Well the season is on us again so for me that means it’s time for the Ryemoor, my traditional season opener.

Not a great deal to do on the car after bringing it out of its winter slumber. A small amount of adjustment to the rear suspension and a start motor issue to sort out.

Steve spent a few days prior brushing up on his p&b. He even plotted last year’s route on the way up to the start.

We got through scurtineering without too much of an issue although we had to make up arrows point to the towing eye out of insulation tape. A bit of a strange one. I did question the scurtineer about it, as I didn’t think it was a requirement for road rallies?

So off to sign on, a brew and a good natter with friends before we were due to start.

We cleaned the first section as did most of the crews to STC3. The next section was one of those if you plotted the shortest route down a short white then the time dropped would have been zero to minimal at best. But if you were like us and did not go down the white taking the longer way round then you dropped a chunk of time. As we did. Especially when you go back, retracing the route due to a missed code board on the white. It cost us 7 minutes.

We dropped another 7 minutes or so on the section times to the second. Which was a respectful time looking at what the other crew’s dropped? So satisfied with that. We dropped another minute on STC11 which amounted to 15:05, 14th overall at petrol.

The second half was much better, as we were getting into things by now, knocking off the old cobwebs. Total time dropped 5 minutes, 3 of which were down to Steve doubting himself. We pulled over because Steve wasn’t sure we were on the correct route.

The Ryemoor as always was a well run event, with plenty of happy cheerful marshals to whom I thank.

Can’t wait for our next event “The Primrose in April”.

Paul Buckel, Driver – Car 18, Proton Compact (15th o/a)