Forresters Venta Silurum Targa

Event Report

 

Watch Out For The Kerbs!

As soon as Caerwent is mentioned, “Watch Out For The Kerbs” is normally the second sentence.

Caerwent has been used for Stage Rallies since 1994, but the Venta Silurum (the Roman name for Caerwent) was the first ever Targa at the venue.

Caerwent was used for explosive and propellant production for many years, the reason there are relatively small buildings surrounded by blast banks. Two factories existed so that production could continue if one factory was attacked. The site was selected due to the availability of water from the Severn and docks being nearby. The site was then used for storage for many years and is now used for training.

Enough of the history lesson, but it explains the maze of roads, many buildings and forts around the venue. Fantastic for Rallying!

 

John Davies and Nick Bloxham were looking confident before the start, running at car 1. They’d won everything recently (when not being led by a standard Yaris is slippery conditions 😊) so had to be the favourites. But there was strong competition in the entry.

Steve Retchless and Sasha Heriot were in their Escort at car 2, looking forward to some grip after the Hatsford Targa.

Jamie Jukes was at 3 in the Astra, but there was further quality throughout the field.

After the first loop of three Tests. John/Nick held a 15 second lead, but this was a little misleading as Jamie Jukes had a cooling issue on Test 2, losing time. The cooling issue looked to be resolved with a fuse lent to Jamie by Gavin Rogers.

There was drama throughout the field, with Navigators finding it hard. It wasn’t just identifying the roads at the venue which was difficult, but the constant acceleration, hard braking and hard turns were taking their toll on Navigator’s digestive systems.

Many Navigators who hadn’t suffered in the past were suffering now. Ben Griffin with Steve Conner navigating, had to stop in Tests while Steve recovered. The list goes on – Anita Wickins, Derek Drayton, Michael Spicer, … The Marshals at the end of Tests had to deal with a great deal!

There were all sorts of battles going on during the day, with clutches, overheating, kerbs, tyres, bent wheels/axles, sickness, …

Steve Retchless and Sacha Heriot were clearly enjoying the much higher levels of grip available at Caerwent and were looking great on the Tests.

Robert Milligan and Nic Jones were suffering with clutch slip after the first look of Tests. This deteriorated during the day, also picking up a puncture and losing the starter motor, needing to be pushed. No giant killing second overall as on the Hatsford in the very standard Mini.

Tom and Tony Brooks lost their alternator in the Escort when starting the last loop of Tests, but finished without further problems with their new engine.

Simon Harris was looking subdued after not feeling that he was on the pace.

The Woolleys had no issues to report in their BMW, unlike the Hatsford where their crossmember broke, leading to not a lot holding in the engine and gearbox!

Jason Stone returned to the Paddock with two flat tyres on their BMW.

Simon Mellings and Karl Ellis were having a good run in the Nissan Sunny. A blowing exhaust on the downpipe required some silver foil from Karl’s sandwiches to fashion a new gasket!

John Fox and Jamie Yapp almost retired in their Clio Trophy with a suspected failing driveshaft. However John’s nuts were the problem and a quick tweek resolved the problem.

Malcolm Dunderdale and Anita Wickins were finding the event a challenge, with Anita suffering mal de Nav and retiring, as did Darrell Denning and Derek Drayton.

Ben Pritchard and Will Brown ended their day on Test 7 with a broken driveshaft.

Rob and Aidan Thompson had a good run in the Purple Peril Rover.

John Rhys Owen and Sandra Loton-Jones in their MG ZR were in learning mode, discovering how the code boards worked on the first Test.  They also hit a kerb with their nearside rear wheel, leading to a great deal of positive camber. They limped through the Test to gain some good Championship points.

Richard Yapp and Peter Cox were soldiering on in their Sprite, with a combined age of crew and car of over 190 years. A quick piece of rewiring gave their fuel pump a renewed life, plus tyres which were used as buffers on the Ark were called in to use to replace a puncture.

Back to the competition, Jamie Jukes retired after the second loop of Tests with more overheating in the Astra.

Damian Cole retired after a wrong Test on the first Test.

Ben Griffin and Steve Conner finished, with Steve being much lighter at the end of the event, but more Championship points.

James Griffiths (owner of the Hatsford venue and CoC of the Hatsford Targa0) was having some tyre issues, but nothing major.

Elliott Sharp had to deal with a smelly car, but overcame this minor issue to obtain a good finish.

Robert Milligan just stayed ahead of John Fox, not that there was any competition between the two, both being seen regularly on BTRDA Autosolos.

 

All of this led to John Davies and Nick Bloxham taking a relatively comfortable win. As Nick said during the Winner’s speech, John didn’t put a wheel wrong 99.9% of the time, something which is REALLY needed at Caerwent.

It was great to see the Marshals enjoying the balmy weather, with sunbathing occurring between Tests 😊 This was very different to set up the previous day when the weather was foul, respect to the set up crews.

Results and more information can be found at:

http://rallyroots.com/Reports2021/VentaSilurum2021.html

After the cancellation of the Ilfracombe and 061 Targas, the next round of the Championship will be the Kent Forestry Targa on 18^th September, not long. Mereworth Woods will prove a good challenge, but will be familiar to many crews who have competed there on Historic events.

See you out there.

Pictures courtesy of Andy Manston at M&H Photography.