London to Cape Town 2012: Day 1 « Welcome to Windrush Evolutions

London to Cape Town 2012: Day 1

Words and Pictures by John Glynn

Exciting day yesterday as, following months of preparation, the rally of the year finally got under way.

I arrived at Brooklands Museum just after noon to find Hayden and Alastair in the rally car parking, about to head to the drivers briefing. Before that there was the Yellowbrick to fit: a GPS tracker that will watch over the cars all along the route. 2,000 people turned out to meet the drivers and there’s no doubt most of them arrived just as the drivers were locked away for three hours…

Alastair reported the briefing as (long and) slightly disappointing: only one stage would be driven in the desert solely on GPS. This is an area he feels is part of the character of these rallies and where he can really make up ground on his opponents.

The going won’t be all main roads, however: Hayden was interested in a few stories of roads to come “with rocks as big as house bricks”. For sure these guys will have to keep their wits about them.

At 4PM, the rain had been falling for hours. The cars left Brooklands en route for London and the rally start at the Houses of Parliament. Former WEVO apprentice, Derek Bosman and I had headed to town at 3, so met the boys and had a bit of dinner in a local pub, but you could tell that nerves were jangling.

Once the cars started to leave and that sense of “que sera, sera” entered the cockpits, the mood was a lot more relaxed. At 7.35, Elvis left the building, followed by the Tuthill 911 10 minutes later. The 911 went on to score second fastest in both forest stages driven before the ferry that night.

I was sitting up at 2am when the phone tinged for a text message from Hayden. “Safely made it to Dover. Forest stages were a blast: AC is coming to grips with the traction and how to get it to rotate. Running well, spent a fair bit of time sideways: all good fun. Tired but ready for the ferry.”

Leading positions are all held by British cars but you know that can’t last forever. Day 2 involved a trek through France to Beaune. H’s just sent another text giving news which I will share anon.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 2nd, 2012 at 4:12 pm and is filed under Blogjack, Events, London CapeTown, Rallying. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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		« Blogjack is Back: Glynn blogs WEVO for a month London to Cape Town 2012: End of Day 5 » London to Cape Town 2012: Day 1 Words and Pictures by John Glynn Exciting day yesterday as, following months of preparation, the rally of the year finally got under way. I arrived at Brooklands Museum just after noon to find Hayden and Alastair in the rally car parking, about to head to the drivers briefing. Before that there was the Yellowbrick to fit: a GPS tracker that will watch over the cars all along the route. 2,000 people turned out to meet the drivers and there’s no doubt most of them arrived just as the drivers were locked away for three hours… Alastair reported the briefing as (long and) slightly disappointing: only one stage would be driven in the desert solely on GPS. This is an area he feels is part of the character of these rallies and where he can really make up ground on his opponents. The going won’t be all main roads, however: Hayden was interested in a few stories of roads to come “with rocks as big as house bricks”. For sure these guys will have to keep their wits about them. At 4PM, the rain had been falling for hours. The cars left Brooklands en route for London and the rally start at the Houses of Parliament. Former WEVO apprentice, Derek Bosman and I had headed to town at 3, so met the boys and had a bit of dinner in a local pub, but you could tell that nerves were jangling. Once the cars started to leave and that sense of “que sera, sera” entered the cockpits, the mood was a lot more relaxed. At 7.35, Elvis left the building, followed by the Tuthill 911 10 minutes later. The 911 went on to score second fastest in both forest stages driven before the ferry that night. I was sitting up at 2am when the phone tinged for a text message from Hayden. “Safely made it to Dover. Forest stages were a blast: AC is coming to grips with the traction and how to get it to rotate. Running well, spent a fair bit of time sideways: all good fun. Tired but ready for the ferry.” Leading positions are all held by British cars but you know that can’t last forever. Day 2 involved a trek through France to Beaune. H’s just sent another text giving news which I will share anon. This entry was posted on Monday, January 2nd, 2012 at 4:12 pm and is filed under Blogjack, Events, London CapeTown, Rallying. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site. Comments are closed.