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Tong
– 14th January 1996
After a period of some eight months out of the driving seat, the
National being the last event. I thought it was time to dust away the cobwebs and
partake in some more savage amusement by entering Pennine's first comp. safari of the
year, and having a
good thrash around Tong.
Consequently, most of the Christmas holiday week was spent
working off the christmas pudding in the garage. Only a few jobs to do, or, so I
thought, WRONG! After
having to fit a new back axle, power steering box, front prop,
wiper motor etc., etc.
you know the story, it was nearly ready. Anyway the week leading
up to Tong was
spent doing all the odd jobs with the help from Dave Angood and
his mate Neil,
thanks again lads. Oh; and not forgetting the wife who kept the
tea flowing. She
made me put that bit in. Everything went fine until loading up
for the event on
Saturday evening, when the thing was plagued with a mysterious
misfire which we
were unable to rectify.
Anyway, we arrived at Tong to find quite a few NORC members
already there. We
went through scrutineering without any problems, but ran out of
time to walk the
course. We were told by others who had, that there was a lot of
water about, AND
BOY WERE THEY RIGHT!
First run. We left the start and after about 3/4 mile going up
the track through the
trees I braked coming up to a bomb hole and the back end tried
to overtake the front,
sending us side ways into a large bush. On reversing out we very
nearly put it on its
side in the hole, but were lucky not to. A little further on
just before the lake at the top
of the hill we had a full 360° spin. There's me trying to stop
the thing pirouetting and
all I'm getting is a lot of verbal abuse from the passenger
seat. Then going through
the deep water quite slowly the engine started mis firing badly.
Shortly after that we
went through the stream and put the wipers on, WHOOPS! drivers
side wiper had
gone. This was going from bad to worse. We finished the run
peering through a
muddy wet screen on about six cylinders. Back in the pits we
looked and found the
air filter full of water, along with almost everything else.
After drying it all out we made
some temporary mud shields for the air filters from a gallon
container cut in half, and
fastened on with tie wraps.
The second run. Went okay until we got to the water again, where
the motor thought
it was time for a rest and promptly stopped in the middle.
Surprisingly, it fired up after
a few seconds, but again on only about six pots. We finished the
run without further
mishaps but were well off the pace.
Third run. This time with Dave as passenger in only his second
comp. and had anoth-
er 360° spin in exactly the same place as before. On to the deep
water and again it
quit in the middle but fired up on the button, only on six then
seven pot and then the
throttle pedal felt very heavy, must have got muddy water into
the kickdown cable for
the autobox. The rest of the run the box decided to change up
and down of its own
accord, sending the revs through the roof and nearly blowing the
engine.
First time as we came along the bottom of the grass field just
after the bridge and
then again after the lily pond and back to the finish. We
stopped for a short time for
dinner and were able to sort one or two problems.
Next run with Melvin back in as ballast, we ended up in the same
bush as on the first
run. Only this time crossed up in the ruts and having to drive
the wrong way down the
track in order to turn around. "Still a bit busy I shouted",
that's my excuse anyway. On
to the deep water and this time we got through! without
stopping, but still popping
and mis-firing.There was a double jump with a hole about two
thirds the way down
the back wall, which by this time we had got off to a tee by
jumping the whole thing
with some excellent landings. Again we finished the run on less
than eight pots. At
least we were not the only ones having problems, As motors were
breaking down all
over, mainly due to the water, including Mick Higson who was
lacking sparks. I lent
him an ignition coil but don't know if it helped him. I think
the only one not suffering
with the damp was Brent in his new (first time out) TDI coiler.
But only after moving
the air filter up out of the way so it didn’t drink the lake.
The remaining runs were basically the same as the others and we
were unable to get on the pace all day, but with our last run
being the quickest and with a time of 4 minutes 55 seconds, we were surprised to learn we had won our
class. The NORC lads
were in a class of their own, in more ways than one.
It was nice to get back in the racer again after such a long
break, even though we
never fired on eight cylinders all day, we still enjoyed
ourselves.
Many thanks to all the organisers and all the marshalls for
making a right good do.
Glen Thompson
Tong 96
The weekend began early on Saturday morning. I threw my kit into
the landy and set
out for Tong determined to have a good day's off-roading and
setting up for the comp
safari on Sunday.
I arrived just after 10 am and met up with David, Michael and
John. After a coffee and
a chat we set off in convoy, working our way from the finish of
the course whilst
Gareth and Co began laying the course from the starting point
around the woodland
tracks toward us. After about an hour and a half of hammering
stakes and some serious 'mud plugging' we came across a shallow 100yd slope down
toward the corner of
the field followed by an eight foot sheer uphill slope with the
added fun in the shape of
a gloopy pond at it's base. David decided to go for it and took
a run-up in the 90, the
pond was deeper than expected and with the near vertical slope
being slippy the
attempt failed. Another go saw a second attempt fail and David
decided that he would
have to drive down the length of the pond, only on exiting did
he find out that the door
seals aren't as good as first thought! ! !
It was at this stage that I decided that I didn't want wet feet
in the series III so followed
John down another part of the slippery field to meet David at
the bottom. Michael and
Ivor soon joined us and Michael decided that he was going to
have a go at the corner
but the opposite way round! ! So round the top of the pond he
went and after careful
surveying he descended the eight foot drop and eased into the
pond, then the biggie,
100yds of 6"deep class A uphill mud. Four attempts later saw
Michael emerge in a
somewhat re-coloured landy but nevertheless home and dry-ish! !
Ivor decided that whatever Michael could do he could do better,
so round the top,
down the drop, through the pond he went, unfortunately the slope
swallowed the Lwb
whole. After we had lost count of the attempts to drive out, and
a failed snatch recovery by Michael, the winch had to come to the rescue and five
minutes later hauled
him clear of the now axle deep mud.
By now Gareth had joined us and after discussion a joint
decision was made that we
should cut the comer off the route and the final 2 stakes of the
day were belted into
position.
With time still on our side and plenty of daylight left,
playtime was called for; so
muddy landrovers got even muddier and clean ones just didn't
exist!
A few funny looks on the way home and a good nights sleep saw us
heading for Tong
once more on the Sunday for a great comp-safari and from the
people I talked to, a
great day was had by all. Thanks to all who were involved at
Tong.
Dale Ingall.
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