After our trip to Down Ampney earlier in the year we knew it was time to schedule a return to the passenger seat for my regular co-driver, Dan Roach-Rooke. He had been unable to make the Owen Developments Stages so discussion started on what event to line up. Big Dan, as he is affectionately known, expressed a desire to ‘find his feet again’ at a single venue that we already knew. His last event was back in late 2003, pretty much 4 years ago, at Caerwent. Thanks to some drinks the night before (plus the very twisty, tight nature of the venue) we didn’t fair that well, despite being quickest in class on the first stage. A hidden wall shattered a front brake disc on stage 2 and the resulting brake fade put us out (and almost in a ditch) on stage 3! We retired, accepting defeat at the hands of Caerwent like so many others.

It was with a surprise, then, that Big Dan suggested his inaugural event for 2007 should be - yup, you guessed it - the Patriot Stages  at Caerwent, run by Forresters Car Club. We both thought it would be a nice idea to go back and ‘face our demons’, so to speak. The car had also come on leaps and bounds since our last visit, with much improved AP Racing 285mm front brakes, Proflex rear suspension, sticky CR311 Dunlop rubber and various other minor tweaks such as an oil cooler. This was also the last planned event for the car before it was taken off the road to have it’s new, more powerful engine, fitted. Personally, I had semi-high hopes for the event. The nature of the stages (short straights, tight bends and dangerous kerbs on them all) played to our strengths.

That proved a little hopeful because we turned up to a packed event, with many top-running crews using the event as a shakedown for Jersey a fortnight later. So our 8v class was littered with some absolutely mint Escorts (with even mintier crews!). Still, let’s have a bash, I thought. Straight away we end up doing a non-competitive drive through SS1, taking a notional time. At least it gave us plenty of chance to recce the stage for the second run through (did I say that?)! On SS2 we got caught up behind the 3 cars in front of us, and the narrow nature of the venue meant it wasn’t always easy to pass other cars, but we had some great fun all the same. The new brakes continued their amazing performance from the previous event, and on top of that the new Dunlops were giving me much improved levels of grip over the previous Yokohamas. Even the Proflex gave us some confidence over a few crests and dips to keep the right foot planted. I’m now getting extremely pleased with the car and it’s performance - I just need to improve mine! Big Dan was straight back into things; I think he was worrying over nothing because I’m sure it was like getting back on a bike - you never forget.

The next few stages came and went, any by SS4 we’d found our ‘slot’ in the order and were getting good runs. Big Dan had an unfortunate urge to get rid of some Ribena he’d drank at previous service… even worse when it was right in front of the official photographer. This wasn’t alcohol induced, though… Caerwent really is a hard venue to navvie on, and travel sickness can be a problem for the soberest of men.

We trundled on, using the fairly soft suspension and forest-spec clearance to really use the kerbs where we knew it was safe, using every inch of space that we could. The occasional clonk up a kerb reminded me not to push our luck too much. An incident on SS5 scrubbed the stage times for everyone and also played us another crap hand by changing the stage layout to  remove several junctions, creating one amazing, long, flat blast down a gentle incline. This saw the Pug flat out in 5th for the first time, thoroughly adrenaline-pumping but it was clear we lost out due to the lack of top-end speed. Still, it created a wonderful blind over crest flat-in-fourth right hander that had me whooping with glee; for once a really enjoyable, fun, high-speed stage!

We managed the final few stages without too much drama (a minor screw-up by me, where I didn’t listen, basically!) but had to concede 4th in class to the Mk.II Escort of Rob and Julia Watson, taking 5th in class and 31st overall. On the day, the cookie can crumble in so many different ways it’s not worth racking your brains over! We had a genuine hoot of a time out there, conquered Caerwent at last and even enjoyed some lovely weather.

As usual a big thanks goes to the organisers and officials, and our service crew of Mike, Lindsay and Cal who once again hovered over the 205 and by their sheer presence, scared it into not missing a beat all day. A thanks must also go to fellow member Andy Baker who’s help and advice has helped us put together a car I’m really chuffed with; maybe not the fastest in it’s class on the day, but it was the fastest 8v 205 there all day, a credit more to the car than the driver I suspect.