philw696
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This popped up on my old Motor Club page reminiscing about Group B Rallying.
Okay here goes, it's going to be a long one!
1986 maybe 7, John Roberts had arranged with the organisers for us (143MC) to marshal on the RAC Rally (when it was a 5 day/night slog around the UK).
We were to marshal a junction in Dyfnant Forest and had to be on station at some ridiculous hour long before the cars had even started the day.
We all met at Alan Lawley's place in Quedgeley at around 01:30/02:00 for the 3+ hour drive to North Wales, and piled into his SWB Transit van which he had bought just a couple of days earlier, it was still pretty much full of his car valeting stuff (his business at the time) as he had nowhere to keep the steam cleaner etc, plus he had been shopping to buy all the associated food stuffs and liquid refreshments (non alcoholic of course) that we chipped in for and would need over the next 12+ hours.
3 in the front, Alan driving, Mark Poole, and John Roberts on the maps, and 4 in the back, me, Phil Wilkinson, Nigel Williams and I think Julien Wilkinson, sitting on what we could find and trying to get comfortable as we could in a freezing van full of kit.
And so we set off.
First stop was not long after we left for Nigel, he was feeling sick sitting by the rear doors of the van, this was because being a typical old Transit the bottom of the doors were rusty and allowing the Carbon monoxide into the back, he and Phil swapped places and all was good-ish!
This now left Phil and I at the back looking out of the windows, we noticed as we travelling along that at every major road junction there seemed to be a Police car.
When we turned on to the A49 just before Leominster we saw 2 Police cars parked on the forecourt of the petrol station that used to be there, we also noticed that they started to move and follow us at a distance.
When we were half way along the Leominster bypass they closed up and put their blue lights on, one overtook and pulled in front and the other closed up on the back doors. We could hear the two officers from the front car talking to Alan and John, Alan trying to explain that the van wasn't in his name as he had just bought ("yes likely story Sir") and that the tax was in the post!
John meanwhile was doing his best to explain that we were on our way to marshal on the RAC Rally of Great Britain and we were pushed for time
Meanwhile the officers (1 Sergeant and a young WPC) in the rear car casually got out and wandered towards the back of the van, they must have clearly seen Phil and I looking out as they were tailing us, I noticed that Phil had slunk back into the shadows and was pulling on a black ski mask, the type with two eye holes.
The Sergeant came to the n/s rear door first and shone the torch at me closely followed by the WPC who went to the offside door, Phil by this time was crouching below the window and as soon as she shone the torch in he jumped up in the pose of a pouncing cat and roared, the WPC stepped back in fright and all of us in the back burst into fits of uncontrollable laughter, the sergeant had seen this happen and as quick as a flash had pulled the rear doors open and bellowed "F*CKIN OUT NOW".
He lined the four of us up on the white line at the edge of the carriageway where we were soon joined by the 3 from the front.
The Sergeant then promptly ripped us all apart for behaving in such a stupid and immature manor blah blah blah or words to that effect, we were tittering and shuffling our feet like naughty little school boys being told off by teacher, John in the meantime was still doing his best to placate the other officers and appologising for our behaviour and explaining how important it was that we got going.
Finally and what seemed an age later (probably 5 minutes) they let us on our way.
It turns out that there had been a ram raid at the newly built Tesco in Quedgeley that night, and a white Transit van was used.
They had waited to see where we were going before deciding to stop us on the Bypass as (at the time) there was nowhere to hide, just flat fields and the Railway line.
Anyway we made it on time (just) and spent a very entertaining day watching the RAC.
We even made a profit from all the food that Alan had bought by selling bacon rolls etc to all the ill equipped spectators who were drawn by the smell of cooking in the middle of a Welsh forest, enough so that we stopped at a restaurant on the way home for a hearty meal a few beers!
Happy days indeed.
Okay here goes, it's going to be a long one!
1986 maybe 7, John Roberts had arranged with the organisers for us (143MC) to marshal on the RAC Rally (when it was a 5 day/night slog around the UK).
We were to marshal a junction in Dyfnant Forest and had to be on station at some ridiculous hour long before the cars had even started the day.
We all met at Alan Lawley's place in Quedgeley at around 01:30/02:00 for the 3+ hour drive to North Wales, and piled into his SWB Transit van which he had bought just a couple of days earlier, it was still pretty much full of his car valeting stuff (his business at the time) as he had nowhere to keep the steam cleaner etc, plus he had been shopping to buy all the associated food stuffs and liquid refreshments (non alcoholic of course) that we chipped in for and would need over the next 12+ hours.
3 in the front, Alan driving, Mark Poole, and John Roberts on the maps, and 4 in the back, me, Phil Wilkinson, Nigel Williams and I think Julien Wilkinson, sitting on what we could find and trying to get comfortable as we could in a freezing van full of kit.
And so we set off.
First stop was not long after we left for Nigel, he was feeling sick sitting by the rear doors of the van, this was because being a typical old Transit the bottom of the doors were rusty and allowing the Carbon monoxide into the back, he and Phil swapped places and all was good-ish!
This now left Phil and I at the back looking out of the windows, we noticed as we travelling along that at every major road junction there seemed to be a Police car.
When we turned on to the A49 just before Leominster we saw 2 Police cars parked on the forecourt of the petrol station that used to be there, we also noticed that they started to move and follow us at a distance.
When we were half way along the Leominster bypass they closed up and put their blue lights on, one overtook and pulled in front and the other closed up on the back doors. We could hear the two officers from the front car talking to Alan and John, Alan trying to explain that the van wasn't in his name as he had just bought ("yes likely story Sir") and that the tax was in the post!
John meanwhile was doing his best to explain that we were on our way to marshal on the RAC Rally of Great Britain and we were pushed for time
Meanwhile the officers (1 Sergeant and a young WPC) in the rear car casually got out and wandered towards the back of the van, they must have clearly seen Phil and I looking out as they were tailing us, I noticed that Phil had slunk back into the shadows and was pulling on a black ski mask, the type with two eye holes.
The Sergeant came to the n/s rear door first and shone the torch at me closely followed by the WPC who went to the offside door, Phil by this time was crouching below the window and as soon as she shone the torch in he jumped up in the pose of a pouncing cat and roared, the WPC stepped back in fright and all of us in the back burst into fits of uncontrollable laughter, the sergeant had seen this happen and as quick as a flash had pulled the rear doors open and bellowed "F*CKIN OUT NOW".
He lined the four of us up on the white line at the edge of the carriageway where we were soon joined by the 3 from the front.
The Sergeant then promptly ripped us all apart for behaving in such a stupid and immature manor blah blah blah or words to that effect, we were tittering and shuffling our feet like naughty little school boys being told off by teacher, John in the meantime was still doing his best to placate the other officers and appologising for our behaviour and explaining how important it was that we got going.
Finally and what seemed an age later (probably 5 minutes) they let us on our way.
It turns out that there had been a ram raid at the newly built Tesco in Quedgeley that night, and a white Transit van was used.
They had waited to see where we were going before deciding to stop us on the Bypass as (at the time) there was nowhere to hide, just flat fields and the Railway line.
Anyway we made it on time (just) and spent a very entertaining day watching the RAC.
We even made a profit from all the food that Alan had bought by selling bacon rolls etc to all the ill equipped spectators who were drawn by the smell of cooking in the middle of a Welsh forest, enough so that we stopped at a restaurant on the way home for a hearty meal a few beers!
Happy days indeed.
