Peter Outram: Cadwell Park Stages Rally 2024
Sunday 17th November saw the Laser Tools Racing Rally Team at Cadwell Park race circuit for the final round of the 2024 EMAMC (East Midlands Association of Motor Clubs) and ANCC (Association of Northern Car Clubs) championships
After the engine issues at the previous rally we were hopeful of a better result here and securing some good points in the championships, but with this being a round of a higher national championship we are always competing against much higher specification cars in our class, and with two stages to be run in the dark we will still do our best on the day. The weather was very cold with a chance of rain later in the day so tyre choice would be crucial.
As we set off into the first stage, we felt the car was better than it was the previous time here and we were going well until we got to the tight infield hairpin where we got stuck behind a queue of cars dropping about 20 seconds, but this became an even worse issue for latter runners so this stage was cancelled.
We opted for soft tyres for the second stages due to the cold conditions and pressed on to finish the stage in 34th position which we were pleased with given the cars we were competing against. Stage 3 we had a nice clean run we moved up to 27th overall and the car was feeling stable and good on the brakes as well.
We were just about to set out to stage 7 when the rain started to fall, so with 10 minutes to go made the decision to change to full wet tyres and this turned out to be the correct move as the heavy rain came down. During the stage a car broke down in a very narrow section of the circuit whilst we were behind them which cost us a good few seconds and this dropped us down to 29th but we were still going well with the dark stages to come. Unfortunately, Michaela was starting to feel unwell in the car and this slightly impacted our times but we still held 29th going in to the final stage. Again, in the dark Michaela felt ill and on the second loop we had to come in early. That dropped us to 43rd but it was still a finish and from the points gained have secured 9th overall and 3rd in class for the 2024 EMAMC championship so we are really pleased with this result.
The next round in the ANEMMC (Association of North East Midland Motor Clubs) championship is on December 1st where will be competing in The Tegiwa Donington Rally at Donington Park. As always, a huge thankyou goes out to the people who helped on the day Jemma helping Michaela on the maps Dave and Tim keeping the car going all day and to our long-standing sponsors Laser Tools Racing for the continued support in 2024. Also, thanks Dawn for her continued support and to Anthony Windle for the banter and good laughs throughout the weekend.
