Gravel Crew

Eight days in the UK
Our trip to the Network Q Rally of Great Britain 2001
Words & fotos: rodney wills

We had dreamed of flying over to the UK to witness real deal rally action in what we consider the homeland of rally, Great Britain. This was our first trip to the UK with no prior desire to go, but the rally bug has gotten the better of us. While at the 2001 SEMA show in Los Vegas rally racing was all the buzz on the show floor with Scott Hartman on Intrax/Proflex Suspension Systems winning the best of show with his Ford Focus styled in rally trim. We had meet with some people and said we where thinking about going. It was just a thought with not a ticket
purchased or arrangement made. Mention was made to us about how difficult it would be to get press passes to the rally event. We proceeded with last minute efforts that ended in failure due to passed deadlines for press credentials. We did not care. We have seen all the videos, photos and Speedvision coverage of the massive amounts of fans at these events and said to ourselves that we too would be happy and content right there on the sidelines with the true enthusiast! With truth, what a lie! Being media types, we want those photo pass aprons for our collection. It in it’s self is a material prize. We scored some cheap tickets online and proceeded with our dream with an evil eye from my wife, as we would miss our first Thanksgiving holiday together!

November 20’01 - Tuesday
We had a 6:20 am flight out of LAX / Los Angeles, so Scott crashed on my couch, luckily for him! When we woke up in the morning to go to the airport his eyes seemed to have dealt him the worst misery that all metal fabricators dread – “welding flash.” Scott awoke to eyes oozing with liquid and could not keep his eyes open nor could he see. When he tried it was screaming agony. He said it would be OK, but I feared the worst. I had no idea what was instore for his eyes as we made way to the airport. He said his eyes felt like sand paper was in the eyelids and when his eyes rolled it made tears and burned as if salt was thrown on an open wound. He looked a horrible mess so we donned him with sunglasses, but looked a bit funny with only the moon in the sky. We did not care how shady of a character he looked; we were off to the UK for some real core rally action. But after some time, we had plenty, with our sixteen-hour trip ahead, his eyes cleared up to my joy and amazement. I did not have to lead a blind man in the forest!

November 21’01 – Wednesday
It’s was cold and had just rained. We landed 6:00 in the morning at Heathrow airport in London via a stop over in Washington DC. We noticed a guy getting on the plain back in DC carrying a record bag filled enough to spin several sets. We talked with him once we landed and was doing to baggage claim thing and found out that he was the owner of Ohm Records and doing a couple of gigs. We exchanged biz cards and he helped us to find the bus station per his recommendation of getting around cheap. We are on a budget! Scott and I booked our selves bus tickets to Cardiff where the rally headquarters was but with Gloucester as a stopover to visit our friends at CA Magazine – the primer car audio magazine for the UK. We arrive mid-day after making the journey up the twisting roads and were quite shocked to find the magazine located in such a small town. Luckily for us a girl overheard our conversation on the bus and said she knew the location for CA Mag. It was walking distance from the bus station so she walked us to the CA office. She was a New Zealander and played professional rugby for one of the local women’s teams hence her residency in Gloucester. Chris the editor for the mag was out of the office some 200 miles away so we were done for the day. We found a cheap hotel within walking distance with the help of the CA office staff calling ahead for us to reserve the spot. The main strip in town has all the shops that support the local town with all it’s shopping duties from clothing, food, books, to what ever a small town might fancy. Our hotel was located on the center of the strip between a newsstand and a small sandwich shop. A big wooden gate of mid-evil area was brought to mind as we passed through it between these two shops as this was the main entrance to the hotel. We walked in and Cedric the attendant, not the entertainer, but entertaining enough, simple gave us the key with no exchange of credit card information, name, address or anything and said breakfast is served from 7:00 –11:00 in the morning after showing us to our room. We dropped the bags in the room and headed for food and to scout locations as to what we thought might make for good photo shoot locations for cars. We thought we would be shooting some cars the next day for Car Audio Mag USA - WRONG. Cool cars do not exist in Gloucester. Also we found that McDonald’s hamburgers do not taste the same, not in a bad way, but not in a better way either. Just different. But we did find the French fries to taste better if you could believe that! Through the rain we found this very large Cathedral that was used for the Harry Potter movie and found in its presents to be very moving and reminiscent of old times. After our visit of the main tourist attraction we walked up town to see what the local flavor in shops is. Remember the days of AFX and Tyco electric racetracks? In the local toy stores we found SCX and Ninco are the names in 1:32 scale Rally style electric racetracks complete with “Super Sliding Curve Set” action and snow drifts. We could have wasted a lot of money in this store! It just goes to show how we have NASCAR and the UK has Rally. I think we are cheating ourselves. Later, Cedric had shown us the history of our hotel with its historic paintings and a bar in the basement that was said to be the first bar in existence. Then Cedric showed us the tunnel that runs some eight blocks away from the Cathedral to the underground bar. He said this is were the monks would sneak through and come drink. Upstairs in the Hotel’s sitting area we saw a painting of the Cathedral grounds and were titled “ West Gate.” The painting was painted directly on the wall, not on a removable canvas. This painting was of the same quality of paintings I have seen in art history books and museums. We were very impressed and shocked at this small town’s history. We found that the city once had a large public bath area as such in historical times and we did some more scouting down by the docks to find ships where capable up coming up the river to dock and deliver good to the local shops. Dark and still raining, after scooting the town we crashed out for the night, but not after taking the big warm dip in the extra large and deep bath tub down the hall from our room, yes the one bath on the floor, no shower, but we did not complain.

November 22’01 – Thursday – The Superspecial
Eggs, toast and Marmalade, we will find is the standard for most breakfasts. Not that we are complaining, I actually like the Marmalade other wise know for to us as orange jelly. We make our way back over to see Chris at CA Mag and find out what the deallio is with shooting a couple of cars. One crashed as we maid our trip over to the UK and as discovered – everything else is far away – minimum 100 miles! We negotiate over a photo trade with a recent Subaru they shot. We may have something in the bag and something else lined up for later. We can work with this as our mind shifts to the next portion of our trip! So we make our way to the bus station to make our 1:35hr trip to Cardiff by way of Bristol via bus. We stop in Bristol long enough for us to jump on our skateboards and shoot down the hill and grab some lunch at a pizza parlor on the corner of a very busy intersection in what seems to be a larger and more modern city with sidewalks filled with people. The pizza was off the hook too! Maybe we were just very hungry, but I do remember the pizza being very good! As we head back up the hill with our skateboards in tow, a local group of kids sort of snicker as they see us with our boards but one noticed the OBEY stickers and recognizes us as being Americans and caught their curiosity but we was off on our way. Back on the bus and as we get closer to Cardiff we start to see images of racing! Three big Michelin tire support trucks rolls by. A couple of Subaru gravel sweep pre-runners go by. Another race support vehicle goes by and the goose bumps began. As we roll into the city and by the massive city hall, we see the starting point of the race! Big Network Q banners, WRC banners and Playstation logos as well! Our bus quickly rounds another corner and out of site but the town is filled with rally enthusiast and or race teams on every street and at every corner. We pull into the bus station and cross the street over to the travel information center to ask about hotels. The lady at the counter looks at us and says “sorry, there is nothing available in the city this weekend”. We have the race, an rugby match and a football (soccer) match all this weekend!” “Plus, everyone is in town doing the holiday shopping.” There is a pause in the air as our stomachs get that funny feeling and then she offers a solution that is right up our alley. A place up the street called Backpackers hostel takes in foreign travelers in a dormitory style setting and is cheap. WE WILL TAKE IT!!! We hop a cab over to this place to find the cool local tip that a lot of young travelers use. Each room has three bunk beads with lockable storage cabinets. A down stairs cafeteria and bar where you can use everything in the kitchen yourself. You prepare and clean yourself. Basically it’s a college dorm type setting. We could care less, we had a safe place to keep our belongings and a bed to sleep in, we had a Speical Stage within hours to catch and some press passes to be hussled up (in our dreams)!So out the door we go in eclectic oxymoron fashion with camera / video gear in the Clive backpacks and skateboards under foot, we were off the Rally Headquarters! Once we get there we see several mock rally cars on display from each of the manufacture teams so we whip out the cameras and strap the skateboards to the packs. The skateboards strapped to the packs almost has a military look to it, but it is obviously not because people are starting to look at us a bit wired; professional camera gear on one side and skateboards strapped to the backside… at the worlds largest rally race event. It just was not adding up to the officials, and the fact we are from the USA, we may as well have been from Mars! Although several kids in the crowd were giving us the thumbs up as they understood our language. After finding out how much spectator passes where going to cost, we were in trouble! We make our way into the headquarters office and knowing we had been previously turned down for press passes via fax back in the USA, but we were desperate at this time! We did have the entire proper credentials request from the event; it was just the time issue so we press our way up to the media credentials booth. Luckily for us some one felt sorry for us making the trip over from the USA and no other press form the USA had checked in at that time. We got the media badge, media special stage parking pass and headquarters parking pass without a snag, hiccup or hassle. Great! But we did not have a car. Not to worry though, there is a bus leaving for the Special Stages. We made our way out side and darkness and already fallen and the cold was bone chilling. Before we boarded the bus we went to all the booths to find Playstation everywhere and every type of rally memorabilia. RallyXS Magazine was on hand with Playstation showing off the new WRC rally game! What game? Of course, the new WRC rally came officially licensed by Playstation and everyone had it in there both! Ford had a full rally car with large flat screen monitor mounted just outside the windscreen and the steering wheel and pedals where the actual controls for the game, and yes it was the WRC Playstation game. Pirelli tires had a trailer with fold down walls with a car inside. The car was a modified Subaru WRX. Modified in a way that when you played the video game (the new WRC rally game of course) the car would lean or dip in the proper direction to give the full driving sensation. In other booths, Factory team jackets shirts bags and toys where all on display to be purchased. We could have blown every penny we had right there but we managed to hold back. I only bought a Subaru baseball cap. The USA versions are wimpy compared to the UK version, so I had to get it! It was time to head to the buses that carted us off to fist leg of the race called a “special stage.” This nearby location with a prepared Special stage consisted of side by side racing with a two-lap course of equal length with a bridge cross over; one car went over and the other under on the second lap they cars would switch and complete with a water crossing splash section. The event began with a bang! Fireworks galore and the music that plays on TV from the Speedvision broadcast of the WRC events was blaring in the air as goose bumps of excitement run through us. At the same time it seamed to get even colder as the wind blew off the nearby ocean, but the racecars quickly turned up the heat as two cars at a time race on this special spectator staged event. We watched from our vantage point as well as on the very large screen in the middle of the raceway and witness what we had dreamed of. What we saw were more than just the cars racing, but the fans cheering and blowing the canned air horns. The one sound we would become very familiar with as we took in our dose of gravel slinging and motor growling with turbo boost snaring. The air horn, by the hundreds if not thousands all unleashed there spray as Colin McCrae of Ford and Richards Burns of Subaru rounded the track for the final duo of top manufactures or should we say the personal battle between these two world class drivers. Colin won the stage by mere milliseconds and the night was done. We made our way back to the Backpackers Inn and went over our notes of what was happening in the morning. It would be a surprise not in our favor.

November 23’01 – Friday – Leg 1
We wake up at 5:00 am to make the start of the race at 6:00 at City Hall. I do not even remember if we had breakfast? I brought the Tiger Milk and Power Bars, but Scott said the Tiger Milk’s taste like cardboard. We get to rally headquarters to find out that there are no buses going to the special stages, it was only for last night’s local event. We get that funny stomach feeling again as we make our way over to the car park where the racecars are kept over night and the race begins. We start asking if anyone is going up to the Service Park. Our thought was if we got there at least we could see the teams go and come from there and maybe find some other press guys to go up into the special stages. We found no press people there at the Park Ferme this morning, all obviously had made may to the mountains. Then two guys approach us and began to ask us about where to find the press credentials office. They began to tell us of their late arrival from Spain last night and did not make it to press check in time. All of this was through broken English and Scott’s bootleg Spanish translation. It was enough to get us by, get them the press passes and us a ride to the special stages! We hop in the car and try to follow some of the racecars that are still heading out to the service area. Our mission was to follow one out to the start. After we passed the Service Park and noticed that McCrae and Sainz and a couple of the other big names where headed back down the freeway, we knew that stage was finished by those guys and was transiting to the next stage. Our best plan was to navigate our lost arses and try to catch the start of stage 3. As we got into the mountains and traffic was backing up, we decided to move to stage 4 in better hopes of catching the first cars. This was the comedy of the trip; Spaniards driving a right had drive car for the first time, Americans in the back seat navigating in the UK! We made it to stage 4, don’t ask us how we made our way up the dirt, or should I say complete mud / gravel combo road. A little Spaniard driving finesse complete with paint code swapping with some local cars and we made it there. We hopped out of the car just in time to see McCrea top the hill with the arse of the car standing straight up in the air at a 100mph! Flipped and offed with complete yard sale! It was not confirmed that it was him till a few other racecars passed through, but it was Burns and Sainz, so the other Focus had to be McCrae. We traversed through the soggy fields in the rain along the racecourse. McCrae and Grist where walking down the road with helmets in hand and disgust on there face. Grist on the phone t headquarters with the news and, “send in the pick-up chopper.” Two turns earlier, they were to be the champions only now to be walking down the racecourse in disbelief.

November 24’01 – Saturday – Leg two
Today we had to find ourselves another place to stay due to previous people booking the rooms ahead of time, so this put a wrinkle in our plans of chasing the rally cars, but gained our bodies the much needed break from all the walking that us Americans are not accustom to. Right, yes! We had a meeting set up with head officer of the Network Q press office at 6:00am trying to gain the much sought after press aprons or bibs that the real photo guys had which secured the “go everywhere” ghetto pass. We were there but he had already gone to the Service Park area at 5:00am. So instead we got and eat a proper breakfast up in the press hall and played the new Playstation WRC Rally video game for an hour or so. Scott swears he’s good, but the editor of Rally XS magazine has a bit more practice on this new game. After about an hour of Playstation battle we start walking again to look for a Hotel and to do a little foot tour of the Cardiff City. No more than five blocks away Scott spots the sign “every room 44l.” We go over to the hotel and to our surprise find rooms available and cheap too! Ibis Hotel is the best! Funky cool modern design always wins – and available, when the travel center said nothing was! Well, there were only two rooms available, so it was close and we were very lucky! We walk back to our Backpacker joint and started the packing process. Too many magazines and assorted rally crap collected on Thursday and Friday from the event. We could start a small rally library! We have… We get our stuff back over to the Ibis hotel and head back to rally headquarters. While waiting again for our meeting with the head press officer, the newswire comes down; Carlos Sainz / Ford Focus has crashed and hit fifteen people (unconfirmed numbers at that time). With McCrae already out of the race, Ford withdraws its team effort from the race all together. At this point we just don’t know how to even portray this to the American press and start asking the proper questions as to how we should – official statement please. This is one of the major concerns for WRC coming to the USA’s hungry lawyers. At the end of the day, no one was killed with only a couple of reported minor injuries. This is a dangerous sport from all aspects.

The Spaniard’s that we hooked up with on Friday had to leave first thing on Sunday so no ride is going to be possible so we break down and rent a car. Other events that are coming up also lead to this decision. It’s my first time driving a right hand drive car and it’s stick at that! We get a four door Vauxhall and it’s actually easier than I thought, but I am sure under pressure things could get a bit sticky. I’ll stick with my left-hand drive cars back home for simplicity. We head out to the Service Park to catch the drivers coming in and we took this time to meet the teams and mill around in the pits. We found out what the “mule” is and decided we need some! Very pricey and only available to full factory teams, it is an inner bladder that basically prevents rim bite, which occurs when the car comes off a big jump. I am sure it has other purposes as well, whatever, we will take it! Right! At close to $200 each and this is just something to go inside the tires we have now. We have had no problem with our little production car so we will wait on these puppies or should I say muses. We met some guy’s rally racing a Honda Civic and they were shocked to see someone form the USA at an UK rally event! Over at the Subaru camp there is this lanky young 20-year-old American kid hanging around with the Prodrive team – meeting and greeting. Travis Pastrana is his name and is one of the top names in motorcross, but you already know that. Right. So he is here to fulfill his lifelong dream to drive a real deal WRC rally car. His sponsor, Alpinestars president, Gabriele Mazzarolo along with his manager “Hollywood” of No Fear and with some connections at RacerX (motocross magazine USA) help to make all his dreams come true. Since Alpinstars is the official clothier for Subaru World Rally Team, they sewed a few more strings and pulled the whole deal together. We did not quite understand exactly what was going on, but Subaru USA in conjunction with SWRT (Subaru World Rally Team) asked us to come along for a couple of days after the event. We drooled our way over to the Ford camp were we met the motorsports PR guy and began to tell him about our ’98 Escort with 8.5 inches of wheel travel and how we are taking off-road truck racing technology and applying to rally racing. He is quite amused and told us that he saw us earlier at headquarters with our skateboards. We go back over to rally headquarters, put some more time behind the Playstaion WRC wheel.

November 25’01 – Sunday – Leg three
We get up early because we know this is our last chance to catch the cars in action. It’s cold and raining at five in the morning. As we drive up into the mountains it’s raining harder than any point of the weekend. The spectators are everywhere. On the map, Scott somehow miraculously navigates a back way up into stage 14 and saving us quite a bit of time. It’s the first course of the morning and the rally cars will come back to it for stage 16, so we made the decision to stay on this section and work around it. The backroad paid off big time, but as we came to the gate where everyone was coming in, we realized just how dedicated these UK fans are. The stage starts at 7:58am and it’s already 6:00am and people are everywhere, more than the trees and the forest is thick over there! As we work our way up into the car park area that is already full, we notice people are camping out in tents. It freezing and raining! How much more hardcore can you get?! USA guys at the UK rally in the freezing rain? Right. The out-door campers are way more core. We hike our way up the hill to catch a good sweeping down hill view. It’s few minutes before the race. We are just astounded at the amount of people waiting to catch another glimpse of the rally cars. We overhear the speculation as to who is to win and who is there favorite and the politics of the teams driver / car combinations. These people are the true enthusiast! Fathers with their kids and wives too! Boy with there girlfriends drenched in rain. The whole family! People of all walks and ages are here with airhorns in tow to blast and cheer the rally cars as they pass by. It was one of those most memorable moments for me, but I began to question the moment… Scott was freezing and his jacket was soaked and he was swearing up and down left his rain suit home as per my suggestion. I was just trying to get my camera equipment out and prepared to shoot with the help of a local holding his umbrella over my head to keep from not testing how waterproof my camera is not. As soon as we heard the first car, the air horns started blaring, there was no question in my mind at all – this was the place for me to be. Everything was so right. We stayed till some of the 1600 Series cars came around and then we started to make our way down the hill to the car. Plan was to dry out and move to a new location. We get back out to the street and make our way back down the “secret” local rout that saved us so much time coming up. As we made our way to the next location we noticed some people going up into a section not clearly marked on the map as a viewing area. But I think anywhere you can get is viewing area within safety. We went through this tiny apartment area and all the local elderly people were standing in their doorways and looking at all the traffic coming through. We made our way up the hillside and we were extremely excited to see that there was a food coach in service as we came around the last bend at the top of the hill, in the middle of nowhere! We noticed a hairpin turn was heavily marked and referenced ourselves back to our course map. We saw where we were and instantly understood that this was a local favorite spot and locally organized with turn marshals and food vending by the locals. We were not quite to the top of the hill yet, but sprinting distance from the food as the rain kept poring. Those hamburgers were some of best on the whole trip! After the food and after stage 14 was over people moved off the very tip of the hill, so once it was clear we charged for front row parking. Once we had our car in position we draped the dripping wet jackets up from the sun visors and blasted the heat to dry everything out. Seems we were not the only ones drying out as we saw all types of feet fogging up windows as socks hung down from every possible position. The crowds reappeared and stage 15 began as the rain continued to fall. After the event we drove down the hill to catch the winners coming into the Service Area. I got my blue Ecko jacket signed by Richard Burns as he was the new champion and winner of the Rally Great Britain.

November 26’01 – Monday
It was a cold chilly Monday morning, the day after one of the most exciting weeks of our lives after chasing WRC rally cars through the woods of Whales. But today was to be a new venture off into the upper northern region of Whales were legends have been molded and reputations planted. As we drove through the woods it looked as if the Loc Ness Monster was from these parts with the fog drifting in over the surrounding murky lakes. Today we are going to the Phil Hill Rally School escorted by the members of Prodrive Team along with Travis Pastra and Alpinestars crew! As we drive through the rolling hills of Whales glimpses and flashes of the Ari Vatinnan’s “The Ari Vatanen Touch” video runs through my head. I can hear his old 1970’s Escort Cosworth motor with that distinctive sidedraft sound echoing off the narrow passages and rounding the hills of the cold damp morning. We arrive at what seemed to be another track of farmland and as we made our way up the road it was just that, a beautiful farm spread among the valleys. Nestled atop of a tree cover hill was a simple garage from our vantage, as we drive up the leave covered pathway. As we make our way out of our cars and into the brisk early morning air we can see just past the building, rows of used tires. Not just any old used tires, but stacks upon stacks of used rally tires. We can feel the history already being spoken to us threw all of these tires and know we are some place very special. What we are about to partake in will be history of “grooming lessons.” That after noon we make our way to the hotel “Inn,” “manor” what have you, I am not quite sure of the proper word for such a place of such grand design of old word “nice” and “big.” Seems the Prodrive guys use this place from time to time when testing and keeping all the troops under one roof complete with large eating area and well stocked bar. Seems the owner and his family are the keepers of the facility and the father also manufactures some very serious one-off racing composites and exotic materials at another facility as a side business. We are hanging out with the Subaru World Rally Teams top brass.. Pinch me!

November 27’01 – Tuesday
Awoke to rain and a chance to ride in the real WRC car! Great breakfast inside, but we can see the rain falling outside the windows as the SWRT director announces we will be making a hour’s drive further up into North Wales to a larger testing facility and briefs us on today’s details. As we make our journey through the hillsides we confirm everything we have seen so far. In comparison the US, we have dirt roads, in the UK, yes, but it has gravel added due to the over abundance of rain. Gravel covers every major dirt road in sight and gives us a better sense of the terrain “terror-in-rain.” As we make our way around a large mountain, an open valley is presented in great view as we make our way down the side only to get to the bottom and start the assent up the other side. A small roadside farm building is present just ahead as we slow down. No major signs, no major gate, just major farm equipment as we start to traverse this gravel road, just as we start to pass the final building we see a couple of very old and retired rally cars behind some of the equipment and know we are close. Along the gravel trail we get happy with our right hand drive rental car and want to test the e-brake and driftability of the car on wet gravel on the curvy path. Through the trees and over yet another hillside our emotions jump as we see the little valley with the large flat bottom area full of mud and gravel that has been pushed around by quite recognizable patterns of drifts and slides. There is a creek crossing and several roads leading up and out the other side of the valley. At the far end of the valley we see two large buildings but what really caught the eye were several official Subaru support vehicles in crystal method blue coloring to contrast the lush green and brown landscape. “We have been to the mountain and seen the other side…” A full race support rig, hospitality tour bus and several Subaru WRX’s scattered around, but as we drove up, we saw the rear of what we really came to see poking out of the garage area chocked full of tools and test equipment all around the room. For the Alabama in me, this was heaven. This is the way a farm should look! Full factory race in a barn facility! Two things happened on this day that will be with me forever: I rode in the real deal WRC rally car and I witnessed Travis Pastrana unleash raw talent behind the wheel of a WRC car. My pilot for the trip around the six mile course was no other than Mark Lovell who is the factory pro driver for the Subaru USA Rally Team. That afternoon we make our way back to Heathrow Airport and find a Hotel. We are speechless for the two hour drive back to Heathrow.

November 28’01 – Wednesday
We get up, drop off the rental car and witness the Concord jet taking off for New York with the most thunderous sound I’ve ever heard in my life. Roughly $10,000 round trip from London to New York in what will take us eight hours in done in merely ONE HOUR!

Today’02’03
Any day Scott’s and Marvin’s WRC game times are better than the UK kid that won the EVO7. My drum & bass music is from the UK. Orange marmalade is the only jelly I like now and I have a passion for UK stuff. I bought my wife some Paul Frank sunglasses with little Union Jack flags emblems on the frames. Although from Finland, Ari Vatanen, his video is always on deck! Rally full ahead! Convert to dirt, for me it’s getting back to my roots – in Alabama and in the dirt. And for those of you who love NASCAR it’s OK, but the real history of NASCAR is RALLY!