Tales from the Roger Albert...

SPG Rally Team And The Lancia Fulvia

My first memories of rallying date back to when I was at school and the RAC Rally used to “come to town” in Carlisle during the late seventies/early eighties.  I used to watch in admiration as those awesome machines used to roll-up to the Crest Motel just off the M6.  Never daring to dream that I may one day compete on such an event.

The closest I ever got to the RAC rally was marshalling on the Sunday spectator stages at places like Knowsley Safari Park, Chatsworth House and Clumber Park.

I have always been keen on cars and have done many track-days, but I had never competed.  My older brother Tony on the other hand has been co-driving at all levels since the 1970s.  Early in 2004 I became aware of the re-birth of the RAC Rally in the form of the Roger Albert Clark Rally and for my 40^th birthday my brother bought me my “BARS Test” at Oulton Park, having nagged me for years to have a go at rallying.  The master plan being to get my competition licence, finish the requisite number of events during the season to upgrade my licence and compete on the first Roger Albert Clark Rally in November 2004.

We used a borrowed championship-spec Peugeot 205, excellently prepared by Keith Bird Motorsport for the season and rounded the year off with three and a half extremely enjoyable and gruelling days behind the wheel competing in the 2004 RAC Rally.  We made it to Sheffield, even if it was only in one of the trophy events, having ripped a half shaft out of the gearbox on the Monday afternoon.  This was real rallying, just like I used to watch as a school kid.

Having “caught the bug” from the campaign leading to the 2004 Roger Albert, we decided to take a more structured approach to the 2005 season. We spotted an advert in Motorsport News for the 2005 MG X-Power MG ZR Championship.  One of the available cars was an MG Sport and Racing prepared MG ZR, which had been used by Gwyndaf Evans on a couple of events in 2004.  We went to see it, drove it and the deal was done.

So in 2005 the Graham bothers joined forces and tried and keep up with the youngsters, competing in the MG X-Power MG ZR Championship and the British Rally Championship (BRC) Stars of the Future.  To round off the season in the MG ZR we successfully completed the Wales Rally GB and came second in class to Tony Jardine on the Roger Albert Clark Rally in November 2005.

When it came to planning the 2006 season we wanted to compete in the BRC Stars again, have another go at the WRGB and complete the season with Roger Albert Clark Rally in November 2004.  But agh! looking at the calendar the final BRC Stars event (Tempest) was one week before the RAC Rally and the FIA/WRC in their infinite wisdom had moved the WRGB to two weeks after the Roger Albert.  So we knew that there was no way we use the same car (MG ZR) for three events in four weeks.

Therefore, we decided we needed another car.  We had both really enjoyed competing on the RAC Rally, but so far we had only competed in the Open Class, not in the “real” event!  So we needed a historic car, front wheel drive (as it was all I had driven) and something we could get ready in time.  This did not provide us with many options and it boiled down to a Saab or a Lancia Fulvia.  Tony is the proud owner of an original road going 1975 Lancia Stratos, so the search was on for a Lancia Fulvia; after all it won the original RAC Rally twice in 1969 and 1970 (driven both times by Harry Kallstrom / Gunnar Haggbom) which is more than can be said of the world beating Lancia Stratos.

The main source of information regarding available vehicles was the Internet and repeated searches led me to some of the cars advertised on eBay of all places.  To cut a long story short, the first decent car I found was a 1973 Lancia Fulvia 1.3 Coupe S2 in the white Lancia-Martini colour scheme.  The car had been used on a few road rallies and was in good condition, so we bought it and collected it in February 2006.  Having had some success on eBay, I decided to keep looking for other cars to potentially use for spares.  A few weeks later I found someone selling two cars, which both looked to be in a sorry state, however they both had engines and lots of aluminium body parts, trim etc., so we bought them.  When we collected the cars, one turned out to be a 1975 car and the other a 1970 Lancia Fulvia Coupe 1.3 S Rallye.

Now in April 2006 we were possession three cars, we decided it would be as easy to start with one of the shells as it would be to work with the road worthy car, so we chose the 1970 car and Ian Chamberlain and the team from Keith Bird Motorsport set to work.  Building the car had to fit in with looking after the MG ZR for the season and the other cars that Ian has to prepare.

The car has been fully restored in keeping with the works spec cars, details of which are hard to find. However, most information seems to indicate the cars were in almost standard specification. So the work started by having the body shell dipped so we could establish how much of the shell was strong enough for rallying bearing in mind the car was over 30 years old. Consequently, much of the body shell needed repairing or replacing, new floor pan, sills and repairs to the wings were the main areas. We had a full welded-in roll cage fitted by Custom Cages.  In keeping with the build techniques of the 70s the panels joints were filled with lead before being prepared for painting. A painstaking process but the finished product looks stunning.

As for the mechanicals the engine has been stripped and new pistons, bearing and camshaft have been added. The engines are reputed to be very strong but our head was slightly damaged as they are like hens teeth, it had to be repaired. The gearbox and differential as standard but once again they were stripped and checked for wear and tear. Amazingly the gearbox didn’t require any replacement parts.

And so to the interior, the original dash has been retained with the addition of a lower panel all the necessary switches, trip meter, intercom etc have been neatly installed, keeping the instrumentation as the car originally had them.

Thinking about how I wanted the car to look when completed, I reflected on the fact that many of the historic cars being used on the RAC Rally has been turned out in works team colours.  This seems like a good idea to me, so I turned to eBay again and eventually found a model of the Lancia Fulvia HF that was used by Sandro Munari and Mario Mannucci to win the Monte Carlo Rally in 1972.  The decision was made, the SPG Rally Team Lancia Fulvia would be a replica for the Lancia works car from 1972.  You can judge for yourselves how good a job the guys have done, but in my view it’s “brilliant”.

The Lancia’s history:

2006 RAC the Fulvia’s first outing – to say we had teething troubles would be an understatement. Eventually Kielder applied the final blow only two stages form the finish and we had to take the car home on the trailer.

2007 RAC a tough event which saw the Lancia on its roof in a Kielder ditch ¼ mile from the end of the last stage. The car was put back on its wheel and we managed to get to the finish 1^st in class and proud winners of the Spirit of the Rally award.

2008 RAC another finish for the Lancia but not without its problems. Oliver’s Mount unearthed a hair line crack in the distributer cap which took about an hour to track down. Despite this we had good run in Greystoke which led us to win the class and finish 28^th overall.

We are looking forward to the 2009 event with the addition of two new stages and plenty of night action.

Prepared by Steve Graham, October 2009

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The Famous Five Go Rallying...

If the entire team would admit to precisely how old they were this would be an easier and rather more precise calculation but the best estimate is that the ages of all five of us probably add up to a total somewhere in excess of 300 years! OK .. I know what you are saying “That is probably a bit ‘mature’ to be romping off to watch the Roger Albert” amidst the rigours of the English winter. But the ‘good sense gene’ remains happily swimming in the gene pool and has not prevailed, so, yet again one retired accountant, two active accountants, one individual who is something non specific in the fertiliser trade, an ex Welsh rugby international and finally a born again pro-am drunkard, are off to watch the Roger Albert.

We have been watching the original RAC rally since around the time the internal combustion engine was discovered and stoically stuck with it until we finally lost hope when this great event evolved into the Rally GB (Welsh Branch)... this was when the lack of entries, the ‘herding’ of sensible spectators, the lack of pubs in Wales, lack of stage miles and the crowds all conspired to force us out of contention. But then The Roger Albert Clark Rally emerged, thank you Paul Adams, and bingo the team were back in business. We are now back in the groove and loving it!

The current team members have vaguely defined roles.. Tony plans, reads maps, books hotels and is a sort of tour manager. Steve is the quartermaster, the man in charge of making sure we have enough wine gums, coffee, soup, ginger biscuits and chocolates to last four days and how to pack the cars, Rob is our ‘pub hunter’ armed only with a copy of The Good Beer Guide and some OS maps.. Pete is there to eat the wine gums and complain when pubs no longer seem to serve serve grey pickled eggs .. Jock is basically useless at anything much so he is allowed to drive and 'newcomer' Jim has yet to establish a fully functioning role but beer sampling seems high on the list.  
Surprisingly, this unruly mob of saga-louts do abide by certain rules:

• Rule One..     Daylight is for rally watching and the hours of darkness for travel, beer and food.

• Rule Two ..   Only real ale can be consumed and then only in half decent pubs...

• Rule Three .. A cooked breakfast is mandatory, unless it really seriously screws up rally watching for the day.. and ..

• Rule Four...   er.. There is no Rule Four... so that is about it!

So on Friday we will have loaded two cars with three people in each car, we will have packed every form of weather proof clothing from serious oil skins to the odd ‘mankini’ or two. Then our quartermaster will have packed and repacked the cars several times. Pete will have made a start on the wine gums. Tony will be sorting out SatNavs and maps and then at around 10:00hrs we will venture forth, to boldly go where we probably went last year.. But not for long, because by then it will be nearly lunchtime! So, out with The Good Beer Guide, reprogramme the SatNavs and then drive miles off piste to find a pub and look forward to lazy lunch.

Eventually the long journey north will begin in earnest, at least for several minutes before old age kicks in and it becomes necessary to ‘pump out the bilges’.. have a coffee, restock the wine gums and face a barrage of ‘Are we there yet?’ choruses from the people in the back seats. One more carefully selected pub stop before we wind up where we will be staying for the night, more beer and a decent meal, a malt whisky or three.. and hopefully no double beds!

The next morning.. and for that matter every morning the routine is similar.. big breakfast, then a drive to the first of the stages selected .. park up .. then begin the agonising process of first deciding what to wear and then the time consuming operation of forcing stiff limbs and ruined bodies into boots, anoraks and all kinds of inappropriate weather protection. This is followed by the ritual of mixing the fluids and selecting the solids that comprise the survival pack. Current favourites are a hip flask or two of port and brandy or more recently and interesting brew involving brandy and ‘pommeau’ (all tenderly mixed and oft sampled by our quartermaster).. Ginger biscuits plus a random dip into a sweetie jar full of various health giving and highly nutritious chocolate bars. Then , and only then, are the team ready to tramp off into the forests to take in those fabulous views and find suitable spots to pause and watch the odd rally car blast by, interspersed by the occasional sip, maybe even a biscuit, maybe some utterly banal, yet humorous, banter and so the Rally progresses. This is why we are here ... to see a Mark I or Mark II Escort driven with great verve and style on full opposite lock going flat out through the woods... nothing much can beat that.. Except perhaps a moment of passion with Vera Lynn or maybe sitting round the radio listening to The Goon Show sipping Horlicks .. we know how to live... !

Jock Simpson - 20/09/09

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The Belgians Are Coming!

Stefaan Stouf and Joris Erard are looking forward to revisiting the UK with wonderful memories of their last British expedition. After we competed last year on this prestigious historic event we had to take part again.  We loved to format of the Roger Albert Clark Rally with its start in Leeds, its four days of stages around the North of England and Scotland.

After our intense preparation at home in terms of car and route we set off for Leeds and scrutineering where we welcomed with open arms were by the organizers and participants. Together with the Swede Bo Axelsson we were the only foreign participants.

The first two stages on Friday evening, in Temple Newsam, a beautiful location with an English stately home as its backdrop.  Immediately, it was clear that this was not going to be easy on the dark roads and it was very much a new experience for Joris who had to read the road on maps!

After what seemed a very short night, too soon it was early morning and we had twelve stages in front of us together with a connecting route of over 150 km!  On seventh stage, Langdale, we had a major problem with our brakes which took over four minutes to repair.  This unfortunately dropped us down the leader board and we found ourselves running in 12th overall.

 Our bad luck was not yet over, because at Greystoke, the M-sport test track, where the stages was held in the dark we had another problem with the car. This time it was a malfunctioning ignition coil that lost us precious time but fortunately, we had a spare in the car and after a six minute repair we were able to carry on.

Following these unfortunate mishaps, the start of the second day saw us down in twenty-first place!  On the beautiful Sunday we picked up time in Scotland and even started to enjoy the gravel stages.  The rally concluded on Monday afternoon in Carlisle and by this time we had managed to set times amongst the best and clawed our way back to 12th place overall and 3rd in class which is not bad driving after 31 stages!

We now have our second British trophy which we can can take back to Belgium and remember the great competition in Britain!  The Roger Albert was certainly not an easy rally to a complete successfully.  The event is so long that every competitor seems to have some problems and hopes that their car will survive.  Malcolm Wilson was the overall victor in his own M-sports prepared Escort MKII but with constant pressure from the likes of Martin McCormack it certainly was not easy for Wilson to win, because Martin was on several occasions, faster than him!

(with apologies to Joris Erard if my translation from his original is not exactly accurate!)

http://www.historicrally.be

Simon’s Rally Report -R.A.C. Rally 2008

A bit of history ...

For many years the RAC Rally was Britain’s round of the World Rally Championship. Run in mid November, it was a huge event, running for 4 or 5 days covering a large amount of the country with many competitive stages in forests all over the place.  As times change the World Championship has demanded shorter and more compact events and the RAC Rally has slowly transformed into the event now known as Rally GB, which this year runs at the beginning of December, concentrated in just the south and mid Wales forests running for 3 days with no more than 6 competitive stages each day.

Many fans and competitors alike had wished for a return to ‘the good old days’ when it was a real challenge, and so 5 years ago a group of rally organisers decided to resurrect the original RAC Rally as it was 20 years back and to open it up to rally cars from that period.

This means none of the modern 4WD cars that we see today, that corner like they are on rails with their poping and banging turbocharged engines – the cars that are competing on the RAC Rally are in many fans eyes ‘proper’ rally cars, RWD Ford Escorts, Talbot Sunbeams, Opel Asconas, Porsche 911s, Ford Lotus Cortinas, and even a rare Lancia Stratos – all cars that go sideways round the corners with screaming/howling non-turbo competition engines that sound so much better than today's modern cars.

This is the event that I have just spent the last 4 days of Friday 14th to Monday 17th November following all around the top half of the country.


Friday 14th November

I set off from home at 12noon heading for Elland Road football stadium in Leeds where the cars were all being scrutineered prior to the event and where I would be able to sign on as a recognised photographer for the event and collect my passes and paperwork.

After a problematic journey including a diversion due to flooding, an inverted speedboat in the middle of a roundabout and armed police pulling over a transit van about 4 cars ahead of me, I finally arrived just before 4pm, collected my passes and paperwork and met up with fellow photographers Jay Banbury, Ben Gilbert and Gary Simpson, who each had their own cars and the video crew of Wayne Goldring, Luke Harvey and Chris Williams who were all travelling together in Wayne’s car.

The first 2 competitive stages of the rally were two spectator friendly short runs on Friday evening through the grounds of Temple Newsam house on the edge of Leeds. The cars were due to start at 7:30pm in the dark, so we headed over there about 5pm so we had time to drive into the stage and find a suitable spot for photographs. Jay and Ben settled on a spot near the start, the rest of us headed further in and quickly found it to be a mudbath. We stopped at a suitable location about halfway through the stage at a tricky looking left hand bend.

The cars all passed without any major incident twice and by 9pm they had finished both runs of the stage. However for the Friday evening and Saturday only, the main event was followed by a clubmans rally for the competitors doing this years Peugeot 205 and BMW 325 Rally Championships. These guys compete in identical specifications of cars, and therefore its all down to driving talent (or lack of) as to who ends up fastest – this also results in a fair few spectacular accidents, and this event was to be no exception. With 42 of them competing and starting at 9:30pm, we had hoped to be all done and away by 10:30pm (they start at minute intervals). However after several huge car destroying accidents, with one crew hospitalised overnight (thankfully they’re OK) and all the subsequent stoppages, it was 11:40pm when it finished and midnight by the time we had all met up again!

We then headed in convoy up past York, Malton and Pickering to Langdale Forest on the North Yorkshire Moors where the cars were due the next day. We arrived at our chosen location on an open moorland section miles from anywhere at around 1:45am on Saturday morning, and around 15 minutes later we were all comfortably sleeping in our cars, parked up by the stage, no doubt under the watchful eyes of the nearby RAF Fylingdales!
 

Saturday 15th November

We all got up about 8am and after a 5 minute shower of rain had passed, it turned dull and windy. We set about cooking breakfast (bacon rolls) before having a wander to choose our locations for the days photos. The rally cars were tackling two more runs at Temple Newsam before heading up to Yorkshire where we were, so we had some time as they weren’t due until just gone 10:30am.

We had chosen the location we did because as well as a nice 90 degree left hand bend where the cars came out of the forest onto the moorland, a quarter of a mile further on at the bottom of the hill, a stream flowed across the track, providing some excellent watersplash photo opportunities.

During the day the main RAC Rally cars came through the stage twice (Stage 5 and then Stage 9), and both times after about a half hour gap the 205 and BMW clubmans rally followed suit. By the time it had all finished, I had some great photos from the watersplash, and also some of the cars against the sunset as it turned dark, as well as a few of Jay falling flat on his face in the bog just downstream of the watersplash!

We left Langdale moor about 6pm and made our way back to Pickering, then headed west via Helmsley, Sutton Bank, and Thirsk onto the A1, and then up to the Little Chef at Scotch corner, where we sat down for a warm up and a meal about 8pm. Leaving there about 9pm we headed onup the A1, then the A68 to Corbridge, and across the A69 to Carlisle Airport where the cars were due for their overnight halt and end of day service. We arrived there about 10:45pm, some 20 minutes before the first of the rally cars which had been off to complete 2 more stages in Greystoke forest in the Lake District on their way up to Carlisle.

After Wayne had sorted out the incar cameras on the cars he was running them in, and we’d had a look around at the cars, we set off around midnight across the A75 to Dumfries and then on up the A701 into Southern Scotland, turning off into the forest of Ae around 1:30am. By the time we had made our way through the forest (7 miles without getting lost, thanks to my map reading skills), to our chosen location, we parked up and got comfy for a second night sleeping in the cars about 2am.

Sunday 16th November

Four and a half hours after going to bed, we were up at the crack of dawn – unlike the day before there was to be no lie in as this was the first stage of the day for the cars (Stage 15). The sun came up and after cooking breakfast again, we walked a little way down the stage to pick our spots for photos. It was a beautiful sunny day and made for some lovely scenic photos of the cars as well as the usual close up shots. After the cars had tackled a second run of that stage (Stage 17), we left around 12noon, with Ben heading off for home in South Wales as he hadn’t got the Monday off work, and the rest of us heading back past Dumfries and over to the village of Newcastleton which is on the Scottish, western side of the huge Kielder Forest complex.

We found our way into Newcastleton forest and again with my map reading, drove for quite a few miles round to a remote downhill hairpin right. A few other photographers that we knew joined us at this location and the cars arrived to do the stage (Stage 22) around 3:30pm. This particular 12 mile long forest stage is unique as it starts in Scotland, and crosses the border into England part way through!

The cars then headed off for service and 3 more stages before they would return around 9pm to tackle the stage again in the darkness as Stage 26, so we had a few hours to wait. Once the sun had set, it was pitch dark, and the temperature plummeted. Our cars quickly iced over and the temperature gauge indicated it was -2C. Lots more layers of clothing were quickly put on and we set about cooking some dinner to warm ourselves up -Pot Noodles and more bacon rolls had to do this time – no Little Chef in the middle of the forest!

Finally the cars returned and with lots of flashguns firing we enjoyed seeing them competing through the forest in the dark. Theres something very special about standing out there in the cold and darkness listening to the howling engine approaching and seeing the spotlights cutting through the trees before it finally hurtles past with glowing orange brake disks and muddy taillights as it continues away again. TV will never capture that atmosphere and its something you really have to experience to understand!

We finally left the forest about 10:15pm, and drove very cautiously on the untreated roads at a temperature of -3C now round into the middle of Keilder Forest parking up again in the forest ready for Monday’s stages before retiring to bed for a third night in the cars about midnight.

Monday 17th November

We got up about 7am, after a rather fresh night in the cars to be greeted by light rain. Well I suppose it had held off until the last day! After more bacon rolls, we took up postion in the scenery once again and the cars arrived for Stage 28 about 9am. Considering how many stages they had now done and it was the last day, plenty of drivers were still flat out sideways and I got some fantastic photos.

With that run completed, we prepared for the return of the cars when they would tackle the last stage (Stage 31) of the event which was a real sting in the tail for the event at just short of 19 miles long! The cars arrived just after 12noon, and I took my final set of photos for the event in the still wet weather, before packing everything up, saying goodbye to my friends and setting off about 2pm for the 270 mile journey home.

I got home around 8pm in the evening. I had completed 850 miles, taken 2547 photos and had just 15 hours sleep in total (in the car) over the last four days. I was totally exhausted but it was so worth it and I can’t wait for next years event again!

The Rally was eventually won by Malcolm Wilson in a Mark II Ford Escort. Malcolm is the Boss of M-Sport, the company that builds and runs the Ford Focus WRC Rally cars on behalf of Ford, that compete on the modern day World Rally Championship!

Report and Photographs courtesy of Simon Clarke Photography - http://www.sc-photography.co.uk