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Well after finally clearing the car out of the port on Thursday
afternoon, which had been sitting there for over 3 days, the
adventure began. It was hurriedly trailed to Automotive Art
and placed in the "paint booth" where the additional
paint work was added; that ended at about 7:00pm on Thursday
night. The stickers, the remaining touch-up, were applied
soon after and continued into the wee hours of Friday morning,
and then again first thing the following day.
We finally "set the blush on her" at 3:00pm on
Friday afternoon, at which point the fun started. I loaded
the car on the trailer and headed to Bushy Park where I was
able to have about 20 to 25 laps of practice with the Focus,
which gave me a chance to try and feel the car out.
 We
departed Bushy Park at 5:00pm and headed base (i.e. "the
camp") where preparations began for the Event on Sunday
& Annual Scrutineering on Saturday. This involved a complete
spanner-check, geometry check, etc.; this all finished at
3:00am Saturday morning, bearing in mind I had to be up at
7:00am to head to Automotive Art for the car to be cleaned
and loaded onto the wrecker in preparation for our entrance
at the Annual Scrutineering.
Once Scrutineering was over at 2:30pm we left the Gymnasium
headed for "the camp" were we continued preparing
for the event. I then decided I should probably take the car
for one last test-drive and make sure everything feels right;
that's when we developed a miss-fire. We located the source
of the problem; after taking the plugs out, it was obvious
that plug #2 had failed. We claimed it to the plugs being
old and simply put in a new set in for the event in the morning.
Luckily I managed to get to bed by 9:30pm Saturday night,
and get some very needed sleep.
 Upon
reaching Cherry Tree Hill in the morning, everything seemed
to be in order. Following a quick fuel-up and an ISS level
check, I headed for the start line for the Practice Run. The
plan was just to take it easy and get a feel of the new car,
which I succeeded in doing and was pleased to still be able
to get close to both Roger and Paul.
First official run was driven basically as a repeat of the
practice except a bit quicker; this time I past Paul, as he
had been trying his in-flight capabilities, and Roger was
leading by just a second.
Second official run I was very satisfied with because I had
started to push the car quite a bit harder and I was actually
in a gear higher in three of the corners on the stage, and
the car still felt well within its limits. Time wise, Roger
was still leading by roughly a second and Paul just trailing
behind me (once again training for the Air Force).
Third official run - drove on the start line; 10 seconds
to go, turned on the diffs and anti-lag and preparing to move
off. The marshal counts me down - 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and I dump
the clutch.  As
I accelerated, that familiar miss-fire comes to visit again;
the car revs to 3,500 rpm and no more. I looked for the first
exit road to pull off at and was very disappointed; I was
planning to defend my lead over Paul and see how close I could
get to Roger, but, unfortunately, it was not to be.
However, all in all it was a good day; I learnt quite a bit
about the Focus and the way it behaves, or mis-behaves actually.
A few comments I have about the event; I was very impressed
with the new timing entity, Rally-Timing, for providing accurate
times through the event runs; a big thanks to all involved.
I was also happy to see that all the spectators were in very
safe places; thanks to the expertise of the Marshals and Stage
Commanders involved for that.
Lastly, and definitely not least, a very big thanks to all
my sponsors - Automotive Art, Shell and McEnearney Quality
Inc.
Also all the crew at Automotive Art, for working non-stop
to get the car ready in time and for pulling off such a well
planned entrance and day event at the Annual Scrutineering.
Roger Mayers
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