First Recce

Yesterday Nigel and I spent the day driving around Wales on the A483.

We met a chap called Hugh Glossop at Llandovery who showed us a very suitable Control Stop location in the Llandovery vicinity, I will not divulge the location at present, but it must be said that Hugh's suggestion is very suitable. When we got there it started to rain, well it is Wales, so I would suggest that Entrants wear a waterproof when getting their Roadbook signed!

We then went to Usk reservoir, this has a suitable area, but we felt it a bit too far away from the main road, so will go with Hugh's suggestion

We then recce'd from Newtown to Abergavveny, the A483 and the A40 look to offer fast and fun roads, however care will need to be taken by crews. After that is was time to get back home, we used the A466 from Monmouth to Chepstow-a great RBRR road that offers some interesting corners.

I have a few more pictures of Entrant's cars:

The Red Vitesse is Malcolm Philpot's gorgeous mk2 Convertible. This will be Malcolm's 3rd RBRR, the car has been a 'Practical Classics' magazine cover star back in 2005(?) and is extremely presentable. Malcolm and his car are one of those that just do the event, raise a good sum of money and have fun, I do not think I have ever seen them on the event! We are very pleased that Malcolm, his Co Driver Malcolm Ricketts (Team Lotus man) and the Vitesse are taking part.

The 1300 below is owned by Graham Whiting and after last times catastrophic rotoflex coupling break down is hoping to finish the RBRR. Last time Graham crewed with Tony Quick and Brian Cox, not sure what Tony is doing, but Brian has entered in his TR7. Graham is another entrant who has to come some distance to take part being based in Cornwall. Valencia Blue paint and 1300s seem synonymous!

Right, finally amongst the small bunch of photos we have is Dave Pearson's very nice Courier van, this van has just been subjected to a full re-build and really looks the part. Dave tells me the only job to do is to install a overdrive gearbox and then the car is ready, after last times rush to get the Atlas done in time, I think Dave deserves an easier time of it! Interestingly Dave's two co-drivers are to be John Kipping and Jason Chinn. John is coming over from New Zealand to take part, I think it was 1996 that Dave and John last did a RBRR together. Jason as many know is the Entry Administrator for this RBRR and has kindly taken up Dave's kind offer of the third seat. Not sure on the state of tune of the Courier, but the 5.5J steels look good!

A few important aspects of the RBRR have been sorted in the last week, more about this next time!

Remember, get those photos into us!

We would also appreciate any photos that anyone has of past RBRRs, we desperately need to increase the Club's RBRR photo collection.

Tim