse for the fuzzy close up at Sweet Lamb is pretty much the same as the excuse for Wollaton ... except I was standing on a steep bank on long wet grass, looking up, panning and trying to use a monopod for the first time in light that was, er, not very. Some shots worked, others didn't quite work so well. Hmmm. More practice required.
I thought the main watersplash was good though. There were a couple of pro photographers there both shooting the splash so you should be able to get some alternative versions if you want them.
If you PM me with an email address and I will send the full size file versions of the shots I have so far.
I did manage to get a couple of shots at Wollaton - one on each run - but one of them is a little, shall we say, unsharp as I wasn't expecting you to be the next car along so wasn't ready. Not sure why but I blame the low temperature slowing the brain. On the other hand if anyone wants a shot of a metro giving an impression of tremendous speed, then I may just have one.
Obviously I should have made better speed down to the hairpin when the light at the gravel car park deteriorated. The marshalls were kept quite busy replacing the cone whilst I was there.
Love the story about Owen Turner's car. Incredible. How many spare gearboxes do they have lying around?
My excuse for the fuzzy close up at Sweet Lamb is pretty much the same as the excuse for Wollaton ... except I was standing on a steep bank on long wet grass, looking up, panning and trying to use a monopod for the first time in light that was, er, not very. Some shots worked, others didn't quite work so well. Hmmm. More practice required.
I thought the main watersplash was good though. There were a couple of pro photographers there both shooting the splash so you should be able to get some alternative versions if you want them.
If you PM me with an email address and I will send the full size file versions of the shots I have so far.
SuperUno said:
Does any one have any pics of car 101 (White Uno) ??
Cheers
Matt Endean
Hi Matt,
Wollaton Park
Sweet Lamb
Sorry - missed the front corner - there is a little more of the front of the car on the negative than on this scan but not much. A bit of editing will improve the overall effect though, so I will see what I can do.
If you contact me through my profile I will email you a couple of medium resolution files that are small enough to attach to a mail. I can also scan the negatives to a much higher resolution (larger print possible) if you would like them. The files would be too large for a normal attachment so would probably need to be burned onto a CD and posted.
BobbyH said:
All those piccy's look good - anyone got any of car 125?? (They should be good and clear as we weren’t going that fast!! )
Hmm, would be clear but you weren't going fast enough to get to my predicted 'squeeze the shutter' position ...
Wollaton Park at the second hairpin. I had used the films in my 3 35mm bodies and my hands were so cold there was no way I was going to attempt change them - especially in the dark.
So this was taken with my shirt pocket sized Pentax S5i. It doesn't have the most powerful flash and I have had to alter the exposure quite a bit to show more of the car. Might be able to get a better result with a bit more playing but will need some time to experiment.
bumpkin said:
any piccies of car 122 would be gratefully received, i'll make sure there is an address in my profile.
cost: to convert an existing road car which i have had for all of it's 195,000 miles, the event cost me somewhere around £2500, of this i still have the car, though it needs some work, the tyres are half worn.
Crikey - that tyre wear would worry me if it is the set you started with. If you do next year you may have illegal tread depth before reaching the finish!
There is a shot of 122 about half way through the Sweet Lamb shots above. I also have one taken with flash at the hairpin at Wollaton on the Friday but it is even darker and more distant than BobbyH's Pug. I know, hardly seems possible but there it is. I only found it when I realised that some of the totally black ones might have something there after all if I applied enough gamma adjustment! If you could paint the car a less camouflaged colour for next year I would be very grateful!
Both shots need a little work but I will send something on when I have had a chance to play and improve them a tad.
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