Neil Fletcher Racing
HAVOC Article No 3.
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Dear Andy
I
thought I would let you know how the 1989 season finished with our Mexico.
As
you will know from my last letter I went into the summer break lying in the
joint lead of the N.I. Navigation Rally Championship. Our season restarted in
South Armagh in September and Lady Luck had decided to abandon the Mexico. First
we had a costly navigation error. We missed a Secret Control in an early section
and dropped out of contention completely, as if that wasn't bad enough for the
last ten miles or so the Mexico started to go off a cylinder in slow corners, it
was only when we screeched to a halt at the final control and were enveloped in
a cloud of steam that we realized our head gasket was blown. We ended up in 8th
place and to make matters worse for us the crew leading the championship also
won this event their first championship rally win and in their new car a 205
GTi. They had got married a few weeks before - yes to each other - so for them
it was a nice wedding present.
When we got the engine out
of the car we discovered that the problem had started with a leak through the
water pump bearing. Unfortunately as well as a blown gasket we also had a warped
head but a skim soon cured that problem, or so we thought. Our next event was
around Dungannon, we have competed there so often that we almost consider it
local so had high hopes of a good result. We had some trouble with the first
section of navigation and lost 11 minutes but had a really good run after that
and only dropped a further 2 minutes all night. We ended up third at the end of
the night and our main rivals had a confidence sapping "off" and took
it easy for the rest of the night. Next up came Enniskillen where the Mexico had
her first outing a year previous and ended with a blown engine, we had no better
luck this year - our head gasket blew again. We only got to the finish by
stopping at every river or ditch and topping up the radiator, needless to say we
dropped a pile of time and were outside the points again. When we pulled our
engine out yet again we discovered a small crack at the top of one of the
cylinders in the same place as the gasket had gone before, maybe this was always
the problem.
With only a week before our
next event we needed an engine fast. All we had was an old 1700cc crossflow that
had a blown piston so we got a new piston, fitted a liner to that cylinder and
bought a big valve head from a friend. That week we threw together the engine
and got it fitted and tested late on Thursday night. The next night we headed
off for the penultimate round of the championship and we needed a good result to
keep our chances alive. Our engine, we discovered had a liking for oil and was
using a pint every 100 miles; apart from that and one navigation error we had a
good run. We missed a two mile loop but discovered our mistake quickly and were
able to retrace our steps with only a small time loss. We eventually finished
fifth, the championship leaders completely missed the same loop as we had and
finished outside the points but the same crew won this week as had won in
Enniskillen the previous week and leapt over us into second place in the
championship.
A fortnight later we
gathered for the final round of the series. With dropped scores the top three
drivers all had a chance of taking the title but unfortunately, after having
missed an early event my navigator could at best only finish third in his
section. Now by nature I'm not a superstitious person but at the garage near
scrutiny I was almost knocked over by a black kitten, it came tearing round the
corner of a building and when it saw me it tried to change direction in a hurry,
on the loose gravel it ended up looking like an Escort in a four wheel drift,
well for me it was a good omen.
The first half of the rally
was quite straight forward with no real problem for the top crews, ourselves
included. Early in the second half we caught and passed both the crews who were
leading us in the championship - they were having navigation problems. The roads
really got tight near the end of the rally but with some fast driving and good
navigating we managed to stay ahead We ended up in second place dropping only
four minutes, as had the winners but they won on furthest clean. This crew also
use a classic rally car, a Triumph 2.5 PI We have tied on penalties three times
during the year but on furthest clean the PI leads the Mexico two to one.
At the end of the night
after all the calculations and dropping of scores I had won the championship
after three years of trying. When I got home in the wee small hours I was still
on a real high and couldn't get to sleep so I had to get up and read for a
couple of hours. Well that was the end of last year and we finished the year
with four wins out of five starts in various small club events. On Boxing Day I
took my wife, Carmel with me and did the Ulster Automobile Club's Boxing Day Rally. This involves
autotests at various sites which are joined by navigation rally type sections,
much to Carmel's delight we won our class and came home with some crystal.
Our
1990 season has just started and we hope to compete in the N.I. Navigation Rally
Championship again - my navigator Mark Elliott would like to win the navigator's
section. We will also compete in some of the N.I. Stage Rally Championship
events maybe a few autotests and other events, I shall drop you a line later in
the year and tell you how we get on.
All
the best,
Neil
Fletcher.
FMX
800J - RS1600
JIJ
9975 – Mexico
FIA 6386 – Mexico
Membership No. 1472
P.S.
I have just returned from the Ulster Motor Show and while there I came across
something which might interest Andrew Wildblood the Twin Cam Registrar. At the
Motor Show there was an auction of some classic cars which took place the night
before I was there. Included in this auction was a Twin Cam which I presume was
once owned by a club member as it had an AVO sticker on the windscreen. The car
which was advertised as the second last Twin Cam off the production line was
registered as JHM 39 K and changed hands for £14,000. Unfortunately the
auctioneers were unwilling to give me further information.
Click on any of the links below to go to that section of the site.
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