The Bob Shaw Memorial Stages
One week following our last rally in Scotland, crews made their way to Pembrokeshire motor clubs Brawdy stages.
Five crews started the 70 miles of demanding roads based at the RAF base. Leading the minis away Clive King and Anton Bird. They were followed by his son Craig King with last minute co driver Owen Thomas, this was because his usual co driver had a last-minute wedding to attend. Harvey Steven’s with Andrew Selly were third mini away, they were followed by Ryan Taylor with Lucy Wilding, and Shan Gamble with Bob Ward.
The first stage 10 miles in length consisted of long straights followed by tight narrow roads. First to hit problems was Clive who cooked the brakes five miles in, with the brake pedal going to the floor time was lost over the rest of the remaining stage.
Craig had the same problem but managed to keep the pedal from going to the floor until about two miles to go, but still dropped time.
Ryan managed to keep the brakes working until the finish and set the quickest pace, to take the lead.
Harvey running on twelve-inch wheels and the bigger brakes made full use of them and had no problems all day to be running in second place.
Shane set off with new found power from the engine and set a great time but still managed to over heat the brakes.
Stage two was a repeat of the first stage. Clive and Craig were in brake saving mode and dropped a little time but kept the pedal working until the end of the stage.
Ryan kept the pace high to extend his lead. Harvey slotted into second place again extending the gap to third.
Shane lost a wheel when a brake disk broke allowing the hub to part company. The mini was recovered to the service area, all hands set to work with a new hub, disk and driveshaft fitted in time to start the next stage.
Stage three saw the fight back from Clive who took a couple of seconds off Harvey, but was still a couple off Ryan's time.
Shane set off to try and make up time, only to have the driveshaft that hadn't been changed break, this resulted in him being stranded for two stages before being towed back to the service area.
Next few stages played out in a similar way, Shane and Bob got the car going for the last two stages, but were concerned that there was a noise coming from the gearbox, this was diagnosed as a chipped tooth on the crown wheel.
Shane decided to go out on the stage anyway, resulting in the crown wheel losing all its teeth. There is bad luck and Shane luck.
The last two stages saw Clive take fastest times to try and over-all Harvey Stevens, but on finishing the first stage of the two stages he detected a noise from the engine bay. It was soon discovered that the fan on the alternator had broken, luckily Harvey had a spare alternator and came to the rescue. Ryan was too far in front to worry to much with Clive's times.
Craig King was setting very quick times but had lost a lot of time with his brake issue but finished well.
C
rossing the finish line Ryan took first mini and cat 3. Clive just managed to just take second mini much to Harvey's annoyance and winning cat 1 in the process.
With three rallies completed in four weeks it has been a tough time for the crews and the cars, we have a summer break which will allow the cars to be fully checked over and the crew's time to recover.
Harvey took third and second in cat 3, a head of Craig who won cat 2.
The draw for two Yokohama tyres went to Harvey Stevens.
The Penrite oil draw went to Clive King.
Snap on prize Ryan Taylor won.
The Questmead brake pad prize was held over until the next round.
The finishing cars.
Words - Clive King
Photos - Clive King