As far as we were concerned the TSR started back in February when we had a phone call from Kevin Smith (the C of C) asking if we we able to run a stage again this year. It would be the same stage but the other way round and a bit longer. I contacted Bob & Jill before agreeing to do it as their help would be essential. I phoned Kevin back a couple of days later and then received a confirmation e-mail. Things changed in April as it was going to be a different stage as the wedding venue near Redmarley was totally against and blocked it.
Rough details of the new stage at Eldersfield came through in May and as soon as travel restrictions were lifted Janet & myself went and had a drive round it. Initial impressions was that it was fast and that there were a lot of houses some of which were big and we hoped that the residents realised what they were letting themselves in for. Bob booked all of us in to the nearest hotel to the stage start – it was under 2 miles away. The hotel was a bit posh but what with Covid and other things we needed a break and a bit of luxury. Fortnightly Zoom meetings followed and this time the meetings were just confined to Stage Commanders, C of C, PR officer and Safety Officer which meant that decisions could be made – much better than before when there was about 20 people involved at the meetings at the Cheltenham MC club house.
In the middle of July further stage details came through including set up details and timings. We then met along with Bob & Jill Kevin, Jeff and Josh at the stage to go over further details regarding set up and location of the spectator area. Jeff and Josh are the ones whose idea it was to put on the event in the first place, had done all the PR work, attended all the Parish Council meetings, liaised with Motorsport UK and the 3 County Councils to get the road closure orders i.e they new all about the event. We spent about 5 hours up there working things out with them but Jeff realised that the farmer had harrowed his field, which was on a slope, and it would now mean that spectator’s cars would probably get stuck. This resulted in Jeff having to find another spectator area as it had been promised in the programme. The only usable field was behind a hedge with limited visibility which did cause us a lot of problems when the stage was running.
During the following week I worked out what equipment we were going to need and how many marshals and radio crews we required to comply with the Blue Book in all its glory. This was duly forwarded on to the main organising committee for them to source. Marshals were being recruited via Rally Stage Team which saved the Chief Marshal a lot of work BUT I didn’t get access to all the information until a fortnight before which to be honest was far too late. This resulted in a lot of confusion for marshals as to whether they had signed on or not and what they were doing and where to be when as e-mails were coming from both us (i.e Janet) and Rally Stage Team.
We went up on the Friday morning before the event and went straight to the show ground (Rally HQ) to have Radios fitted and pick up our van which had been loaded up with all the equipment. We should have been able to pick up marshal packs as well but they would not be available until Saturday afternoon. We then went and checked into our hotel had a few drinks and a relatively early night as we were going to be up fairly early next day – but not as early as those that came to help set up.
Saturday, despite the forecast, was dry and sunny and we met Andrew & Adam and Chris & Graeme at the stage start and started to set up the stage by putting in stakes and securing tape to one end of all gateways- you can not tape things up finally as the road is still open until the next day. Ricky Burt who helped us last year appeared shortly afterwards and again helped. Janet & Jill stayed by the church and kept a record of all the recce cars noting how many times they came through as well if they were driving sensibly. Their other job was, of course, to keep us fed and watered!. We met a lot of the residents some of which were very much in favour of the event and would let the marshals park in their driveways but a few were against the road closure as it meant they were “trapped” in their house all day. They had all been given residents hand books but either they hadn’t bothered to read them or didn’t understand that they could leave/return at certain times through out the day. This took a lot of time explaining the procedure to them which if the organisers had done when delivering the books would have saved us a lot of time and aggravation. As the day was now coming to a close we went back through the stage and put up all the necessary notices on footpaths advising motor sport is dangerous. We returned to the hotel but as Andrew and Adam were staying with family near Malvern they went via Rally HQ to pick up marshals packs and 3 Blue Radio signs that were missing from our equipment – however there were no signs so it was arranged that the first official car would pick up some from stage 1 (they had too many) and drop them of first thing in the morning.
Sunday morning was a very early start – no breakfast & we all met at the stage start at 6:00am! It again was going to be a day of glorious weather – much better than the rain that had been forecast 2 or 3 days before. First job was to put gazeboo up at the start and whilst Janet and myself checked in all the marshals, radio crews, recovery and rescue, Andrew and Adam did Bacon Butties for the Marshals. Bob, Jill, Chris, Graeme and Ricky put up the arrows, taped up all the gates/driveways and got the farmer to put the straw bales in place. I had been told that the bales were roughly 1m x 0.5m x 0.5m but they weren’t. They were massive and far too big and could only be moved by the farmer’s tractor, which took more time as he had to keep on going back to collect them. We just finished setting up the stage before the first official car came through and somehow, I don’t know how, Bob had managed to attach the arrows to the stakes despite the fact that the additional staples were the wrong size for the gun – if only we had found this out the day before! Guess what the first officials car knew nothing about the Radio Signs so when the Motorsport UK Safety Delegate came I had to tell him. He was very sensible and said that as we had all the advanced Radio Signs (yellow) in place and the road book showed where the radio’s were he would let it go but get them for our second run. I also explained to him about the new spectator area and that I wasn’t too happy about it but he said he would read the riot act to them and if the additional radio crew that I had put there thought there was a problem then to let me know and stop the stage if necessary and tell the spectators why it was stopped. All the other officials came through the stage and were satisfied with the way it had been set up and the marshal coverage, which again I had changed from the agreed schedule because of the change in spectator area. The roads to the stage all had road ahead closed signs and were supposedly manned by employed security personnel some of which knew what to do but others didn’t and the one who should have been on the end of the road closest to the spectator area didn’t even appear. By chance (or was it skill ?) I had put two very large burly marshals there and they dealt admirably with the difficult spectators who were trying to gain access via the stage.
Janet and Jill were on the start clock whilst Bob and myself were sorting out the queue checking seat belts, helmets and Hans devices and ensuring that previous car no. was written on the competitors time card – nearly always it wasn’t. Chris Foxley was at stage finish and as Stage Safety Officer one of his jobs was to check previous car no.’s to make sure nobody was missing. Graeme Williamson was also at the finish to make it easier for him to liaise with residents as Stage Resident Liaison Officer. At 30 second intervals it was a bit hectic but all ran smoothly until the queue disappeared – car 28 had rolled and blocked the previous stage. If a stage is closed for more than 20 mins then another course car has to be put through but fortunately this did not happen and cars reappeared 10 mins later and we were up and running again. 5 or 6 cars did have accidents on the stage but none major enough to cause a problem and stop the stage from running. After the course closing car had been through we sent the recover vehicle in to recover one car that had failed to make a left hand bend but was so far off it needed to be lifted back onto the road and then carried off the stage. This meant we had to get another recovery vehicle in place before we could run the stage but it arrived in ample time so no problem.
The second running of the stage ran smoothly enough but we were now behind schedule as accidents on other stages had caused lots of delays. Things were totally different for the last running of the stage however. A car had crashed badly and blocked the previous stage near to the end of the stage and about a dozen cars were trapped in the stage. I won’t say which car it was but it was being driven by a club member. Both crew members were unhurt but the car will probably need at least a new shell and lots of suspension and steering bits. Because the stage was blocked this gave us a big delay, enough to put a course car through and also meant that when the cars did re-appear Bob and myself were faced with the addition task of attempting to put them back in a resemblance of order and making sure that they had the correct notes for our stage and were not still looking at the notes for the previous now cancelled stage. Most co-drivers had got it right but I picked up 2 with the wrong notes and I think Bob picked up 6 or 7 which could have led to a very big accident. It was all a bit of a nightmare but we managed. Eventually all the cars had come through and course closing car came through immediately behind last car but about 30 mins behind schedule. We then all started to clear up the stage, it was a great help that marshals at each point had put their stuff in piles and arranged for the farmer to collect his bales – one of which was now half in the duck pond – Andrew Purnell can tell you more on this. The intended drink at the pub by the finish didn’t happen as most people had to get off home at it was later than planned. We returned to the hotel and had a quick drink with Chris and Graeme before they headed off back to Swindon. A few more drinks and a bite to eat before an earlyish night as we were all worn out. Next day after a good breakfast the van full of equipment was collected and we headed off home. Yes we did have a bit of luxury but it wasn’t really a break ! The following week I sent in my report and then we had another zoom meeting to discuss how the event went. Work is already under way for next years event but probably on a different weekend.
