Although I've marshalled on Wales Rally GB before, a very low slung sports car confined me to the Service Park and ceremonial finish, so now with a 4x4 and a bit of ground clearance I was able to venture into the forest stages on radio duty.
Friday
After finding my accommodation on Thursday afternoon, a converted loft in Penmachno, it was an early night ready for a 4am departure to head up onto the Denbigh Moors to SS3/8 Brenig.
I was warned at sign in that there were some very slippy stretches en-route to my post, but it wasn’t too bad and an interesting mixture of surfaces around the stage, one minute driving on rock, then through mud, then smooth concrete. I arrived at Post 19, still in dark and parked up quietly so as not to wake the marshals who were still sleeping in their car having arrived the night before. Steve and Tim from Birmingham were good company through the day, the only things they had to deal with were reattaching direction arrows.
We had a few spectators all friendly and playing by the rules. I initially parked just behind the box junction, but once Neuville blasted though and showered by car with mud, and some stones landed alarmingly close I decided to reverse a bit further back to attain some protection from the bushes, although that made identification a bit tricky on the second run as mud was obscuring the numbers and I had a narrower field of vision to try and see them, so my checklist had a few question marks on it.
The drive out of stage was in daylight and thankfully I picked up less mud on the way out then I had on the way in, with the WRC guys having sent most of it into the trees.
Saturday
Day 2 was a comparative lie in with a 6am departure for the drive south to Dyfnant. The day dawned as I made my way down towards Dolgellau, and with light traffic a most pleasant drive through the heart of Wales on very good roads.
The stage start on SS14 was a long way from the main road but eventually I arrived at the control point to be met my another marshal who was interested to have a look at my Subaru XV (think I should get a sales commission from Subaru). Then it was a short drive to my post at 6C, on the entrance to Irish Corner. We had a quite a few marshals at this point as it was a good spectator area.
A good run through for both the WRC and National crews, we had one car go AWOL just after our post but he was soon located and found to be OK, well the crew were, the car had a broken suspension. The only other incident to report was that I needed to apply sun cream to my neck, yes sun cream, on WRGB!
A good drive back north with the late afternoon sun making some dramatic lighting to the mountains as I got towards Blaenau Ffestiniog, I diverted into Betws-y-Coed for some hot food, then it was back to my loft to pack away ready for another early start.
Sunday
Leaving Penmachno at 4am, and having used sun cream the day before, it was now time to get the de-icer out to clear the windscreen before I could leave. No traffic to speak of but as I approached Llanrwst I had a feeling our friends in blue would be out so made sure I was keeping to the speed limits. Sure enough about half a mile into a 40 limit there was one of North Wales Constabulary checking my, of course lawful, progress.
Into Llandudno and eventually found the road leading to the Great Orme and checked in with the Buccaneer Crew who were running SS21/23. It was still pitch dark, but a wrong direction drive around the Orme was exciting, before coming out onto the roads in Llandudno town which had been transformed, it was actually quite tricky to drive around as you were driving “wrong direction” so although the signage had been altered, your natural instincts to enter a roundabout and go left had to be fought against.
I found my post at the Gloddaeth St roundabout, or Dayinsure Donut as the sponsors wanted it referred to, and I was met with a sea of very familiar faces, it was the Manx Auto Sport team who I‘ve worked with for a few years now on the Manx National and Pokerstars Rallies. We sorted out a few issues at our post, some additional crowd control barriers were needed and as dawn broke the spectators started to arrive. By the time safety cars started to come around we had a full grandstand and crowds 4 or 5 deep the full length of the road.
The WRC drivers where obviously still battling for a podium position so there was some committed driving around the “donut”, it took about an hour and a half to get the field through the stage and then we had a gap to visit the loo and have some lunch, before Paul Swift entered the stage in his stunt cars to keep everyone entertained, and the Everything Supermoto UK Display team lads went down to the jump and flying finish to show off their skills.
Unfortunately two of the bikes had a collision which left 7 year old Riley Dexter in a very bad way and needing to be airlifted to hospital in Liverpool, his team mates looked very shaken as they made their way back to the van behind me, but I heard from the team manager that Riley had made it to hospital and was “awake”, the news the following day was that he was in an induced coma to enable his injuries to be treated, so fingers crossed that he makes a full recovery.
The incident led to a delay starting SS23 and the atmosphere certainly took a hit. But we kept our spectators informed as best we could and full marks go to the local Rally Makers who were doing a fantastic job keeping the crowd animated and in cheering spirit.
Due to the police needing to keep the flying finish and stop area as an investigation scene, the Buccaneer crew did a sterling effort to reconfigure the stage so the flying finish was moved to immediately after the donut, and signage repositioned accordingly. As time ticked on the decision was made to just send the top 14 drivers through the shortened stage and everyone else headed back to Deeside, so at 2pm the WRC crews entered the stage and gave the waiting spectators a spectacular end to the rally with a double fling around the roundabout before launching themselves across the flying finish.
With La Marseillaise ringing out across the streets to celebrate Seb Ogier winning WRGB for the 5th time, the crowds started to head home and I decided to give the stage team a hand dismantling signage and banners rather than sit in a traffic jam. Then as the daylight stared to fade it was time to fire Scooby up and head for home.
Thanks Wales Rally GB, you were amazing. Diolch Rali GB Cymru.
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