I was at Duncombe Park on the Friday night for a walk around before the start, stage 1 and the first service. Then spent the day in Gale Rigg on Saturday.
I saw the Stratos five times - three times driven in anger, once returning to service and once static before the start of the event - which I was pleased about after having missed it in the past due to retirements. Fantastic noise.
Was also impressed at how quick Matt Smith was in his Ka and wasn't remotely surprised to hear he'd won the KallKwik support event despite having the third-smallest engine out of the twenty something entries.
After a while of trying to run shutter speeds as low as possible without getting blur and not really liking the results most of the time I decided to opt for much higher shutter speeds for this event and I'm glad I did.
The reds in these will look a bit flat as they're linked off my website which is proofed for printing.
#1 - The Lancia Stratos of Steve Perez and Paul Spooner before the start, absolutely no one was anywhere near it but it was mobbed when it came back off the stages for service.
#2 - Rob Herrington & Charlotte Banner's meerkat-adorned Escort, the minimal lighting in the service park hid the background clutter that would have been visible in daylight.
#3 - Bob Bean & Malcolm Smithson about to head out for the first stage in their Cortina.
#4 - Nick Pinkett & Hugh Myers taking one of the Saab 96 entries through Gale Rigg 1.
#5 - The Perez/Spooner Stratos in Gale Rigg 1, same corner as above but a different angle and the sun had moved across.
#6 - RWD Focus crewed by Robin Wilkinson and Ray Keith in Gale Rigg 2.
#7 - Gwyndaf Evans and John Millington on their way to the fastest time through Gale Rigg 2, a bit too central for my usual taste but they weren't hanging about.
#8 - Mark Simpson and Richard Burdon, I'm not sure that this is a homologated aero part.
and much better weather condition than last year to.
