On Friday night we tackled the world famous Dalby forest in the dark. Then on the Saturday we tackled several other well known forests in North Yorkshire. They are know for being extremely fast.
On Friday night as darkness fell we left Filey and drove an hour to Dalby without incident. The car in front of us pulled out of the control at the end of the road section to the stage and we pulled in to get our time. Instead of driving on to the stage start, the car in front stopped about 30 yards in front of us and then reversed all the way back into the control. They reversed straight into my car as we were still in the control getting a time from the marshals. They smashed one of my spotlights and knocked another one out of alignment. Not the best thing to happen just before you are about to drive one of the fastest stages of the year in the pitch dark! Needless to say we dropped a bit of time Friday night. It was particularly frustrating as the team had spent some time in the week perfecting a new lighting set up for me and I was really looking forward to trying it.
Saturday was fast and furious but without any major issues – we had a couple of brushes with ditches and ran up a bank but no damage.
We finished 2nd in Class.