The final round of the 2011 World Rally Championship is taking place is the hills and valleys of Wales. The appropriately named WRC Wales Rally GB 2011 begins on Thursday the 11th of November from Conway Quay. We head into Wales Thursday evening to stay at The Vanner B&B in Aberdovey for a good nights sleep before heading out to see Friday's action.
SS6 Dyfi East is a 30 minute drive from the seafront B&B. We leave at 0730, the stage opens to the first competition vehicles at 0848 and we hope to get there early for a good seat.
Having not planned for the unexpected; the mile walk up a damned hill to the stage meant we arrived late and missed some of the front runners. However we were expecting to be very limited on where we could and could not go, but we were relieved to see this didn't seem to be the case. Certainly not once you got further away from the car park and main areas anyway.
The other, often unseen, side to rallying is the service & support needed to keep the vehicle going for several days at a time. We like to visit the Service Park between stages if we can, its usually a very good opportunity to get close and personal with a high performance competition vehicle. The service park for the WRC was 50 miles down the road in Builth Wells.
90 minutes later we arrive at the Royal Welsh Showground in Builth Wells. Our, yet again, late arrival means we miss the WRC cars, but still manage to see the end of the pack in service. We grab a bite to eat before heading back north for SS11 Dyfnant where we hope to see some of the forest stage at night.
Late again, surprise surprise, due to the torrential rain along the route back we make the stage having missed maybe ten cars. Theres a heavy fog and persistant rain, but we head off along the stage to see some rallying.
We had a brilliant day out. I think we learnt not to try and do too much, and next year we'll stick to one stage per-day (we've already agreed on going for the whole 4 day event next year). The services were just too far away and we probably shouldn't have gone. The highlight of the day came at the end. With the light gone, and a heavy rain, the drivers and their co-drivers kept giving it their all through the forest, the final car came though just after six.
