The first two stages in Hafren were wet and slippery and Kim took her time getting used to the extra grunt under her right foot. Also for the first time she had a working handbrake and was looking forward to trying some handbrake turns (with mixed results...!) On SS2 just after the start of the stage the screen misted up and I had to loosen my belts to reach the heater controls and clear the screen, before catching up on the notes.

A quick service at Sweet Lamband it was off to Myherin and Kim was starting to pick up the pace a little. But on reaching the windfarm the car started to fill with oil smoke. This alarmed Kim a little, but as the car was still driving fine with no oil lights flashing and no loss of power I told her to keep driving, we finally reached the end of the stage and a quick check under the bonnet didn't throw any more light on the subject.

Onwards to a very bumpy Sweet Lamb... apart from nearly rear ending a stricken Manta there were no dramas... plenty of giggles... but no dramas...!

With me starting to push Kim along in a few places things were going great... but by the end of the stage Kim was starting to huff and puff a bit. Definitely needs to get some time in the gym with brother Stuart methinks..!

At second service Paul Dark and Stan the Man found the reason for the oil smoke on SS3... the sump plug had worked loose and we had lost most of the oil.

Must be a tough little engine though as it was still working fine and we had not had the oil light flash at all. A gallon of oil later and we were good to go for the final stage Pike's Peak.

Kim really enjoyed that stage and was starting to drift the car nicely on the long uphill hairpins and shrieking with laughter most of the way through the stage.

The end of the stage came all too soon for Kim and she would have gone around for another run given chance. Though on the run back to Newtown she had to admit she was knackered. For the first time though she brought the car home with all the bits of bodywork intact. She never put a foot wrong all day and with a few more rallies to help build her confidence the girl will get quicker and quicker.

Next event is the Coracle Stages and once more I will be back alongside and egging her on once more. Just need to find somewhere for her to hang her handbag ...

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Now Reg had just fitted power steering to the little Nova and it took the first half of the event for him to get to grips with it. The first stage we seemed to spend most of the time looking out of the side windows and some "interesting" lines through the first few corners certainly made me realise that this was going to be a very entertaining day to say the least..!

One thing I soon came to realise was how much I was missing Dave Howells' Reiger suspension and before halfway there was a definite ache coming from my rear end...! Perhaps I should consider carrying a cushion...?

One thing about sitting with Reg is that he is certainly a trier and attacks every stage as if Loeb and Hirvonen were snapping at his heels..! And he never stops smiling..! The car ran well and never missed a beat and apart from some fuel and a kick of the tyres at service there was very little to do.

The aim of the day had been to get into the top ten 1400's and if Reg did that then he was going to be happy. Infact we had worked our way up to 8th 1400, but a couple of over exuberant moments from Reg saw us lose a little timeand drop back a place to 9th at the finish.

I had to admit to giving a little chuckle approaching one particular square right in the afternoon. I had said to Reg that he had cocked it up a little in the morning and to try and get it right this time. He certainly did that and scattered the photographers stood there when he failed to stop in time for it. I saw a few of them with the elbows pumping madly as they dashed for cover, quite funny to watch from where I was..! Old Reg never fails to amuse..!

But we had a good day and finished third in the BTRDA 1400 points so everyone was happy at the end of the day.

Prior to the Severn Valley National a visit to the Phil Price Rallyschool was planned for some pre event testing as Dave felt it was time to play around with suspension settings to try and improve the Impreza's handling. For the last few events Dave had felt there were improvements to be made and changing settings on an event is not really a wise move. So around 30 miles were done and at the end of the session Dave felt that we had moved ahead with the car. But the only real way to evaluate the car properly was to see how we fared the following day.

With seven stages and around 65 miles it would give us chance to see if the changes had improved the car. We started the day with optimism, we knew that the Evo's would destroy us over the fast Radnor stage but felt we should hold our own over the likes of Crychan, Esgair Dafydd and Halfway where we normally tend to go quite well.

We were in for a bit of a shock though. We seemed to be well off the pace right from the off. In retrospect there were a number of contributing factors to this.
Prior to the event Dave had not had a chance to review the DVD and notes so in many ways he felt very cautious and was backing off in a number of places where he would not normally be backing off.

© Chris Ingram - Highgrove RallySport

Added to this it was taking a lot longer to come to terms with the changes in the handling of the Impreza and it was not until the final stage of the day, the 15.5 miles of Crychan that Dave felt happy with his performance, but the tyres had gone off before the start of the stage and were well past their sell-by date when we reached the finish, having notched up a quick spin towards the end of the stage.

While we knew we would not be troubling the likes of Mr Bogie and Mr Cathcart on the day we were still way off our normal pace and we both felt very downhearted with our performance at the finish. A close inspection of the incar video will be made to see what we can glean from that and see if we can work out if it is us at fault or had we gone too far with the changes. As usual the Impreza never missed a beat all day and with just fuel and tyres for our solitary service crewman, none other than "Ted the Shed" with his permanent smile welded in place, to attend to it was business as usual.

For the eagled eyed amongst you a slight change to our normal TEG Sport livery was apparent with new sponsor Crosshands Square Shopping Centre now emblazoned across the bonnet. We are hopeful of announcing another exciting new sponsor in the very near future.

After the two early retirements on both the Wyedean and Malcolm Wilson we were both adamant that our run of bad luck had finally come to an end and that the Red Dragon would see a change in our fortunes. Surely it wouldn't hit again. Whatever we both thought about at the start of stage three one thiing that was not mentioned was would we grind to a halt one again on SS3. Neither of us broached the subject though it was definitely on our minds. But there was a sigh of relief when we passed the flying finish boards from both of us.

The new format of scrutineering on the morning of the event and the compact nature of the event was a big hit with everyone from competitors to spectators and it was just a shame that the BTRDA had dropped the event from it's championship - a big mistake in the eyes of many competitors.

One crowd puller on the event was Stuart Jones in the works MG Super 2000 Sport who was using the event as an extended test session in readiness for his BRC assault this year. Stuart actually won the event by 14 seconds but sportingly declined to hand in his timecards at the final time control handing the win to Hugh Hunter in the Focus WRC. Once more Damian Cole in the Hyundai Accent WRC was the bridesmaid coming second to Hunter and followed into third by Peter Eggerton also in a Hyundai Accent WRC.

We on the otherhand were getting back into the flow of things both feeling rather rusty with very little seat time this year. But with no dramas to speak of we cruised into 4th overall and won Group N by over a minute at the finish.

As usual the TEG Sport Impreza ran faultlessly and we "self serviced" ourselves as our regular service man, Wayne, was not available. But we were in the SJR service area and fed and watered by Sandy from their motorhome.

Though we did look a little like the poor relations as we changed tyres and refueled while a gaggle of MSD engineers descended on the MG as soon as it arrived. This exciting new car was soon surrounded by a throng of spectators all interested in the mean machine.

The weather in the service area was clear and sunny but very windy and cold, but this didn't deter the large number of spectators who came out to support this very popular event and while the event did not boast a capacity entry it did not lack quality. Port Talbot Motor Club must be applauded for putting on the event when faced with making a large loss and every competitor on the event thoroughly enjoyed the compact format of the rally and would willingly have gone out for another loop of stages if we had been allowed.

Red Dragon 2008 - SS5 Rheola 2 - Dave Howells/Andy Morgan - Subaru Impreza Group N

The stages were looking good and we were looking forward to getting to Grizedale. Comparing our times to our efforts on last years event when conditions were slightly better we were pleased to see we were well inside the times set in 2007. After SS2 Comb we were encouraged to see we were ahead of Jock Armstrong, Alistair Tough and Dave Wright, with Wayne Scisson ahead of us. It looked like N4 was going to be a tough battle.

The car was performing faultlessly and Dave was happy as we went into SS3 Wythop. About two thirds of the way through the stage a R4 into L2 combination saw our untimely exit. A patch of gravel on the outside of the bend saw the back step out of line a little more than it should. Dave had to lift off because of the fast approaching bank whereupon the car fishtailed and we were still going right when the road went left.

The outcome was that we were left beached with our front wheels off the road over a large drop... end of rally.

There was only two spectators on hand to help us try and extricate the stricken car, but it was to no avail as we were well and truly beached. We were relegated to spectators with a lovely view over Bassenthwaite Lake. We did learn one thing though from the two local spectators who had tried to help us out, that Bassenthwaite Lake is the only lake in the Lake District... all the rest are Meres or Waters.

When the stage closed a passing 4x4 hooked onto our towrope and the car popped back onto the road with not a single scratch on it. Is this the curse of the onboard camera...? Or is it just one of those things. I know I will feel happier when I see the finish boards of SS3 on our next event flash past..!

With two non scores on the first two events of the season it now means we will have to stop and have a think about which direction we take our season from here. There a number of events which we are unable to compete on this year for one reason or another so a rethink may well be in order.

Just watch this space for details...

With the first event of the 2008 BTRDA season finally here the TEGSport Impreza was ready for action once again. After the winter break both Dave and I were ready to get back into the stages once more.

But the event was to see an uncharacteristic early bath for the crew when a driveshaft let go a mile from the end of SS3 causing a spin entering a hairpin left, much to the enjoyment of the gathered spectators. We limped the car out of the stage, but with a fairly lengthy road section and another stage to go before service at Chepstow racecourse it was decided to retire the car as the resulting time lost saw the chance of any decent points go out of the window.

On reflection though the stage times were incouraging. The first stage was quite muddy in places and it took a few miles for Dave to get back into the groove. SS2 was the very fast Serridge stage with the extremely quick tarmac section in the middle. One thing about the stage stuck in my mind was a bump two thirds of the way through the stage. We hit the bump at a fair lick and on watching the incar video you could see my head almost hit my knees! It took my breath away and made my eyes water! It's funny, but it always seems faster when you see the incar videos after the event. It never seems quite that quick when it's actually happening.

For the first event of 2008 I found myself swapping seats from the TEGSport Impreza of Dave Howells to the 1400 Peugeot 205 of Kim Jones. This meant I was making a little bit of history as I was the only co-driver to have sat with all four of the rallying Jones's and all on the same event, the Red Kite.

Kim has done a few events late last year in the little Pug and has managed to reach the finish on each occasion, so I hoped that I could help her continue that trait.

With the typical wintery conditions we knew it was going to be a tough event but I was pleasantly suprised with how well Kim drove. She seems to have that same old family flare and streak of maddness that runs through all of them. I had switched Kim on to the 1 - 5 system of notes as I thought she would find it less confusing and told her not to worry about the 1 to 3's and just take care on the 4's and 5's. By the second half of the rally she was getting well into it and increasing her pace on each stage.

By the time we reached service we had managed to break an engine mount and lose a headlight on SS2 when we caught an ailing Sunbeam and Kim had to force her way past round the outside of him on a hairpin left. Also the rear bumper was starting to part company with the car. It seems that the family tradition of shedding bits of car around the stages is alive and well in Kim.

On the second loop of stages the tankguard was also starting to part company too. But on the final stage in Halfway we got beached in some ruts on an uphill 5 Right. Now these ruts were a foot deep and the Pug bellied out with the wheels off the ground. The tankguard stopped us pushing the car back as it dug into the ground like a plough so we were stuck fast. Time was ticking away when out of the gloom came Ted the Shed complete with videocam who tried to give us a hand to move the car along with another spectator who was still lurking in the trees. In the effort to move the car Ted even dropped his camera in the mud much to my amusement, but I was very good and didn't laugh (much). Finally the Course Closing 4x4 came to our rescue and towed us off the ruts and we continued to finish the stage.

On arriving at the finish we find we have been classified OTL but on checking we are actually still 2 minutes inside maximum lateness but results had been declared final and the organisers let the result stand. OK after taking a maximum on the final we were last but it should have been classified as a finish for Kim and 3rd in class too.

But next time we'll show them... looking forward to sitting next to here again. But I do hope she stops pulling the choke out and hanging her handbag on it..!

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