My brief rally career

Over the coming months there will be many stories on here from my rallying days when i used to be a codriver. For now a brief overview of my career follows -

I started out doing 12 car navigational events in the Northern Exposure championship. First one was in 1995. In total I did 44 with 2 different drivers, getting 5 wins, 4 seconds and 7 thirds. I was first novice in 1995/96 and runner up overall with Paul Bunch in 96/97 and 97/98 seasons. Great way to learn maps and was great fun.

1997 - Started stage rallying with Chris Hodson in a mk2 Escort. First ever event at the Tour of Lincs Rally. Also did my first road rally with Paul Bunch in a borrowed mk1 Escort finishing 3rd novice.

1998 - Finished runner up in class in the Welsh National Championship alongside Chris Hodson. Also started doing a few more road rallies with Lee Bartlett in a Fiesta.

1999 - The year things started to change for me. Had 4 rallies with Richard Sykes in a Peugeot 106 when his regular codriver couldn't. Best result was 1st in class in Somerset where we were fastest on 11 of the 12 stages, the other we had a head on with a tree. Had a 1st overall on the Saw & Weld Novice Road Rally with Lee, winning by over 8 minutes.

2000 - Did the Peugeot Cup alongside Richard Sykes. Runner up on round 3 was best result but crashed out of the lead of round 4, which was my first roll. Did a one off rally on the Tour of Flanders with Robin Bolt, my first over seas rally and finished the year on such a high and an amazing experience when i finished 3rd in class alongside Sykes on the World Rally Championship Rally GB. A guy called Seb Loeb won the class, wonder what happened to him.

2001 - The experiences just got better and better as I went to Barbados for a weekend to do a rally there with my driver for the year Barry Mayers, finishing 9th overall and winning our class. Prize giving on the beach is the way to go.

2002 - Low key stage rally year but won the AWMCC Road Rally championship alongside Lee Bartlett with a 1st in class, a 2nd and a 3rd.

2003 - Won the Peugeot Winter cup alongside my new driver Stuart Jones. Started off with 5 rallies to earn the seat and we did 27 together this year, winning our class 9 times. We won our first ever Peugeot cup round and were also BTRDA class A6 winners. Low of the year was when we crashed out of both days of the rally in Scotland.

2004 - Amazing year. Peugeot 206 cup champion alongside Stuart, winning 3 rounds and being fastest crew on over half of the stages. We won the title on the final round when we lead from stage 1. BTRDA A6 runner up thanks to Robin Bolt and voted Wolverhampton & South Staffs car club competitor of the year.

2005 - Hard to follow 2004, but actually had one of my most enjoyable years in the most professional team I had the pleasure of being in when I was alongside Ed Stallard in the VRS run Mitsubishi Evo 8. Mixed year results wise but great experience. Helped Richard Sykes to his first Peugeot win on a one off winter cup outing.

2006 - Won the brand new Fiesta Championship with 2 wins and 2 seconds alongside Chris Moore. The championship went to the last stage where our main rival crashed and we needed to finish 2nd, which we did by .8 of a second. Also won the ANCRO Clubmans championship and finished the season with an outing on Rally GB.

2007 - Turned out to be my last full season. Finished 2nd codriver in the Fiesta championship alongside Elfyn Evans, son of Gwyndaf. High pressure season with mixed results including a very big accident. Finished the year with an amazing class win on the Rally GB, winning our class by 5 minutes.

I then quit the sport for reasons which will come out in later blogs. I've only been tempted back out on a road rally with the late Paul Adams and on single venue events with Ken Moore in his Subaru.

I'd like to thank all my drivers along the way for the great experience and chances given to me, there family's who always made me welcome, the teams I was in, all the mechanics who had to fix the cars, all the championship and event organisers, the speccys who have got us out of holes and all the fellow competitors I had the pleasure to meet. I've been very lucky to meet a lot of great people.

All my drivers - Paul Bunch, Chris Hodson, Shane Gamble, Lee Bartlett, Richard Sykes, Mark Gamble, Pat MacArthur, Robin Bolt, Barry Mayers, Simon Rigsby, Mandy Twynham, Alan Doncaster, Olly Marshall, Stuart Jones, Shaun Woodhouse, Ed Stallard, Chris Moore, Nick Edwards, Elfyn Evans, Paul Adams, Ken Moore.

To the Abbey and back

Leeds Abbey Dash 2012 - Sunday 18th November 2012

I always used to get nervous the morning of a rally, most of which was understandable with the dangers involved.  One bad note from me could affect our result, and maybe our whole season.  So I was a little surprised to be getting the same feelings the morning of the Leeds Abbey Dash.

This was to be my first 10k run, first big event with over 9000 people registering for the dash from Leeds City centre to Kirkstall Abbey and back.  Thankfully a fairly flat course for a distance i knew deep down i could do having run just over 9k with running club, but the nervous feeling was down to the fear of failing.  Personal pride was all that was at stake but my competitive side that i used to have was starting to come out.

Well i soon found myself at the mass start proudly wearing my Hyde Park Harriers running vest alongside my running buddy for the day Manesha.  We had been running together on a Tuesday night at running club and were happy to run at similar pace.  Officially the only target we had was to finish but deep down I wanted to be around the hour mark using my 5k pace plus a bit.  We were just going to take it steady though and see where that got us.

It was a sunny but chilly morning when the clock ticked round to 9.30 and the excitement was building.  Slowly we made our way to the start line finally crossing it a good 10 minutes after the fastest had started.  I managed to glance Tina, Liam, Peter and Rita my fan club for the day as we got going and was waved off.

The first K went quicker then expected without pushing hard.  We were just finding a comfortable place on the road and finding a steady pace.  I had said i wouldn't clock watch but had a glance and was surprised to see it was sub 6 minutes.  In my head I had split the run into 4 sections.  From the start to the viaduct which was about 2k, from there to the turn at 5k, back to the viaduct and then the run to the finish.

I felt good as we passed the 2k mark and was really enjoying the experience, not long after we started to see the faster runners returning up the road.  This actually helped me as i was trying to spot fellow Hyde Park Harriers and before i knew it the Abbey was in sight.  The turn brought the water station which was a bit manic but then we could settle in for the return run.  I started to feel my knee at this point but it was probably my mind just playing tricks.  Manesha and i both seemed happy with the pace even if conversation had dropped.  Passing the viaduct again and we knew we had less then 15 minutes of running left, but there was an incline before the run to the finish.

We were actually starting to pass a few as we climbed up, the Tuesday night practice of this part of the route was paying off and when we came round the last corner the finish was in sight.  Manesha suggested we find a sprint but i had none to give, but with a bit more encouragement we gave it a go.  Crossing the finish line was a great feeling, we had finished our first ever 10k and it was great that it was at a big event like this.  We were both delighted and looking at my watch suggested we had beaten the hour mark but i wanted to wait for the official result.  We collected our drinks, handed back our timing chips and finally got our finishers T-shirt.  Next time i need to run quicker as they only had large left, bit of incentive there.  Finally getting back to Tina the time had already come through on text, 59 minutes 59 seconds.  Buzzing was an understatement.  The whole atmosphere had been great, running in club colours added to it as we got plenty of encouragement along the way.

I know I'm not fast as I was one of the slowest Hyde Park Harriers men to complete the route but this was more about personal achievement.  What next??

Why me

Why should I blog -

To be honest I'm just a normal family guy, happily married with a young boy and another on the way. I work Monday to Friday for a steel company. 18 years i have worked for them under different names (British Steel, Corus and now Tata) and for the last 5 years this has been in Leeds after moving up from my home in Wolves.

So nothing to interest people really. I used to have an exciting hobby as i used to be a codriver in rallying. I was the guy who told the driver where to go, while going 100 mph through a forest or down a narrow lane. In my time i didn't do too bad, won the odd piece of glass and made many friends along the way. I was also lucky enough to get to travel around the UK, France, Belgium and Barbados.

I wanted to write a book so my boy (s) could read in years to come what i had done in the past rather then think what a boring dad they have. The problem was i struggled to even get started even though i have plenty of stories and experiences in my head to share, putting it onto paper was proving hard. A friend of mine has a blog mainly for the photography and so i decided this could be a way to get my stories across with out having to link them all up. Also over the last year i have found a new love to replace rallying but still allowing me to get out and being competitive even if its only with my self. Running has given me a new lease of life and hopefully i can share some of the experiences i get along this new journey i am taking along with a few event reports. If your all lucky i may even share feelings on subjects i usually keep to myself and share my inner most demons.. or maybe not as i don't want to scare you all off.

I don't even mind how few people will ready any of my ramblings, those that do i hope you find them enjoyable. I will welcome feed back along the way on style or content but go easy on me especially at first. Enjoy.