Frustrating End To The Plains
04/10/2006
After dominating the 1400 section early on, building up an impressive 30 second lead, Seb Marshall and driver David Bogie failed to finish after a puncture caused severe suspension damage to their little Nova.
The short blast round the 1 mile, spectator friendly, Woodyard stage saw the pair start with a small 4 second advantage heading into the forests of Mid Wales.
However, there was drama from the start of SS2 as the car was down on power off the start line. Despite this, and catching the course car in the final mile, they were still an impressive 10 seconds faster than anyone else! Whilst the next test was cancelled, the crew arrived at emergency service to discover that the fan belt had fallen off, and that the car was dangerously low on battery. Thankfully the service crew managed to fix this and send the car on its way.
Further impressive runs through the classic Dyfi and Pantperthog stages saw the lead increase to just under 30 seconds going into SS6. But this stage was to be the young teams eventual undoing as the car picked up a puncture and understeered into a ditch, impacting heavily with a rock, which unbeknown to them damaged the suspension heavily. A quick tyre change wasn't enough to keep going, as at the first tight left of the following stage the car promptly understeered onto a bank, game over.
"It's gutting to have retired in this way, the stages were fantastic, and we were both really enjoying the rally." commented Seb "We just have to look to the Cambrian now to pull something back after two DNF's, which I have every confidence we can do."
The Cambrian Rally takes place on the 4th Novemeber and is the final round of the BTRDA championship.
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