The first event of 2006 and one of Mick's favourites saw him wheel out the ageing Mitsubishi Evo III for the Red Kite. He had planned on using the newly aquired Escort we had used on the Cambrian and Roger Albert Clark in 2005, but the axle was bent and wasn't back in time for the event, so it was back to the trusty Evo III for the event.

Now Mick doesn't like organisers notes, no matter who prepares them. He feels that notes are a personal thing and will now only use notes that he has made himself. So it was back to the maps for me once again. A new set of glasses had improved matters for me, the old ones were getting scratched and it was like peering into a misty fog trying to read the maps with them. They were new for the Roger Albert Clark and had given me a new lease of life on the maps. The fact that for the first loop of stages on the Red Kite I had left them in my bag back at service, didn't matter as Mick never noticed that I didn't have them. I told him on the run back into service and he replied that he thought one or two of the calls had been a bit vague.

Mick was on it from the word go. Fastest by around 27 seconds from Julian Reynolds in a very icy Crychan saw Mick in his element. He never put a foot wrong. It was very satisfying as a co-driver to be quickest on maps when everyone else was on notes and the grin on Mick's face said it all. He was so relaxed and said he was so much more confident being on maps than on notes. SS2 saw Mick take another second out of Julian and then extend the lead further with his third fastest time in three stages on SS3 a very snowy and icy Esgair Daffyd. Mick did have a little moment on there when he slid wide on a very icy left hander and while the time felt so slow in the conditions, he was still 11 seconds faster than anyone else.

Back at service and a check on everyones times saw a very bemused Mick wandering around the service area chatting away with everyone with not a care in the world. The Evo III was fine, nothing needing doing to it. How about tyres then Mick? "Nope, these are good enough." he said, not wanting to change them. The fact they were already part worn at the start of the event didn't seem to bother him.
But they were showing that they were past their sell by date on the next run through Crychan, we were only 2 seconds quicker than our first run and Julian Reynolds had equalled us on time. Back to service once again. With the second run through Esgair Daffyd cancelled because of the conditions it was just the re-run of SS2 to finish, just over five miles. "Shall we put some more tyres on then Mick?" I asked. "No chance, our lead is big enough, no need, these will do fine..!" Famous last words..!

A couple of miles into the stage a slippery righthander saw Mick run wide when the Evo III understeered. No worries, ride the bank on the outside of the bend and back on the road. Next thing... BANG! The Evo III ground to a halt. I looked across at Mick, "What happened?" The front suspension had broke, must have been a hairline crack. The driveshaft pulled out, punched it's way through the cambelt cover and snapped the cambelt. End of rally! To add insult to injury it was the stage that Mick had sponsored too.

So it was down to the recovery crews to get us out. The smile was still firmly in place though, not even the retirement could wipe that away.

"I've shown that maps can be just as quick as notes when read properly." he said. The day after the rally we were presented with the Spirit Of The Rally Award, voted for by the organisers and crews on the rally. For that I must say thank you. It was much appreciated. Now next year we must win it!

But at the end of the day we had fun and that's what it's all about.
After a rather long layoff from the stages I had a call a couple of weeks before the Red Dragon Rally from Dave Howells. Asking if I was available for the event, I was only too happy to oblige. I first met Dave around 16 years ago when I sat with Ray White in his trusty Lada on the Vauxhall Rally of Wales, but this was our first event together. The car was a beautifully prepared Subaru Imprezza N10. I was to be Dave's third co-driver in three events, as his regular partner was unavailable due to back problems. Now the Red Dragon was the rally that first got me interested in rallying when it used to start from my home village of Saundersfoot as a Motoring News road rally. I have done the event both as a road rally and a stage event. The run in 2005 being the shortest rally I have ever done when I retired on the first corner of SS1.

With the rally starting from Swansea and using the South Wales stages synonomous with the Wales Rally GB, Dave was looking forward to the event. We knew it would take some time for us to settle down together and hoped that as the day progressed we could set some respectable times.

SS1 Afan Argoed was so slippery in the middle Dave actually thought he had broken a driveshaft until he worked out that it was just really that slippery. A little misunderstanding of the notes at one of those artificially tightened junctions saw us lose around 10 seconds before we ended up going in the right direction. The rest of the stage went without any dramas. SS2 in Margam was better. In here we were running the jump built for the WRC boys on the Wales Rally GB, they had put a strawbale chicane 100 yards before it. But when we arrived the chicane had been effectively demolished, so we had the full 350 yard flat out blast up to the jump... and Dave didn't lift in 5th. This has to be the longest air I have ever had, I just did not

think we were ever going to land. The Subaru hung in the air for ages... and then landed on it's nose! Dave gathered it up nicely though. But next run through a quick dab of the brakes to settle her may help the landing Dave thought.

At Service at Walters Arena, there was nothing to do other than fuel and kick the tyres. Times showed us in 15th overall. We were happy enough and we were settling in nicely together as we gained each others trust. Down to Crynant and Dave was starting to relax and drive better. At the end of the stage he really felt happy. Raising the rear of the car 5mm had cured his understeering that he had suffered on his previous outings. SS4 Walters was nice and flowing and finished in the arena. Dave was now on song and the time showed this too. 8th fastest overall and the only Group N crew to beat Julian Reynolds on the stages all day when we took 2 seconds out of him.

A rather lengthy 75 minute service was to follow. We were now up to 14th overall and 4th Group N. Dave decided to change the front tyres but elected to keep the rears as they seemed to be fine. This proved to be a wrong move we feel as they went off very quickly.
This coupled with going off the boil saw us drop three places overall and in Group N over the final two stages. It was only a handful of seconds, but enough for three cars to just nip ahead of us. The car ran faultlessly all day and apart from a wash and polish the car will be ready for it's next event.
 
Photos courtesy of JMS Photography
  

Once again Dave Howells asked me to sit with him in the TEGSport Subaru Imprezza N10 for the Mid Wales Stages. After a nice leisurely scrutineering and documentation Dave and I headed off to Sweet Lamb to watch the hysterics performing. Great fun!

Our seeding was not what we expected with us running down at 18 directly behind one of the BMW's. With the dust going to be a problem we were worried we may get caught in his dust. SS3, the first of the stages for the moderns, was a 6 miler, after having been shortened due to the stage having been deemed a little rough near the end. We took 38 seconds out of the "Pimpmobile" and for the last mile and a half were starting to lose a little time due the dust. At the next stage we had a quick word and he duly let us slip by him and run in front.

It was pretty clear there was going to be no staying with the two Hyundai WRC's of Cole and Middleton, they were romping away at the front leaving us to scrap with Beman, Humphreys, both TEGSport mounted, for the next few places. At service at Sweet Lamb after three stages it was Humphreys who had a 4 second advantage over us, with Beman 2 seconds behind us. It was obvious that it was going to be a tough day!

The next stage, SS6 was the longest of the event at 12.2 miles. Starting across the main road from the Sweet Lamb complex, the stage went through Tarenig, through the windfarm and into Myherin to finish near the Arch. It was clear to see that Dave was on a mission and had mentally moved up a gear. The notes were coming thick and fast and a few miles in we passed the Evo of Richard Ceen who had stopped with a puncture. This gave us a clear dust free run and apart from having to slow Dave up when he came at one the infamous crests on the section after the windfarm when he was traveling way to fast there were no problems. Both Beman and Humphreys lost time to us with moments on that crest. We recorded 2nd fastest time on the stage and with Damien Cole having collected two punctures it moved us up to 2nd overall.

The long delay of over an hour before the start of Elvis Rock (Sweet Lamb) did make me think that Dave may go off the boil as had happened on the Red Dragon, but I needn't have worried, he was straight back on it and recorded joint 3rd fastest to hold a 6 second advantage over Humphreys with Beman next up.


With just a 5.1 miler in Cwmsygawen left to run it was still very close. The three TEGSport cars were so close it was certainly not settled yet. Dave decided to remove the spare wheel, jack and toolkit to help save weight and hopefully hold our advantage. Not a wise move as it turned out. Removing around 28 kilos from the rear of the car upset the balance and made the car tail happy going into bends. That coupled with the fact Humphreys switched to a set of Pirellis allowed him to take 7 seconds out of us and get his nose in front by 1 second at the finish.

Back at the finish the organisers decided to cancel SS6, which while it didn't affect the overall result for us it meant that we lost the 8 seconds we had taken out of Humphreys so it stretched his final advantage to 9 seconds with us in 3rd overall, 4 seconds ahead of Beman. But a 2nd, 3rd and 4th overall for the Group N TEGSport Subarus was still a damn good result.

Once again Dave Howells and I were out for another thrash through the Welsh forests in the TEG Sport Subaru. After the result on the recent Mid Wales Stages we were hoping for a good run and rejoining battle with Wyn Humphreys once again. Sadly this was not to go to plan, as often happens in rallying. I will let Dave take up the story from here...

A bit disappointed with the day's work to be honest, had problems on every stage except the last two. Stage one we fluffed the start and the engine died on the line, it's a swine holding the biting point with the ALS on a hill and I just plain got it wrong, then we slid way wide on a hairpin right which cost us another couple of seconds. Was a bit rusty too which surprised me as it's only a fortnight since the Mid Wales Stages.

Stage 2 and I didn't really find my rhythm until about a mile and a half in. We came across a car off on the deceptive tightening hairpin left about 2/3 of the way through. Speccies slowed us right down as they were trying to get it out and we tootled through at walking pace mindful of the Graham Lewis incident on the Granite City. Brakes were also playing up and I could feel the cracked disc kicking back through the pedal.

Into emergency service, changed the disc and all four tyres which were shredded (new on at the start) and into Route 60 desperately trying to bed the brakes in before we started. Started SS3 and then went off on the downhill to L6 about a mile in, with the brakes being fresh the car just wouldn't stop in time. Luckily there was plenty of run off so we elected to take to the grass and back on the track 100 yards further down.

SS4 was our first clean run of the day until about halfway when we collected heavy dust which held us up to the end of the stage. Turns out Tim Pearcey had been off for 5 minutes and regained the road just before we came through so more time lost. Changed the other disc at service and more front tyres! SS5 and all was well until a mile and a half in when we collected a rear puncture which shredded and wrapped itself around the hub / strut. Drove it to the finish but dropped about 25 to 30 seconds in stage. Hate driving with a flat as you always wonder when you're going to lose the brakes. Changed it at the end of the stage and back into service.

Fitted 4 hard compound Kumhos and checked the damage at the rear. The flapping tyre carcass had sliced through the CV joint boot so we effected a quick repair with bailing wire and hypoid to see us to the end. SS6 and 7 were relatively drama free but looking at the results 4th was the best we could do. I think a problem free run would have seen us about level with Tristan Pye but we have to find some more pace from somewhere!

Since the event the car has been back to TEG Sport who seem to feel the turbo may have ingested some water at the ford on Sweet Lamb on the Mid Wales which accounts for our "off" day. So last I heard from Dave was the engine was coming out and being rebuilt in readiness for the Plains Rally where once again I will be sat alongside Dave Howells.

Dave prays to the Kumho God for more grip

Don't think we will keep this one

Dave giving it some on 4 Counties corner

Back after a couple of months break I was once more sat alongside Dave Howells in the TEGSport Subaru while Mad Mick had the pleasure of Neil Dashfield alongside him for the day. With the new corporate nomex making it's first appearance, I was looking far more respectable in a suit that now fits. Mick was quite taken by the new design and may well be sporting a matching suit for the Roger Albert Clark Rally in November.

Dave had decided to use the event as an extended tyre test. A set of Pirelli KM6's being evaluated during the day. With the first blast through Mick's yard I was able to put my "local knowledge" to good use and had already told Dave where to go steady and at the end of the first stage he agreed that it had been useful. Obviously Mick was going to be having fun in his own yard and he entertained the gathered spectators with a nice spin for them. Once the rally moved into the forests it became apparent that the Pirellis were far superior in straight line braking but didn't suit Dave's more sideways style and a number of moments throughout the day only underlined this point. I even asked Dave to "tidy it up" at one stage.

Mick was having fun and grinning all the way, until rounding a corner in Taliesin to find son Stuart's Evo 9 upside down. This caused Neil to have to nag him to concentrate for the rest of the stage. But even the upended Evo failed to wipe the grin off his face for long. A shame for Stuart as he had been leading up until this point.

By second service at Machynlleth the decision to bin the Pirellis had been made and a switch back to Kumhos was made for Gartheiniog. Dave was soon back into his usual neat but sideways style... and the time was better. Maybe we will try something else another time, but for now the Kumhos seem to suit Dave's style. We ended the day 10th overall, so we were happy enough with the day. Next event will be the Bulldog in October, when we will be competing on the Clubmans event.

On a final note, don't believe it when you hear people say that having local knowledge is an advantage. On the second run of the Woodyard stage through Mad Micks timber yard he managed a time that was 118th fastest... Ok, he did spin and had to be pushed back... but local knowledge doesn't always help..! Anyway, he picked up a pot for winning his class so he must have been doing something right.

Dave Howells entering the Woodyard

Mad Mick in Chaos 1

Simon Clarke wonders where the rallycars went

A late decision to do the Bulldog Clubmans Rally was made after the Plains Rally in September. Dave was unable to compete on the Cambrian Rally in November due to family commitments, so the decision was made to wheel out the TEG Sport Imprezza once again for this event. Seeded second on the road behind last years winner, Jimmy Christie in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI and with Owain Beman behind us in another N10 Imprezza the scene was set for a good days sport. The format of the Clubmans Rally was to do the first two stages behind the main ANCRO runners, then leapfrog ahead to do the final two stages ahead of the main field, with just the one service halt at the Farmers Mart in Dolgellau.

First stage, Dyfnant saw Dave head the field 4 seconds ahead of the next car. Once more Dave was running Kumhos after trying Pirellis on the Plains and not finding them to his liking. His neat and tidy style was well suited to the fast flowing stages and when we reached service after SS2 Dave had opened the gap to 24 seconds. We changed the front tyres at service and pulled out another 20 seconds through Dyfi main to widen the gap to 44 seconds. With the car running faultlessly as ever, the service crew had a very quiet day with only fuel needed between stages. The final run through Dyfnant in reverse was all that was left and Dave eased the pace on the final stage to bring the car home with a 46 second advantage over Jimmy Christie at the end. This gave Dave a well deserved win, a fine way to end the season.

The day passed without any moments to speak of, well except for one really. Dave misheard the notes for the final bend at the end of Dyfi Main, it was L5> into L6>. Somehow Dave didn't pickup on the L6> which saw him come into the final bend a little too fast. We scrabbled round safely, but did take out the flying finish board with the rear quarter which I must admit did raise a chuckle from the passenger seat at the time!

Spraying the bubbly at the finish!

And a little drink for the car too!

"I think it's time we took the Escort out for a blast, I'm putting an entry in for the Cambrian" said Mick. "And I'm not using the organisers notes, so get your maps ready!" Great, just what I was wanting to hear... Penmachno on the maps..! Real fun... especially with Mick all fired up and raring to go. So maps it was, mind you next year I am going to bite the bullet and buy some new ones for Penmachno and Clocaenog... mine are now 15 years old and a bit past their sell by date..! But as Mick said, "Penmachno is no problem... it's just wiggle wiggle wiggle hairpin... wiggle wiggle wiggle hairpin... wiggle wiggle wiggle hairpin...finish!" Cloc is far easier so no worries.. just Haffoty to get him through without a repeat of last years roll...sigh!

Everything was going fine until midway through the second Penmachno when Mick decides to flick a switch on the dash to turn the demister on, the car hits a bump and he misses the switch and knocks a fuse out and into the drivers footwell..! "I wonder if that's important?" he yells. A few seconds later he finds out as the engine dies... it was for the fuel pumps..! "Oh ****..!" Then there is a mad scrabble to find the fuse and replace it... it took around 20 seconds... but he didn't stop grinning.
A hard charging Henri John-Grehan had us looking for more speed as he was really giving us a bit of a beating and it has made Mick realise that he is certainly going to have to refettle the old girl's suspension for next year to really be competitive. A delay before SS4 - Alwen saw Mick collared by John Bannister about putting in an entry for the Roger Albert Clark - we had decided to give it a miss this year due to pressures of work, but Bannister said that his father Steve was so upset that Mick wasn't coming up for a battle again this year and that he really should have a rethink. We then queued for service after SS5 and was collared by Steve Bannister himself who was servicing for son John, who then managed to talk Mick into doing the Roger Albert. Now all I had to do was get him to the finish the right way up... something I had not managed in this Escort so far... the last two outings both ending on the roof..! That fact that we had lost 1st gear didn't seem to worry Mick and didn't seem to slow him and it was only on reaching final service before the last run round the Great Orme we found that Henri John-Grehan had retired with steering rack failure and we had won the class by around 35 seconds. Now it was a case of sorting the old girl out for the Roger Albert Clark.
Well after a last minute decision on the Cambrian Rally two weeks previously to enter the Roger Albert Clark Rally it was a bit of a mad dash to get the car readied for the rally. The gearbox needed to be rebuilt and Mick decided that the wiring loom left a lot to be desired and decided to rip the whole lot out and rewire the car totally. But the car was ready and made it to scrutineering as the last car to be scrutineered on the Thursday evening in a very chilly Harrogate.
So with a nice day dawning for the start of the rally Mick was in his usual relaxed mood... a leisurely breakfast in the motorhome and then off we went. Straight into a bit of typical chaos..! At the end of the first stage around the showground at Harrogate Mick said the clutch was playing up only to lose it completely on the startline of SS2. Luckily he managed to start it on the button and completed the stage without much time loss. But getting to emergency service was a bit more of a headache but we managed without too much of a problem. A simple case of the clutch adjuster winding itself out was the culprit and was soon remedied. Onwards towards the Dalby complex and we knew the Banner would simply destroy us in there. That car of his was just in a different league when it came to traction off the line. We just sat there and watched him go then looked at each other and shook our heads. The difference in traction was amazing between us, we reckoned we were losing around half a second to him on every bend. Mick muttered something along the lines of "We need a Proflex rear end..!" and scabbled our way into the stage. By the time the six stages were complete Banner was over two minutes ahead of us. Ok, he was chucking new rears on every stage and our tyre choice could have been better, but we could do nothing about him.
The last run through Langdale Mick said the car would not physically go any faster and he was still 10 seconds faster than we could manage in 8 miles. What more could we do...????

Next up was two runs around Croft race circuit. Once more tyres were to let us down. Basically they were crap and wouldn't turn in or brake. We lost around 20 seconds in the two runs and it dropped us down a few places. Onwards to Greystoke. The only stage run in the dark this year, which is a shame as Mick goes so well in the dark. Just 3 seconds off Banner, now that was better and we took a good chunk of time out of those in front of us to end the day just behind Jeremy Esson back in Carlisle, with Banner a country mile in the lead.

The restart on Saturday morning had everyone talking about the weather. Was there snow up in Ae...? We were soon to find out. Mick was now grinning like a Chesire cat as we approached to stage to find around two inches of the white stuff. While waiting to start the stage the start marshal came up and said there was going to be a bit of a delay. The last hysteric had taken over 6 minutes to reach junction 6 which was only just over 3 miles in. Mick's grin got even bigger..! Now Mick loves the snow and to see him in Ae was a treat, even though I was rather busy most of the time. He never put a foot wrong and took 9 seconds out of Banner and 16 out of Easson to move back into 2nd overall behind Banner. It was enough to make Banner drop some road time and drop behind us so he could keep an eye on our times as it was only a puncture between us or a slight off like his roll last year and we could be back head to head again.

Rod through the block and does he look bothered???

"Well Jimmy is there going to be snow in Ae...??"

After Ae it was the short blast around the spectator stage at Heathhall then the return to Ae and Heathhall once more. Our second run through Ae was spoiled by a problem with one of the bonnet pins being pulled out when Mick took a cut straight through a bush. This allowed the passenger side of the bonnet to lift which meant I was navigating by feel as I couldn't see over the raised bonnet my side. It also meant that Mick had to back off on the straights otherwise it was likely to rip the bonnet off completely. At service everyone was talking about Jimmy McRae who was getting quicker and quicker in the Stobart Escort. The talk was that nobody was going to beat him in Castle O'er and Twiglees. There were a few raised eyebrows when the times came through and Mick was quickest from a tying Banner and McRae on Castle O'er by 2 seconds. It was definitely the stage of the rally for us. Pure magic! What made it all the more impressive was that Mick had only ever driven it twice before on last years event and then it was in the dark and thick fog..! I knew that I was reading for my life on that stage and we must have both had the biggest grins on the event as we came over the flying finnish. You know when you have set a good time and that felt good.

It was on to Kershope and Ash Park for the final two stages of the day before the overnight back in Carlisle. One thing I must mention about Kershope is the bunch of Belgian spectators who have been over every year to watch this event. They keep popping up on the stages and everytime we see them they are jumping up and down with delight and waving madly. This time they were on the outside of a particularly muddy uphill 90 left. I realised at the last minute what Mick was up to as we approached the bend and saw the dozen or so Belgians jumping up and down and waving. Mick gave it a huge flick full sideways, squared it up and floored it hard. The resulting shower of mud totally covered the poor Belgians from head to foot in sticky Kershope mud..! We saw them back at service and they were all laughing about it, at least they saw the funny side of it too..!

Day three and we were now running second on the road behind Banner. Once again Banner dropped back on the road section to keep a check on us, though barring a mechanical problem or an off we were not going to catch him. On the Open Rally the next car was over 5 minutes behind us. So barring a problem we were not likely to be caught either. But our Keilder jinx was about to jump up and bite us on the bum again..! It started in Kershope when we picked up a rear puncture and Mick elected to drive 3 miles finishing on just the rim. We dropped around 30 seconds. At emergency service just afterwards, the co-driver of the car who was 3rd in the Open Rally came up to check our time. He was downhearted to find that he had only taken 3 seconds out of us and went away shaking his head. Up until now we had been running Dunlops. Mick now decided to try a set of Kumhos for the next stage, Bewshaugh. We were like an accident waiting to happen and I told Mick to "tidy it up" on a few occasions. He replied by saying he was just trying to stay on the ****ing road..! Back to Dunlops at next service..!

In the service the Keilder jinx was rearing it's ugly head... We were low on oil. When we left a trail of oil was spotted but it was too late and we were off into the next stage before anything could be done.

It transpired that the damage had been done in Kershope. The road had been scalloped out on the approach to a bridge and we had bottomed out hard going onto it. This it seemed had cracked the sump. Near the end of Roughside Mick noticed the oil pressure fluctuating. Nothing could be done as there was no emergency service between stages. So it was either risk it or retire gracefully. Now retiring is not in Mick's vocabulary unless it's upside down usually. So we went into Pundershaw 1. About 2 miles in on a long fifth gear straight one of the conrods cried enough and let go with a big bang while on the limiter in fifth. The car filled with smoke and we looked at each other. "Oooops...!" Time to park it up.

Now to add irony to the retirement I pointed out to Mick that the point at which we retired was the closest physical point that the route passed to where we rolled into retirement on last years event. Not a half a mile away from the junction we parked up. Looks like that part of Keilder has it in for us. Our one other retirement from the old Network Q Rally was also here in Keilder back in '94. So it was back in the box and look forward to next years event. We will return and Keilder can have another try at defeating us.

The weekend after the Roger Albert Clark Rally I was once again sat next to Mr Jones. Not Mick and not Stuart either. This time it was Mick's youngest son Darren in his 1400 Peugeot 205 down at my local single venue event at Talbenny. This was only Darren's second rally having not long passed his test. So I was not sure what to expect from him. We decided to just take the day as it came and see how it went.

From the start I could see Darren was eager to have a go and he wasn't afraid to use his right foot. The stages were somewhat waterlogged to say the least and the stage maps were not the best I have ever seen but as I knew the venue pretty well I didn't really need them that much. What was apparent was that young Darren was having a bit of a battle with the steering on the car plus the handbrake didn't really do that much either. With Mick relegated to service crew for the day we were determined not to cause him too much grief and aimed to bring the car back in one piece.

At the end of the first stage Darren was laying 4th in class and had certainly coped well with the very slippery conditions. We did have one guy in an Imprezza whingeing at the finish of SS2 that we had held him up, well if he couldn't get past a 1400 Pug in a 4WD Imprezza I don't think much of his driving..! But it takes all sorts I suppose. No one else complained not that many were coming past us anyway!

As the day progressed Darren had a few little moments, one in particular when he clipped a large tractor tyre and attacked a fence. Not satisfied with that, when the stages were reversed in the afternoon he again had another bite at the fence, this time without the aid of the tractor tyre to launch him into it.. just like his dad..sigh!!

The final two stages were run in the dark which we did without the aid of spotlights which did cost us some time, but we made it to the finish a creditable 2nd in class which saw Darren achieve something neither Mick nor Stuart achieved, which was to win a pot with me alongside first time out.

So another Jones is now on the loose on the stages. We had a lovely 360 on one of the stages which made Darren's day. He said it was worth the trip just for that spin alone. Strange creatures drivers...! I'll never work out the logic in that one..! But good one Daz... keep on pedaling and watch out for grumpy Imprezza drivers..!