Leg One RAC Rally of the Tests – Redworth to Edinburgh 8th November

As the leader of the RAC Rally of the Tests said this morning, “last night’s Prologue was nothing, just a scratch, today it really starts!” And how! Twice RAC Rally of the Tests winners, Dan Willan and navigator Niall Frost had a scare this morning when their Volvo PV544 completely lost all its brakes.

Niall takes up the story; “We did a test and a regularity with no brakes this morning. We were calling hairpins from about 500 meters away, so we could slow down. But we managed to get through that somehow, with the mechanical assistance crews performing a fantastic job. They took the drum off, got the got the cylinder back in, and managed to fix it. So, we were right back in. We're running a bit late, but we've managed to get back on time. Oh boy, it was a bit of a panic!”

Willan and Frost lead the new second place crew of John King and Oli Waldock by 46 seconds, and what a performance that was from the young star navigator to propel himself and driver John King’s Toyota MR2 up to a fantastic provisional podium – despite an accident with a tree and some rear damage to the car; John explained; “ Yeah, well, when I spoke to you this morning. I said, I've got to push it. We are after places, and we've certainly picked a few up today after a great job by Oli. But it's been on the edge stuff and on the first test of the morning, we hit a tree and damaged the rear.”

Oli Waldock; “We sideswiped it, which wasn’t too bad, but I just said to John, ‘don’t do that again!’ Yes, we've had a decent day, a good morning and a reasonable afternoon. The TC, section was absolutely awesome, that's a highlight. We were clean through the early night, a bit scrappy here and there when we dropped a few seconds, but it's all right, we'll be around and abouts!”

Callum Guy and Amy Henchoz also enjoyed a good day as they sit in third place in the fan’s favourite growling Sunbeam Tiger. Amy: “It’s actually been surprisingly calm in the car for a change. But some of the tests have not been calm, there has been a lot of pointing going on, lots of shouting, but we've got it all right. Which is good. So, yeah, it's been steady away. We had a little bit of a miscommunication on that last reg, which was a bit of a pain, we just didn't quite get that farmyard right, which is frustrating, because everything else today has been really consistent.”

However, the RAC Rally of the Tests has started to take prisoners. First off was the spectacular Jon Dunning with Champion navigator Pete Johnson in their RS2000 losing time on the first test, dropping from the top five. Andy Lane and Iain Tullie, who have both won this rally independently of each other, dropped out altogether from fourth with broken rear suspension. Poor Ruth and Tim Birkin were left on rear jacks as the sweeps patched up the rear trailing arms on their Triumph TR4A only for them to split again. They were last seen trying to work out how to get to Glasgow where a man had some in his lock up which he said they could have…

The MGB of Dave Maryon and Andy Ballantyne has bent a valve, In the Lite section, Gavin Webster and Andy Chun were waiting for their overheating Jaguar Mk 2 to cool down to try and get to Edinburgh. But on the upside, Chris and Clair Day, who have both been extremely nervous about their first ever RAC Rally of the Tests, were fastest around test number six, a real thriller around big storage barns with some high speed and loose surface corners. They and their Cooper S were mighty!

There were some incredible regularity roads, narrow, twisting, long and fast, climbs out of County Durham and into Northumberland, over the top and through the mist. There were copious fords to negotiate, some chose a big bow wave, others played safe – some just enjoyed soaking the photographers!

There were wild tests like Eastgate 1 and 2 first thing this morning where Dutch crew Hank Melse and Bart den Hartog just didn’t wake up enough for in their Porsche 356B. By their own admission they were not quite with it and lost time! However, this challenging and varied RoTT route so far, devised by Clerk of the Course Andy Pullan, has been a cracker. Into real rally territory, Keilder and all-round Hexham where the Roger Albert Clark Rally partially resides, then on into the borders and the Jim Clark Rally ground, where such names as Abbey St Bathans have that have that rally ring to them! Most loved the TC section this morning.

5^th place Volvo PV544 driver Paul Dyas, another previous winner on the Rott, was gushing in his praise; “Okay it was a long day, but it was fantastic. The Time Control Section was just awesome. Yeah, that's it, awesome, that's the best thing on the rally, right? I could have stopped after that and just said that’s it, that’s all I need, it was brilliant. Congratulations to Andy Pullan and the team.”

Fourth place today after a real fight were Paul Crosby and Ali Procter in their Mini Cooper S. Ali: ““I say yeah, granddad's been steady away in the driver's seat! But we've had a good solid day, really good regularities, and the TC section in Otterburn was brilliant and went well for us. Yeah, a bit scrappy on some of the tests. Maybe I made a mistake on one. So yeah, but probably still good for the day,

“Ottterburn was exciting, daunting, challenging. But the Mini went really well. It's not the best thing for the gravel roads that we were given, but Cros did a great job with it, he was flying, and we set some good times.”

To prove that the rally is not just about the big competition at the front, German national Barbara Richter has returned with her Golf GTi Mk 1 for second time, she loves it! Barbara said: “Yeah it’s great. We did have a problem this morning, but the sweep mechanics were quick to fix it, it was a sensor from the trip master, I guess it was broken in the TC section with all the gravel, yeah. so, then they fix it before the rest of the tests, so we can still enjoy. The fun factor is like this, it’s big. Oh, it’s fantastic, fantastic! Okay, yes, of course, we try to finish the rally.”

“Yes, we had a good a good morning. I say nothing special, but no bad stuff either!. Through the forest, all the gravel, what a great experience, that was good fun,” said Harry Baines

Dick and Harry Baines are still leading the Lite section of the RAC Rally of the Tests on their first try out in the event. Harry and Dick are happy in their Cooper S, but aware that there are crews snapping at their heels. Harry again; “But you know, there's a long way to go, and lots of others who can get close, we’ve just got to take it steady and we go on your motto, Tony, to keep calm and take it all easy!”