2024 UK Targa/Road Rallying Thread

2024 UK Targa/Road Rallying Thread

Author
Discussion

velocemitch

3,840 posts

226 months

Thursday 29th February
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YorkshirePudding

2,120 posts

191 months

Friday 8th March
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Seems I came in for a bit of light hearted flack for how I filled in my name, at my PC, on the Dishforth Targa, biglaugh

In my defence, I was the only one doing it as instructed...

Next event for me will be the Rali Llyn next weekend and if you've not been to a Welsh Championship round I would recommend getting yourselves across
to one as they're on another level and highly competitive,

velocemitch

3,840 posts

226 months

Friday 8th March
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Can’t remember what you did Jez?
Was it your full Sunday name which takes exactly 42 seconds to write?
Rather than a smiley face which Suzanne Barker put in one of mine!.

Meanwhile I’m up on the lovely Isle of Mull waiting to start the Mull Classic tomorrow morning in a very nice works spec Imp.


YorkshirePudding

2,120 posts

191 months

Friday 8th March
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velocemitch said:
Can’t remember what you did Jez?
Was it your full Sunday name which takes exactly 42 seconds to write?
Rather than a smiley face which Suzanne Barker put in one of mine!.
I only did a PC when they joined up the tests as I was watching two loops off the back straight before, but I did my name in block capitals,
as it's what I was asked to do and do in Wales so I'm used to impatient crews being disappointed when they don't get a quick scrawl.

Have a good run on Mull, I've just booked my ferry tickets for October where it looks like we'll be running two stages.



velocemitch

3,840 posts

226 months

Sunday 10th March
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Had a cracking event up on Mull for the Mull Classic.
The little Imp went very well and we kept it pointing in the right direction around all the cones.
Ended up third historic and narrowly missing first in class.
Nice selection of Cars on the event, but not as many Cars as the organising team would have liked.
Not sure why as it’s a good reputation and previous events have been full. The Island is well worth the trip and the Craic with the other competitors is brilliant.


YorkshirePudding

2,120 posts

191 months

Wednesday 20th March
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As usual the 3hr trip down to Pwllheli was worth it for the Rali Llyn, a bit wet but the competition at the sharp end more than made up for it.

Next one for me will be the Border 100.

thepawbroon

1,183 posts

190 months

Saturday 23rd March
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It was the final round of the Weald 12 Car championship last night, a good rally organised by Blackpalfrey MC. The clerk and secretary were running their first rally, and did a great job.

We didn't! We missed 3 code boards, one was on the apex of the first junction which was odd, one I think was when we were stuck behind a queue of Novices, and the third I think was on a LWRNAM that we contemplated, but ignored. Bad move!


We also towed another crew out of a ditch which cost a couple of minutes.

The route took us down to Romney Marsh, which has some great rallying heritage and it's east to see why - great roads!

We ended up 11th and last frown

Next for us is The Hughes, Clubman section of the HRCR round. Daylight, tests and regularity. Should be fun!


thepawbroon

1,183 posts

190 months

Monday 25th March
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Just a wee sample of the "yellow" roads we have in Kent, perfect for battering down in a Mini Cooper R50!


Beethree

811 posts

95 months

Monday 25th March
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Has anyone got experience of using a Focus ST170 for Targas? I’ve got the chance to get my dads one for free, needed only an inlet manifold and some tyres, and I’m immediately thinking it’d make a great Targa car for me to have some fun in.
I assume a sump guard is a necessity, anything else?

PaulV

Original Poster:

312 posts

232 months

Monday 25th March
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Beethree said:
Has anyone got experience of using a Focus ST170 for Targas? I’ve got the chance to get my dads one for free, needed only an inlet manifold and some tyres, and I’m immediately thinking it’d make a great Targa car for me to have some fun in.
I assume a sump guard is a necessity, anything else?
I haven't seen many around, have a look at:-
https://www.facebook.com/groups/334976716911168/se...

There shouldl be some nuggets of wisdom there.

FactoryBacked

257 posts

238 months

Wednesday 17th April
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What’s everyone been up to lately?

Mid March we were out on the Primrose in the depths of the South Hams on the always challenging map 202.

Had our best result on a road rally after a tough night and finished 8th overall with some top three times along the way in the Proton.

The weekend just gone we were out on the Stu Wood Targa at Chivenor airfield in North Devon.

PaulV will be able to confirm the code boards were complete tts. A frame around the boards obscures the letters, and O / C and P / F especially caused a lot of issues with crews picking up code board errors like I’ve never seen before.

We got one code board error and we finished 1st overall in the Clubman’s event.

While other crews were ripping through racers on the super abrasive surface, we used the same set of the finest £50 ditchfinder tyres all day, which had also done the whole of Bath Festival.

The BMW Compact was faultless all day. Right up to the point it wasn’t. Which was when something in the transmission let go about 50m from the finish and we lost all drive. Luckily we were able to coast to the stop line and get a result.

Overall though, the event was super slick with 8 tests before lunch then two long ones after. Would have been an early finish but it was results query time for all those that didn’t go home in a huff.

It is nice to be finally mixing it with some of the fastest South West road rally and targa crews in the south west.

velocemitch

3,840 posts

226 months

Wednesday 17th April
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The codeboard thing could have been the organisers way of getting round this years MSUK ruling for Targa, which states the board must face the oncoming direction of travel, and be of a certain size. That rule has always been the case for road sections, but never properly defined for tests, so many put them sideways, hid them in biscuit tins, or had them so small you had stop. It was a method of taking time out of you, rather than checking route compliance.

My next outing is this Saturday Night on De Lacy MC’s Taurus Rally. 130 miles of Lanes in the NY Moors and Wolds. I’m driving and got Henry Carr Navigating ( one of the best! ) so it’s all going to be down to me in a fifty year old car mixing it with the modern stuff!

PaulV

Original Poster:

312 posts

232 months

Thursday 18th April
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I spoke to one of the organisers after the event.

He said that the code boards were designed to get people to stop as that was helping keep people away from bogey times.

It seemed to work okay however as some have stated, they could easily be misread if you rushed it or got the angle wrong.

I was clear until test 9, then cocked up and transcribed two wrong onto the timecard. bangheadbangheadbanghead

Tyres did seem to be a problem for some, was easy to kill the set on the driving axle. Cheap and cheerful may be in order next time.

A well run event though, made good use of the land available and finished at a sensible time for the long run back to civilisation hehedriving

velocemitch

3,840 posts

226 months

Sunday 21st April
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The Taurus made a neat demonstration of the problems organisers of Road Rallies have in our area.
They are on the horns of a dilemma, the majority of the Yorkshire Roads are generally very fast, to get time out of the faster cars you need to do one of two things, you either make it plot and bash ( doesn’t really work on the top guys anyway) or you screw the timing, using the various technically illegal methods. ( or both)
The Clerk of the Taurus did neither, they were convinced ( and they may be right) that they wouldn’t get the entries with PnB and being a club new to the game, they can’t risk the wrath of MSUK if they get caught cheating.
Last night ten cars fully cleaned the whole event, from a timing perspective. The dreaded code boards then came in! Placed randomly and with no indication of where or how many, they were incredibly easy to miss, so only two of the ten ended up penalty free. The winners chosen by engine capacity.

We almost had a clean night, dropping just 23 seconds, when we had to come back out of a NAM to get the headlights to pan onto the tiny reference letter on the code board, in order to be able to read it. Just happened to be on the tightest timed section ( 2 miles, 4 minutes timed to the second.
We shot past two codeboards without seeing them at all.
Still 14th overall in a 50 year old car is pretty decent in my book. I particularly enjoyed taking a minute and half out of an MG ZR on the tricky Millington section, even if they did sidle past us at the end when we were sat four minutes waiting to go in to the control!

Edited by velocemitch on Sunday 21st April 19:16

thepawbroon

1,183 posts

190 months

Monday 13th May
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Saturday was the Kent Targa Rally at Manston Airport - a new venue for Targa rallying, although regularly used on the Hughes Historic.

I was part of the preparation and set up team, sadly I couldn't make the rally itself.

It was long - 40 miles of tests. It seemed to be well received, although there was a fairly large attrition rate.

Being a huge tarmac/concrete airfield, it needed a lot of cones (nearly 300) to define the route. Here's a flavour, which I found on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQF5hDxYzKQ


PaulV

Original Poster:

312 posts

232 months

Monday 13th May
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I did the event with a first time driver in a standard 1.2 Corsa.

Good runs, with only a few minor mistakes got us up to 3rd in Clubman and 19th O/A which was an fantastic result.

Great venue, quite 'coney' in places, but what else can you do with a site that large (2.8km runway)?

Well put together event. Would certainly do it again.

Lots of cars dropped by the wayside, some with tyre management issues, others with the normal mechanical gremlins, however there were a few ill navigators.

Results are up at MTC1.UK


thepawbroon

1,183 posts

190 months

Wednesday 15th May
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The Kent Targa Rally had the pleasure of hosting Nick Pontefract for the day, he's a Non-Exec Director of Motorsport UK and his day job in Chief Strategy Officer for Sport England.

He seemed to enjoy it!


https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nickpontefract_anyo...

nickc59

40 posts

82 months

Tuesday 18th June
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Bath Motor Club are presenting the Great Western Vintage and Classic Rally on Sunday 18th August. The rally is for pre-1975 cars, though later ones will be admitted if they are to a specification which was available pre-75. Vintage cars are very welcome.

The event will start on the northern outskirts of Bath and head up to the Cirencester area, covering a total of about 130 miles and including five regularities and four special tests. None of the competitive sections will be on loose surfaces, and the rally is intended to be very beginner-friendly. All navigation will be by roadbooks - no maps will be required. In a similar vein, no special instrumentation will be needed - competitors may use electronic aids.

The Supplementary Regulations are available at Great Western Vintage and Classic Rally (bathmotorclub.co.uk), where the entry form can also be found, together with a lot of guidance material for those new to the discipline. Entries are now open.

This is a new type of event and the organisers are expecting high demand for places, so it would be sensible for you to get your entry in promptly !

If you, friends and/or acquaintances would like to marshal on the event, then please follow the "Official/Marshal Signing-on" link on the above web page

velocemitch

3,840 posts

226 months

Tuesday 18th June
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nickc59 said:
Bath Motor Club are presenting the Great Western Vintage and Classic Rally on Sunday 18th August. The rally is for pre-1975 cars, though later ones will be admitted if they are to a specification which was available pre-75. Vintage cars are very welcome.

The event will start on the northern outskirts of Bath and head up to the Cirencester area, covering a total of about 130 miles and including five regularities and four special tests. None of the competitive sections will be on loose surfaces, and the rally is intended to be very beginner-friendly. All navigation will be by roadbooks - no maps will be required. In a similar vein, no special instrumentation will be needed - competitors may use electronic aids.

The Supplementary Regulations are available at Great Western Vintage and Classic Rally (bathmotorclub.co.uk), where the entry form can also be found, together with a lot of guidance material for those new to the discipline. Entries are now open.

This is a new type of event and the organisers are expecting high demand for places, so it would be sensible for you to get your entry in promptly !

If you, friends and/or acquaintances would like to marshal on the event, then please follow the "Official/Marshal Signing-on" link on the above web page
Sounds like a good idea, I expect it will find a nice niche in the market.

velocemitch

3,840 posts

226 months

Tuesday 18th June
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My year has been a bit rubbish so far.
After Mull and the Taurus I did the Berwick Classic, for the first time in 13 years, in the Imp. We were doing OK until the engine decided it preferred Oil to Petrol and we had to retire. After that I travelled down to Brecon to do the Gremlin in a Nova GTE. The Car got six inches off the Trailer and stopped! Never to start again! ECU failure.

Fortunately the driver found a replacement in time to do the Bullnose Targa at Kemble Airfield, that went OK, nice little event with some good flowing tests.

I’m back in the Imp at the end of the Month for the Cotswold Classic, I don’t think the engine issues are fully sorted, but the Car went well last weekend on the HERO challenge, as did the Nova. It must be me!

Just found out yesterday that the De Lacy Targa in Catterick which I was particularly looking forward to has been cancelled. MOD pulled the permission due to Military requirements. This is somewhat worrying for me, I’ve got 8 tests and four Regularities planned in there for the Ilkley Jubilee in September. If they pull it on us too, we’d be knackered!