West Cork Classic Retro

We're home...

Apologies for the delay in filing the story, as I was in Dublin yesterday on a Mission Impossible (cue music). As you can guess from the headline, we brought home some trophies. Big T & Ragworth were first in class, with Sparkie & Camper were second in class. Also, Suggs was the (very) unofficial "Landcruiser Challenge" winner as well as being the photographer for the weekend.

Ragworth started on the psychological battle at scrutiny, with wrecking everybody's heads with comments like "We'll be 300 points ahead on Saturday night"; Outta way - Expert Navi coming through" etc. He also started to call himself the "Semi-Works Navigator". I'd say though he got thick when I asked was the name because he worked half the time......

We thought there would be war in the Big T/Ragworth camp, with Ragworth constantly commenting on the weapon of choice for the weekend, with the car being "Dirty, Smelly, Filty, Ill-prepared, etc". On Killmacalogue & Borlin, the comments changed to "We're Dead!!!", the baby.......

The event also started poorly for the Sparkie/Camper camp, with an unscheduled stop needed on Friday night to empty Camper's stomach. Sugg's came to Camper's rescue with tablets which seemed to work wonders (no more stomach emptying stops needed!). Saturday morning was going well, with Sparkie/Camper had a buffer of 90 points built up.

Then, the results officer spotted an error, and when corrected, Sparkie/Camper were over 150 points behind!. Over the rest of the event, Big T/Ragworth managed to open the gap to over 200 points. In our defence, due to transport issues (mechanical and a lack of road tax) Camper's road car was used by Sparkie/Camper. The car had no proper trip meter, the car's speedo was in kilometers and the front tyres were at the minimum threat depth, so an up-hill battle was the result. The saving grace was that Sparkie was a demon on the autotests, and beat Big T in most of the autotests (and managed to break the Audi on the last test, Hee Hee!)

Speaking of Audi's, the Mikkola/Hertz combination was just Big T/Ragworth. The Audi managed to survive, despite both Big T's & Sparkie's effort. The saga of getting the trip meter working is worthy of Shakespeare. Thursday night at half one in the morning we got it working despite my efforts to sabotage it...

The event finished up on Sunday with a God Awful regularity with a trace for route that took about three hours to figure out. And then the fun started, with Ragworth really rubbing it in. He was told that if he didn't put a smelly sock in it, we would publish his modelling photos. Sparkie, I reckon, is looking at getting a car for retro's he loved it so much. Camper's still attempting to get the mud off the Almera, and Big T's now using the Audi everyday, and managed to get the spotlights focused on the Monday night after the event.

And now for the photos. Suggs has loads of photos, including of the prize-giving. I took only a few, so if anybody wants one, email Photos@RedMistMotorsport.com and I'll send the request on to Suggs. I've a few of my own here. Below is a pic of the whole gang, with the Chief Engineer - Cousin Brian

Update #2

Well, we've heard from a good source that the pink dress wearing navigator is not all that pleased with the Audi. Somehow, he's seen not too flattering photos of the car, and has ranted down the phone. He was making some crazy demands about seating positions, in car entertainment options and some other daft ideas. It was so bad at one stage, he had to put his mother on the phone to make his arguments.

On the other hand, the preparation of the car is going well, with the final touches to the wiring loom to be made and the experimental custom light alloy spot light brackets to be mounted.

Also, there is bad news in the Toyota camp. It looks like the driver won't make the start ramp, or more specifically, there was a scheduling clash for the Saturday evening. An adequate replacement has been sourced, but he took one look at the Toyota and said that he wouldn't be seen dead in it, or something like that....

The good news in this camp however, is that adequate Peanut M&M's have been sourced for the navi, and the 50kg should last until Sunday afternoon, we hope.

We also have heard that there is a slim chance of a Works Peugeot entry may be made at the last minute. Arrangements are being made now to put the deal together....

Original Story

As you can guess from the sensationalist headline, we've heard that H. Mikkola & A. Hertz are doing the West Cork Classic Retro this year in an Audi. The car is currently undergoing secret preparation in deep West Cork for the event, with the pre-event shakedown scheduled for the week after the Rally of the Lakes. The shakedown testing could be interesting, given the experimental nature of the quattro drivetrain

We can confirm that there is no truth in the rumour that the navi is shopping for a pink dress, but we can confirm that the Swedish Chef will be down providing catering for the team.

There are also rumours also floating about that there is a possibility of an entry from C. Sainz & L. Moya in a Toyota. The Toyota that is being lined up for them is currently sitting beside a Cow Shed in West Cork with no brakes, but don't tell them...

There was also a possibility of another headline grabbing crew entering in a 4 wheel drive Subaru, but when they found out that the car was a 13 year old 600cc 4WD Subaru Vivo, in snot green and that the car is used as the "Farm Car" by Cousin Brian, they ran a mile.

Now, all that's left to do is to fill in the entry forms. Quick question, how do you spell "Mikkola"?