Rex Pets Flying Fortress Rally 2021
For the next round off the 2021 championships the Laser Tools Rally Team travelled south to the ex-American Air force base at Kettering for the Rex Pets Flying Fortress rally and being one of my favourite venues we were really looking forward to his one. The venue has some quite fast straights as well as some slower narrow and technical sections on the service roads through the trees. The forecast for the day was to be a hot one and with the excellent entry we needed to make a good start on the first stage.
We set off in to the first stage hoping to set a quick time with no errors that would hopefully set in good stead for the rest day but I made a bad choice on the rear tyres and we lost a bit of time but we ended the stage in 25th overall and 3rd in class. This was as good as we could have hope for and we needed to up the pace a little over the next couple of stages before the temperature got hotter both inside and outside he car. We did increase our pace a little but after catching a car in the narrow section and him not letting us pass we dropped to 28th overall and 4th in class at the dinner break.
Once again, we need to push on the afternoon stages to move ourselves back up the order but this was made more difficult after we were stopped in the stage after a car had gone off and blocked the road. This meant we were given a notational time for that stage which was 24 seconds slower than our previous run over the stage which meant a big push would be needed on the last 2 stages. A small change to the rear suspension made the car a bit more stable in the fast corners so with the confidence growing we managed to climb to 22nd overall and 3rd in class by the end of the day and a good point score for the championships as can been seen below. Thanks to all the organisers and safety crews out on the rally, to Mick for keeping us on time and on track and to Laser Tools who continue to support us in 2021.
We will be back on the stages again August 1st for The Phoenix Stages Rally at Fulbeck.
