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| Mick Harris and Andy Morgan are preparing to contest the Network Q Rally of Great Britain, the final round of the World Rally Championship. Based this year in Cheltenham the rally runs over three days from Sunday 21st November to Tuesday 23rd November with a route totalling 1156.70 miles (1861,47 kms), including 239.20 miles (384,94 kms) on 22 timed special stages. The rally is the biggest single spectator event in the UK with television coverage in 71 countries reaching an estimated 134,000,000 viewers. Last years event attracted 2,000,000 spectators out in the forests to watch the 160 competing crews. |
So what happened?? Well it was a gearbox failure that led to our demise at the end of the first day of the Network Q Rally Great Britain. We had some warning of impending doom on SS2 Cornbury Park when Mick spotted some smoke coming from the transmission tunnel near the end of the stage. With service not until after the next two Silverstone stages we crossed our fingers that it would be no more than just a slight leak or something trivial that could be rectified easily in the 20 minutes service time available.
| We didn't get to service before the problem reared it's ugly head... the gearbox broke just after the start of the first of the two Silverstone stages and we lost around 2 minutes with a very poorly gearbox a not a lot in the way of gears. We limped to service and the mechanics set about replacing the gearbox. Everything was going smoothly until they hit a problem with the new box going in. To cut a long story short we went 4 minutes OTL leaving service and were excluded at the end of the leg. A great shame as Mick was driving superbly, not putting a foot (or wheel) wrong in the very slippery conditions. We were laying just where I expected us to be and I was confident that Mick would quickly move up the leaderboard when the event reached the Welsh forests the following day. But sadly it will not be this year. |
  One route pack for one small private team |
The next drama was discovering that the fuel tank was out of date and would either have to be replaced with a new bag tank or a standard Sapphire fuel tank. This was a major headache, but in true Mick Harris fashion didn't deter him one bit.
With only the top 5 reserves being allowed to have the route and allowed to start the reconnassiance, I had to sit and wait patiently. Every day I was phoning the Network Q Rally office to check on our position. Finally on 29th October we were confirmed as 5th reserves and Mick went to collect the rallypack. Mick passed on the decals to the signwriters and the rest was despatched down to me in deepest darkest Wales. On 4th November we were confirmed as being a runner and off the reserve list.
With the route all but finished, bar a couple of OS maps still to be purchased, it looked like all the dramas were just about over...wrong! With just a week to go until the start of the event it transpires that my racesuit has been withdrawn from homologation by the FIA. Panic stations!! Get on the phone to Jaybrand Racewear who tell me no problem, they can make me a new suit (I'm not an off-the-peg shaped person you know!) in time. Now it was just a case of getting someone to measure me up (oooh suit you sir!). So a big thank you to Theressa at Jaybrand Racewear for all her help in sorting out my needs and making sure I got my new suit in time!
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our sponsors. Consodata
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