Testing Terrain for Trio on Trackrod!

The sun shone as three Swifts swooped into Dalby Forest service park on the first day of October ready to take on the BTRDA Trackrod Rally.

First to take to the stages was British Rallycross Supernational driver Todd Crooks and girlfriend Jordine Wadge making their debut in BTRDA Rally.  Waiting for this day to finally arrive, an anxious Jordine had an even longer wait for her first taste of codriving when reaching stage one there was a thirty minute delay.

There were smiles as the two returned to service after SS3 however, and after a close encounter with a deer that jumped into the stage in front of them in Langdale, the pair realised what a real adventure rallying is.

Finding good pace through SS4 Crooks settled into his stride with the swift until reaching a collection of cars retired on the side of the stage.  Avoiding the cars put him in line with a large deep pot hole which caused damage and explained the parked cars.  Nursing the Swift back into service the crew got to work replacing the severed strut and bent hub just in time for Crooks to continue to SS5, where unfortunately their rally would end when a ball joint let go during a tight chicane.  

Jonathan Hodgson and codriver Gary Baker were next out and due to the delays queuing for stage start, there was concerns of the clutch overheating although they managed to made it though the morning stages until they too found the pothole on SS4 causing them to limp into service with a puncture.  New rubber on, the Yorkshire boys continued incident free to complete their third rally in a row.

Droitwich driver Tom Delaney and codriver Matt Walk were not so lucky.  Having had a steady run though their first stage learning grip levels,  the MSA Student encountered a rock in the middle of the road resulting in a cracked sump which ended play at SS3.

Whilst the Dalby Forest terrain got the better of two of the swifts in this occasion, congratulations to Jonathan and Gary on completing the day.

Well done to Todd and Jordine who worked well together and made a great team.   Hope to see them having more 'quality time' together or rally stages in the future. 

Finally thank you to everyone who came and offered help and support to the new couple on their rally debut and to all the organisers, marshals and everyone who made the event possible. 

The Swifts will be back out in force on Grizdale Stages - 26th November 2016