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'Spirited' try by Grimston and Carter |
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Tuesday, 21 November 2006 |
 ‘HERCULEAN’ EFFORT THWARTED ON DAY TWO OF RAC RALLY…
Having overcome a number of monumental problems to actually make the start ramp, sadly for the Northallerton pairing of Darren Grimston and Larry Carter, their bid for honours on the Roger Albert Clark (R.A.C.) Rally were dashed on day two when engine failure forced them out.
Driving the CS Rallysport-prepared Ford Escort Mk2, the team had swapped engines no less than four times in the build up to the three-day event as a mystery oil feed problem continued to cause problems following on retirements from the recent Trackrod and Malton Forest Rallies.
After many sleepless nights – literally - of head scratching and three subsequent engine failures, it was eventually decided that a standard engine would be borrowed from Richard Pocklington of Motoscope and the Friday before the event was due to start, the team worked into the evening to replace the unit. All seemed fine until the problem reoccurred in the actual queue for Scrutineering and it looked as if the pair wouldn’t make the 8am start on Saturday morning.
But such was the determination of Ian Cartwright and his team, they worked through the night to source the problem and a decision was made on the actual morning of the rally to compete.
Electrical Retailer Grimston and Motorsport Journalist Carter went well through the opening two stages but a misfire hindered their progress on the first run through the Yorkshire forests and a damaged exhaust was compounded by a broken front brake pipe in the afternoon tests but as darkness fell, the pair encountered no problems – other than not being able to switch the engine off all day – around the two Croft stages and Greystoke to end the leg in 15th place overall.
The team worked well into the night on Saturday as a re-occurrence of the oil pressure problem was diagnosed at service and some more remedial work was required in order to start leg two from Carlisle on Sunday morning.
The crew headed out to southern Scotland for the second day in the hope that they could attack the fast and flowing snow-covered stages around Dumfries and Lockerbie and all seemed to be going well until nine miles into the Ae stage, which comprised SS12, the oil pressure problem proved terminal and stopped the car for good.
However, the efforts of the whole team had not gone unnoticed by the rally organisers – De Lacy Motor Club – and the official results team headed by Martin Liddle who commented on their ‘Herculean efforts to get to the start’ and as a result, they were awarded ‘Spirit of the Rally’ as some consolation for their efforts.
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