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The World According to Jaggy & Friends - June 20, 2010 Rallying in Germanland Achtung! Read ze following – qvestions vill be asked afterwards Jaggy’s penpal (yes, he truly does have friends) dropped him a line about his latest adventures in Germanland rallying. Calum MacLeod is stationed over there these days and keeps up to date with son Ruary’s rallying adventures in Scotland through the medium of this here website. Rallying in Germany With the new ideas of closed road rallying in the UK, my experience last weekend on tarmac rallying at club level in Germany was very interesting and gave me some last minute headaches when I found out the rules, not having had the desire to translate the entire technical section or rallying section of the equivalent German blue book! I thought some things may be worth discussing at UK level. I had done a Nat A tarmac rally here in 2008 along with Higgins (name-dropper! – Ed) for some fun with a two car team and it was quite a relaxed affair, but required a lot of time, making up notes the day before, etc., so almost 3 days out from Thursday to Saturday. First of all the starter licence (driver or codriver is the same as over here) is called a Nat C (our Nat B) and you have to finish 3 events in the top 75% of your class to qualify for a Nat A licence. To get an International licence you need to have 5 National events finishing in the top 50% of your class. Apparently this is a recent rule change in the last couple of years as inexperienced drivers were having high speed accidents on the bigger events. Last weekend was what they call a Rallye 200, which is the highest grade rally you can do with a Nat B licence – which my wife Claudia has. A Rallye 200 has very restricted rules to keep costs down for the amateur and create a level playing field. Max 200 kms total distance on event. Parc Ferme in the middle of the group or re-run stages for 1 hour to let drivers get together for a lunch, very civilised, reminiscent of the days of Drew Gallacher times having a beer at the lunch halt (except no beer being served here!). I opened the bonnet of the car to check on a loose turbo boost pipe and was attacked by several marshals who told me I couldn't touch the car in Parc Ferme. At all levels in rallying here they follow the International safety standards, so we had quite a bit to do to my Grp N car to compete. Fuel Cells and seats MUST be certified within the 5 year limit, not just the seat belts as in Nat rallying in UK. Belt cutters must be at hand for both driver and passenger. Fireproof underwear including socks and balaclavas must be worn and are checked at the start. They let Claudia off with revealing her lower garments - although she did offer to the blushes of the scrutineers (shameless hussy! – Ed). Scrutineering is possible on Friday evening or Saturday morning. In typical German fashion, the road books are kept secret until 07.55 hrs (yes!) on Saturday after which you are free to drive the route as many times as you like up to 11.30 in the morning to make your own notes. The roads are still open to the public and speeds are limited to 70 kms on road and 50 kms on any adjoining gravel roads (most rallies have 90% tar and 10 gravel due to connecting farmer’s link roads along fields to make the routes work). This is enough time to recce as the routes are typically 3 stages repeated twice after the mid afternoon parc ferme. The rally itself started at 12.30 and finished at 17.30 and was a very well run affair. At this level of cost and nobody being able to buy their class results due to tyres, fuel, servicing, etc., it was a competitive and fun event. Even my wife, who is German, was shocked how open and friendly the rally fraternity are in Germany, it was almost like Scotland. Also the teams interacted between stages at the starts, etc., as they had no servicing pressure, so loads of time waiting at time controls. On Friday night when we discovered that we had the wrong tyres - no E - a guy overheard us at rally HQ and offered to change them if we followed him to his garage. So we followed this stranger with truck and trailer through winding country lanes at 10 pm on Friday night to his truck stop. He and his son changed all our tyres with the car on his ramp and his wife made us dinner. Inside his garage he was building a new Escort MkII rally car! He complained that in Germany it was hard to get spares and assistance for MkIIs, so we duly obliged, and since then my brother has been helping them get in contact with all the UK specialists. (so that’s what the EEC is for! – Ed). We couldn't have been treated better and it was a lesson in low cost clubman rallying like we used to have growing up in the 70s and early 80s. I fear that even if we get closed road rallying in the UK the entry fees will still be £500 and nobody will want their roads blocked by service trucks, tyre trucks and chase cars. The locals here were highly engaged and the rallies are held in smaller village areas which had us all staying in B&Bs and local pubs. Here there wasn't a tyre truck or chase car to be seen and the rally car park was a great sight with some bizarre modern and old cars, but within their class they were competitive. Old BMW 2002, Polos, Mk1 escorts, etc., all being driven with commitment, as 25% of the field never finished. The event organiser told us before the event, if we had to break a rule out on the event and we knew we would be excluded (borrowing a spare tyre, refuelling, getting spares or tools) just keep driving for fun - we will only exclude you at the end! Looking forward to the next one this weekend and already getting emails from our new friends who are eager to see us do more. ... After the Rally ... The rally itself was a bust for us, and almost a sideshow, as we had a great weekend. SS1, feeling the car after not driving it for 2 years, realised that Grp N brakes on a 2001 Subaru on sticky tarmac tyres in 24 deg heat don't lock up or stop! SS2, just 5 secs off the local pace setter in his Evo 9. SS3, ready to get the hammer down and a pipe came off the map sensor, the plastic nipple on the plastic box having snapped off, very odd. No boost, dropped 15 mins. SS4, temporarily fixed boost issue, although doubted it would last, with only 1.5 mm of nipple protruding into pipe. Shouldn't have been worried, snapped a rear drive shaft about 1km into stage. SS5/SS6, as we weren't allowed to service and Claudia just wanted to finish her first rally, I pressed on, but halfway through final stage I pulled over as the diff was in danger of being damaged and we needed the car ready for this weekend with as little time to fix or get parts over from UK. Best wishes von die Vaterland! ... the very latest update ... Competed with Claudia on Saturday on my first gravel rally in Germany, which was the 3rd round of the German Gravel Rally Championship, known as the Schotter Cup (which is close to what they call a Scotsman in Germany). You will love the rally’s name ‘Baron-von-Aretin Rally’ or Emmersdorf Rally. The rally was won by a Finn in an Evo 10 (Jaakko Kespinen) from two Austrians in 2nd and 3rd. We finished 11th overall in our Grp N 2002 Subaru, having made too many mistakes in the first half, but made up time in the afternoon setting a 4th, 5th and 8th fastest stage times. 90 starters but only 53 finishers, so a lot of carnage lower down the field as all top 15 cars finished. Fun day in 30 degree heat! Now I’m hoping to work my schedule round the Argyll Stages in July as I used to love rallies in that region. ( I have printed Calum’s report more or less as it was received because I felt it read better that way – and the whole point of running this story is to open up horizons. It’s one thing to go rallying in this country, or even Ireland, but rallying further abroad brings a sense of adventure to proceedings. II’ve always urged youngsters and newcomers to venture abroad at least once before the they retire from the sport and Calum’s exploits in Germanland might just inspire you to give it a go. And there are deals to be done. Tell the foreign organisers where you;re from and there’s help with Entry Fees and accommodations cost so all you need is the ferry fare and fuel costs. It’s worth a look. JB) * * * * * |