Forks in the Trail: Cardiff, Wales

Royce: One of the items on my ”life to-do list” was to attend a FIA World Rally Championship Series (http://www.wrc.com/) race. This trip appeared to offer some chances to do this in several places, but our timing just didn’t seem to work out with any of them. I have always been a fan of rally, but never really a follower. I love to watch it on TV but I have never learned that much about the structure of the teams, races or the cars. I really like it because it seems like such a pure form of car racing: they run production cars that are only lightly modified (compared to a NASCAR “stock car”), they run them on real roads with a variety of surfaces and real dangers, it is a truly global series, and they let spectators get in on the action, up close.

When this job in London came up suddenly I was pretty sure it would be my chance to see a race up close at the Wales Rally Great Britain in Cardiff, Wales. I had to drive to the SW of England for work at that same time and Cardiff wasn’t too far away. I bought tickets for the last day’s 4 stages and the first indoor rally stage ever held, the night before the last day.

The indoor stage was held in the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff and was a great venue (http://www.millenniumstadium.com/197_211.php). The cars entered the stadium racing up an entrance ramp and jumped out onto the floor into a large “figure 8” style track. The consistent and smooth concrete floor resulted in incredibly fast laps for such a tight track and the cars were never traveling straight – always sliding. Each car was timed for 2 laps and we watched about 80 cars. There were some good crashes through the barricades and a lot of post finish tire smoking brodies!

The next morning we got up at about 3:30 AM and headed for the car park at the Margham Park Stage. The racing started at 8:00 AM and the car park opened at 5:00 AM, so there were a lot of people camped out at the entrance, trying to get a good spot. We got in fine and slept for a couple hours. The Margham Park Stage was to be run twice that day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, with another stage in between. Margham Park is an old country home estate of some rich family, so the course came out of the mountains and into the valley where it finished on the grounds of the castle.

We decided to watch the first stage away from the crowds, at a remote point that could only be accessed by a steep hike. When we found our place, we were warned by the safety officers that we were crossing their barricades and that we were taking our lives in our own hands. Then they waved us through! Gotta love European racing. We smashed down some blackberries on the outside (yes – outside) of a fast corner of a gravel road and waited with about 50 other fans. Not too long after the safety helicopter came through clearing the course and they forced us back about 50 feet. As soon as he left we repositioned ourselves next to the course. Our local “safety” officer then warned us that another safety crew was coming through in a truck and that we better hide. So, we all ducked down in the bushes while they went by. It was classic, hiding in the bushes with 50 people, everyone giggling and popping off to each other. As soon as he passed our safety officer gave us the all clear and we all popped up like prairie dogs.

I knew the cars would seem fast on this little road, but I had no idea that they would be going as fast as they were. I would guess they were going 75 mph on a single lane gravel road in a corner with a big drop on one side and us on the other. Amazing. Also very painful, we were both hit with rocks flying out behind the tires. These guys are crazy, some of the cars were all tore up and dragging body panels behind them and they were still driving like maniacs. At one point we were all standing there waiting for the next car and a driver came running up the course towards us. He had passed us and wrecked in a section with no safety marshals and no spectators. He was stuck in the track and was afraid the next car would t-bone him. He wanted help and a bunch of guys headed down the track to pull his car out. This is racing straight out of “Dukes of Hazzard”.

Another couple cars passed and then all of a sudden the racing seemed to stop, with no explanation. There was a lot of helicopter activity but little information other than a bad wreck up the course from us. We waited for about 45 minutes and then they announced that the stage was cancelled and the second stage would be run in the afternoon. We went back to our car to get lunch and then they announced that Michael Park, co driver for Peugeot’s Markko Martin was killed in what was a very bad crash. They cancelled the rest of the whole rally and drivers’ would take their times form the previous stage. I was very disappointed that my rally experience was already over, but it was hard not feel that it was the right decision, especially given that Michael Park was a local and his whole family was probably on hand for the event. His team with Markko Martin and Peugeot was very successful and they were in the top 5 in the standings.

With sadness we packed up and left Margham Park and headed for Bude, England.