First of all I’ve got to say Thank You and Well Done to Sue & Pete Barnard, Mark Butler, Jean Parker and everyone else who helped organised and run this years rally! And what a rally it was! Many people say the Welsh Events are best, if this is true, this should be in the Welsh Championship!

With only 21 on the entry list it was a little disappointing for so much hard work to struggle for entries. But it went ahead and I’m glad it did!
Noise, Scrutineering and signing on was all slick and easy as it was all on the way into the industrial park and easy to follow! Cara’s Diner was the perfect start venue for the rally, any more entries and it may need to be in somewhere a little bigger!

Onto the plotting. Exmouth like to make them tight! Its between this one and the Equinox (the other event Exmouth MC run) which has been the hardest rallies to plot for me. Very compact meaning very little amounts of space to write anything down on the map. There was a lot of points as well! With 90 minutes to plot we almost didn’t make it! But had the whole route down and even managed to go to the toilet before the off!

Very near to the start was a farm. In the southwest its usually people complaining and trying to stop events, but this farmer loved it! The best way I can describe it is by a small go-kart track made out of square bales. Usually the farms used would be a hairpin around a round bale, or through a shed, but this one reminded me of a short section of the pacemakers famous woodyard. 90 Right into hairpin left, into 90 left followed by a hairpin right, 90 right into hairpin left and 90 right to the control. And all nice and soft so we could swing the back end of the Subaru out! Brilliant little section!!! Also I noticed a lot of speccy’s out! Again, something you don’t see much of in the South West, really good to see them!
The rest of the route was tight, twisty and muddy. The whites were rough and there was plenty of them. With 3 pages of 8 or 10 diagrams the nav’s were kept on there toes at a lot of the junctions! All used well with a few not used long way around to catch some people out!

Caution Yump. I will remember this caution for a long time! A lot of speccy’s out on a straight through crossroads. Lucas remembered it from last year! I couldn’t stop laughing for ages after and almost missed the next call. Was not expecting it to be like that at all!!

We arrived at petrol a couple minutes early to see only a few cars in and some being worked on. The whites took its tole on the crews and around 7 or 8 cars were out with problems. We on the other hand, with the four wheel drive, just had to top up the fuel and go and have a chat with everyone else!

The second half was really nice, smooth, slick and slippy. All very cleanable which was a change from the first half! Only dropping one minute where we went the wrong way around a triangle (my bad!).

We arrived at the end with only 3 cars infront of us. We were seeded at car 8 so a couple had dropped off. When the results were announced, we had come third overall and won semi-experts! My best result yet, and for it to be on a event that challenging, was brilliant!
Got to say a huge thanks to Lucas for driving! Got a lot of skill! If only the car could be used in Wales, we would be up there showing how us ‘south westerners’ do it! (Get a Mk2 and we’ll do it!)

I can’t recommend this event more! And 1 week before the Cilwendeg, its a perfect challenge to give the car a rundown or have a run if your with a new nav/driver. Only £69 for the entry and well worth it! Look out for this event next year! I’ll definitely be back!

Daniel Pidgeon

Nav, Car 8 – Subaru Impreza