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SMACS to the New Brighton Rally Saturday 30th September 2006
The Printmatters Promenade Stages Rally is an annual event held at New Brighton, Wirral. The event is normally held in July but was moved to avoid a clash with The British Open Golf. This years event marked 26 years hosting an impressive 90 car entry of exciting rally cars. Some of the entries included ex Petter Solberg’s Subaru Impreza WRC S11, Metro 6R4, BMW M3, Sierra Cosworth, Escort MK2, Mitsubishi Evo, Nissan Micra (!) Morris Mini and more!
‘We’ (JenniP1, Moneys, PaultheJambo, TI7OJO and my93wrx) met at the local B&Q car park and started the afternoon with a well needed visit to ‘The Lunch Box’. After consuming much needed sustenance, we were ready for the rallying ahead! We all travelled in Ste’s car (which sat 5 comfortably with loads of room in the boot) to the event and arrived in time to watch stage 6.
Stage 6 commenced with the roaring sound of the Hyundai Accent WRC followed by the Impreza S11.
We took a stroll down to the pits to take pictures of engines(?) - of which looked a bit like mine (he, he) while Martin (27bhp Seat), Ste (who admits the P1 is better than his wagon) and Mark, I mean Mike eyed up the brake discs on the S11.
We were all eager to get to ‘what we thought’ to be the centre of the crashes, I mean action, which was the hairpin bend at the other end of the prom. So off we went to watch the action for stages 7 & 8, with a few stops on the way as Paul’s camera was smoking , he was taking that many pictures!
A pit stop was required to refuel the SMACS, so we paid a visit to the ‘overpriced’ catering facilities were more hotdogs and burgers were consumed to assist the hangovers - wasn’t it Paul (photo overload)theJambo?! Apart from Martin of course who brought his own packed lunch!
Ste found us a prime location to watch the final 2 stages of the rally - hats off to you Mr Moneys! We saw quite a few kerb crashes and close misses! We enjoyed watching all cars whether it be the weaving BMW M3, the Ford Escorts doing ‘wheelies’, the tweeting of the classic Impreza WRC, the roaring of the 3L V6 Metro 6R4 or the buzzing of the Morris Mini.
At the end of the rally we decided to shut up shop and head back to B&Q . We did contemplate driving onto the circuit with the 5 of us in the wagon ‘but not as we know it‘, but Ste didn’t want to steal the show.
Big thanks to Paul for taking thousands of pictures and video footage for the article and to the rest of the guys for making it a great afternoon and who decided that the New Brighton rally was a trip they couldn’t miss therefore forfeiting the trip to the Nurburgring!
JenniP1 :)
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